Natural Born Angel (21 page)

T
he day after Senator Linden’s visit to the diner proved to be the last day that Maddy had an ounce of free time, as she and the rest of that year’s nominees inexorably hurtled towards the final assessment for Guardianship – and getting their own all-important Divine Ring. That ring brought the highest level of fame and fortune and the chance to save lives as one of the fabled and beautiful Guardians of Angel City. Maddy could see that even the more confident Angels at the training grounds were getting a little nervous as the date approached.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Senator Linden’s visit had shaken Maddy up. He seemed like such a strange connection to have to her father, but besides her Uncle Kevin, he was now the closest. The stop at Kevin’s Diner hadn’t been on his official agenda for the Angel City visit, and no paparazzi had followed Maddy to her uncle’s diner, so it hadn’t hit the media at all, which was a blessing. She couldn’t even imagine trying to explain
that
to Darcy. And the senator could’ve easily somehow used it for some publicity. But she suspected he wanted it to be in the papers and on the blogs as little as she did.

The Angel news channels were cranking up coverage, and the blogs were alive with gossip about upcoming Commissioning Week. Most of the buzz was about Maddy’s historic Commissioning. The irony to Maddy was that everyone just assumed she’d be recommended for Guardianship, no problem. The news and blog people were more worried about the designer of her skirts and which event she was going to. But she knew she was by no means a shoo-in, even though the NAS had bumped her up to this year. Mark Godspeed had told her she obviously had enough votes within the Archangels to be made Guardian. But to even be
eligible
, she had to be nominated for Guardianship by the training board. No matter how much support the Archangels put behind her, she had to be able to perform.

Added to all this, Jacks was, for some reason, more distant than usual. This would have normally bothered her, but Maddy didn’t even have time to think about it too much as she prepared to face Kreuz and the board of instructors and somehow balance the even bigger crush of blog, TV and social media attention.

As the days before the assessment grew near, Maddy had her final session with Susan Archson in the now-familiar frequencing room. Susan was wearing her normal white lab coat over a classy black dress. Maddy stepped on to the circular platform of the frequency modulator. The tiled room full of screens surrounded her, and they began to flicker on, one by one, as they drew frequencies from Protections across the board. The voices of all the people grew until they were an almost unbearable din.

Maddy let her mind open, quiet. The frequencies and visions poured in instantly this time. And unlike her first time, it didn’t create any pain. The cacophony in her mind was incredible, but she let it all wash over her, taking deep, long breaths.

“Candace Waldman,” Susan said.

Maddy’s mind quickly and neatly unconsciously threaded through the hundreds of Protections getting frequenced, all of the screens quickly darkening until she had isolated one: Candace. Maddy was transported as she saw the humdrum activity of Candace walking her dog down the street, waving at a neighbour.

Susan called more names off, and each time Maddy isolated the frequency quickly again – it had become second nature.

“Incredible!” Susan exclaimed, making a final mark on the digital tablet in her hand. She began shutting down the system. “Your speed is some of the best I’ve ever seen, Maddy. Your frequencing ability outstrips ninety-nine per cent of Guardians.”

Maddy blushed. “Really?”

“Really,” Susan said, smiling warmly. “You’ve made such progress. You’re special, Maddy, just like I said.”

Maddy flashed back to her first day of training, when she’d felt totally . . . how had she felt?
Exposed.
That was the word. She didn’t know that at the time. But meeting Kreuz, and sensing the superior attitude of her fellow Guardians, how they sniffed at her as she passed . . . she had felt exposed, somehow. She had been afraid – afraid of what her abilities
wouldn’t
be, and, if she were honest, what her abilities
would
be. She had felt like the slow kid put in a class full of geniuses. Except instead of being nerdy, these geniuses were beautiful, perfect Angels.

Yet Susan had been there for her.

“I’m proud of you,” Susan said, putting her hand on Maddy’s shoulder. Her eyes grew serious. “We, I mean,
I
have high hopes for you. More than you can imagine.”

“Thank you,” Maddy said, starting to feel a little emotional. She felt a bond with Susan. Out of all the Angels – besides Jacks, of course – Susan understood her the most.

“I’ll be sad to see you go,” Susan said, her eyes glimmering. “But you have some lives to save.”

Maddy’s last flying session was the next day. Following her Cessna flight with Tom, Maddy had been practising flying the obstacle course on off-hours, taking advantage of an extra set of keys Susan had sneaked to her. She used the principles Tom had taught her, and she found herself getting better each time. He had been right: she’d needed to learn flying the way a pilot does. She might be part-Angel, she might have wings, but it didn’t come naturally to her. She needed to learn to put one wing in front of the other.

Instructor Trueway was waiting for her in indoor hanger #7 for their last flying session. The blinding overhead lights arced over the indoor course, which extended far into the distance. Emily and Mitch were just leaving as Maddy arrived. Maddy looked out and saw that the agility course had been set to “Difficult”.

“Hey, Maddy!” Mitch said, seeming more friendly than he had the previous week. “Ready for assessment? Almost as brutal as that first interview with Tara Reeves post-Commissioning.”

Maddy laughed to hide her nervousness. She had to hand it to Mitch: although you could tell it made him uneasy that Maddy was being advanced towards Guardianship so quickly, at least he was trying to be a good sport about it. Better than some other Angels she could mention, like the one right next to him.

“We were just getting a workout in. You know, kind of polishing our skills, since we’ve been training for
years
,” Emily said snootily, looking back at the course. “Don’t worry, he’ll set it back to beginner’s level for you.”

She walked up close to Maddy and spat at her under her breath: “What you’re doing is a disgrace. You’re a fraud. I just wanted to tell you. And we’re not going to take it lying down.”

Emily stepped away and turned to Mitch, raising her voice again. “Come on, Mitch, I’ve got a four o’clock with Valerie.”

“Thanks for letting me know, Emily!” Maddy said, beaming a big fake smile at her.

Mitch, who was clueless about what had just happened between the two girls, simply smiled and waved goodbye.

Maddy turned to Trueway. He was going over notes on a clipboard. He gave her a serious look.

“Maddy, as you know, we’ve had some . . . difficulties in honing your flying skills. There are challenges we’ve never had to face before in training one of our nominees. And now there’s this . . . unprecedented . . . potential promotion. Now I’m not saying that I absolutely can’t recommend you for Guardianship, but it certainly is in question right now.”

A shot of adrenaline ran through Maddy. It was time to apply everything she’d learned. Now or never.

“I understand. I’m ready.”

The instructor reached to adjust the course in front of them.

“And can we do it on intermediate?”

Trueway raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

Maddy nodded. “Yes.”

The huge platforms along the floor and ceiling began rotating, using the complex hydraulic system the Angels had designed.

Steep walls, a long tube tunnel that took a number of turns, a narrow gully that quickly climbed up towards the ceiling, as well as a number of hoops gleaming in the bright light – these all appeared as the course set itself to intermediate.

A blast of air rippled her ponytail sideways as Maddy’s wings extended quickly. She only grimaced slightly this time – the pain lessened with every unfolding.

You’ve got this
, Maddy told herself.

Instructor Trueway looked at her. “Ready when you are.”

Leaning forward – her wings beating once, twice – then Maddy was flying along the agility course. The ground blurred underneath her as she approached the first obstacles. It was the fastest she’d ever gone on the course, but she had to make an impression. The first few segments were easy hoops that Maddy flew through, making turns to pass through each one. Kind of like a warm-up. Ahead was a series of walls extending from both the floor and ceiling, which she had to fly in between. Concentrating, Maddy lowered her speed and used the hard, sharp beats of her wings to manoeuvre through the walls. Once on the other side, she was able to pick up some speed, moving towards the far end of the course.

She had to fly down into a gully, which was so narrow that she had to pull her wings in as close to her sides as she could; for once her smaller wings were an asset instead of a hindrance. The gully climbed up to the ceiling and started circling over. Doing an inversion, Maddy flipped over near the ceiling and rocketed down towards the next section, in which she had to zigzag back and forth between a series of massive poles, the most technical part of the course. She gulped for air, starting to tire with the effort as she neared the final stretch. Her ponytail snapped from side to side as she whipped back and forth between the poles and on to an open stretch.

The mouth of the tunnel appeared. Maddy dived straight into it, setting her wings. It was narrow, but not too bad. The lighting inside was a spiral of LEDs, guiding the Angels through the twists and turns. Maddy grunted, using her concentration to avoid crashing into the sides as she zipped through.

She was actually
doing it
. She trusted her wings; she knew that when she did one thing with them, it would result in a consistent outcome. Tom had shown her that, through the constants of physics and aerodynamics. She had of course known it, but now she
felt
it.

The end of the tunnel appeared, and Maddy tore into the bright light of the open air. Only one section left: the final series of hoops, which were arranged in a difficult spiralling pattern. The hardest part of the course.

Maddy decided to increase her speed.

The hoops hurtled at her quickly, and Maddy let her pilot instinct take over, setting her wings like a plane’s. With her speed, she began spinning laterally as she flew through the hoops. She couldn’t believe it, how fast she was going through them! Her mouth opened in a delighted smile, and she gave a shout of glee.

She shot past the final hoop, spun slightly to level herself off, and then dropped down dramatically right in front of Instructor Trueway. She was panting, catching her breath. Maddy couldn’t believe how well she’d done. It blew away anything she’d ever done on the course.

“Good,” Trueway said, making a note on his iPad.

Good?
That was it? Maddy wanted to hear that she was in, that she’d done it, that she was recommended. A big “
Congratulations!
” But if she thought she was going to get that from Trueway, she was mistaken. The instructor’s face was blank as he put his iPad away.

“I’ll see you Friday,” he said, walking out of the hangar.

The day of the assessment finally came. Maddy had tried to sleep, but she’d mostly just tossed and turned all evening. She had set her alarm early, almost as early as when she woke up for a shift at the diner. Yawning as she padded around her apartment, she was surprised to find she kind of missed the way early morning felt. The way her body felt, the way the world felt. The sun rose over the Angel City Hills. A warm breeze passed through the palms. Another perfect day in the Immortal City.

Although the paparazzi and media were getting even more frantic, and there were tons of events and appearances Darcy was trying to orchestrate, Maddy had tried to take it easy that week, going to only one event, a launch party for one of her fellow nominee’s fashion lines. She and Jacks had only hung out once during the week, but then, she had been really busy.

She took a shower and put on a black pencil skirt and grey top she’d bought at Fred Segal just the day before. The outfit was fashionable and sleek, but also a little conservative; she’d got it specifically for the assessment today.

Putting on a pair of heels, Maddy stood in front of the mirror. She smiled at her image. At the very least, she looked the part to become a Guardian. Some days it shocked her that it was actually
her
, Maddy, looking back in the mirror.

Just then she got a text. She was surprised to see it was from Tom. He had remembered what day it was.

“Remember: You’re a natural. Break a wing!”

The guard at the gate to the training grounds cheerfully greeted Maddy as she pulled up. “The big day, eh, Ms Godright?”