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Ignoring the voicemail from Darcy, Jacks pressed the button to call Maddy back.
    “Hello?” Her familiar voice made his heart thump the way it always did.
    “Hey! What’s up, Mads?” Jacks tried to mask his uncertainty.
    Maddy took a deep breath on the other end of the line.
    “I’m so glad you called me back,” she said. She paused. It sounded like she was weighing her words. “I want to tell you something.”
    Jacks couldn’t remember his gut ever feeling so knotted. Was she breaking up with him? Had she decided long distance with a deformed Angel just wasn’t worth it? “Yes?”
    “Well, you know how I feel about the Angels.”
    Jacks blew the air out of his lungs and took another sharp breath. “How many times do I have to tell you, Maddy, you’re an Angel.”
    Maddy was quiet on the line.
    Jacks continued: “You’re not what you think you are. You’re not a freak. You’re wonderful.”
    “I’m not so sure I’d go that far.”
    “Can you just trust me for once?” he said. “You are wonderful.”
    “No . . . you are great,” she said. “Jacks, I don’t know how to say this” – Jackson’s stomach flipped again as he heard Maddy’s voice on the other end – “but I’ve thought about what you’ve said, about being able to help make things better, to maybe change the Angels from within, despite the past. To open up the protection programme to more disadvantaged people. About what a chance it is. And now I’m thinking about what my dad would have considered my duty.”
    “What are you telling me?” Jackson said. He unconsciously held his breath, silent. Time seemed to stop.
    Maddy’s voice was clear: “Jacks, I want to become a Guardian.”
    Phone up to his ear, Jacks felt a smile slowly begin on the very edge of his lips, then spread until his whole mouth was open with joy. He began to laugh.
    “Maddy! That’s so great! I mean, I thought, what about— ” Jacks cut himself off. “It’s just so fantastic!”
    “It’s a lot right now. But I think it’s the right decision. And that means no long— ”
    “Distance relationship,” Jacks finished her thought. “And I thought you were going to be all the way out in Chicago. For four years!”
    “I’ll be right here.”
    “You have so much to do!” Jacks couldn’t stop smiling. His voice was shot through with excitement. “What are you going to set up first?”
    Maddy laughed. “How am I supposed to know, Jacks? You’re the Guardian Angel! This is all new to me.”
    “You’re right, you’re right. Well, you have at least two years of Guardian training, so don’t be too hard on yourself, OK?” Jacks said, trying to collect his thoughts. “It’s just such great news! We have some celebrating to do. Forget ice cream. My house in forty-five?”
    Maddy laughed. “OK. Just as long as there’s not champagne. The bubbles give me a headache.”
    Jacks hung up when he heard her disconnect, and he quickly began gathering his stuff up from the dressing room. His mind was racing. After what seemed like the umpteenth discouraging session at physical therapy, he at last had some cheerful news. He thought of all the training Maddy would be getting, learning all the Guardian skills, including how to fly – if she got her wings – and joining the Guardian ranks presumably in a few years.
    And as his mind drifted over these things, he was shocked to realize that a tiny, bitter part of him was the slightest bit . . . envious. Jealous of all the cool things Maddy was going to be doing. Things that he could no longer do with his wings a mangled shadow of their former selves. A phantom pang streaked across his back.
    Shaking his head, Jacks chased the thought from his mind. How could he think something like that, even just for a second? Maddy was becoming a Guardian, she was staying in Angel City, and he was nothing but happy, for her and for them.
    He couldn’t believe any other thought had even crossed his mind.

CHAPTER 5

    J