Ariel

“Listen. This will probably be the worst pain you have ever experienced in your life. Everything in your body will tell you to let go, but you have
to hold on. You have to hold on, Maddy, no matter what. No matter how badly it hurts. You can never, never let go. Can you do that for me?”
― Scott Speer, Immortal City

“Maddy shook her head, as if the movement could somehow shake the reality away. She simply couldn’t believe it. That by saving her he had
actually, knowingly put himself in line for a consequence this severe. So much was kept hidden about the Angels, about how they handled their
internal affairs—brutally, it turned out. All the while they put on a smooth, clean exterior for the public and the media.
“What can I do?” she said finally.
Jacks looked at her through the deluge.
“Come with me.”
There he stood in the pouring rain, the image of shirtless soaked perfection. He stood before her offering her a choice just like he had the
night they went flying. She was at another crossroads. She knew she could just leave. Knew she probably should. But they were going to take his
wings, and it was all her fault. Her fault for going to the party, her fault for trying to follow through with her plan, her fault for leaving and insisting on
walking home. Could she really leave him now? Before she had even decided, her mouth opened.
“Yes,” she said. Just like when he had invited her to the party. It simply came out, as though her true desires could no longer be repressed.
Jacks smiled a dripping, radiant smile. A flash of lightning lit the roof, followed closely by a bark of thunder.”
― Scott Speer, Immortal City

“That's the funny thing, she thought. You always want things to get better, but you never know how good you already have it.”
― Scott Speer, Immortal City

“Maddy ran her hand along the banks of lockers as they walked. She had strolled down this hallway a hundred times before, but now it was different, and it wasn't just the dark. Everything had changed. She came to her locker and paused. She thought about herself at that locker just days ago. That simple comfortable life she'd known for so long.

One day you return to your normal surroundings and everything just feels different, she thought. But the surroundings aren't different. You are.”
― Scott Speer, Immortal City