“Will you listen to me just this once?” he nearly yelled. “I . . . I like you, Maddy. I mean, more than just as a friend. Are you so stubborn you can’t
see that? Maybe last night meant nothing to you, but it meant something to me.” His eyes were vulnerable, almost tortured. “Did you ever even
consider that I might love you, you stubborn, impossible girl?”
― Scott Speer, quote from Immortal City
“You’re right,” Jacks said. “You’re not part of my world. You’re not one of those girls. And maybe that’s why.”
“Why what?”
“Why I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Maddy rolled her eyes. “Guys like you don’t say that to girls like me.”
“I’ve never said that to anyone, actually,” Jacks corrected. “In fact, I’ve never done anything like this before.” He let out a little laugh. “How am I doing?”
He swallowed hard, trying to push down his nervousness. He was astonished to realize he was nervous. Somehow being around Maddy just put him in a different space. Jacks felt so present.
Maddy stared at him, letting the anger and frustration surge through her.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she asked finally.
He paused, considering.
“I’m being honest. I know you may not believe me. But I haven’t been able to not think about you. When we were in the back at the restaurant, and . . .” Jacks’s voice trailed off, his face coloring. “I still feel terrible about what I did. I lied to you and, even though I had good reasons for it, it was wrong of me.”
Maddy studied him. Was he telling the truth?
Jacks smiled. “I mean this in the best possible way: I’m not going to leave you alone until you let me make it up to you. I’m serious. I’ll be here every night. You might as well get me some pajamas and a toothbrush.”
Despite her best efforts not to, Maddy laughed. She looked at Jacks and could see the faintest twinkle of light in his eyes.
“So what you’re saying is that I should just give in and let you make it up to me. Otherwise you’ll be tormenting me like this for the rest of my life?”
“Pretty much. Yeah.”
“Well.” She sighed. “What do you have in mind?”
“Come fly with me.”
― Scott Speer, quote from Immortal City
“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, quote from Immortal City
“How did you learn to drive like that?" Gwen yelled over the howl of six hundred horses.
"Watching Jacks." She gunned the engine and slipped around another car.
"What?"
"You know, watching his shifting."
Gwen gasped. "You've been looking at his SHIFTER?”
― Scott Speer, quote from Immortal City
“I want to give you something.” He slid the ring off his finger. “Up until this week, I’ve never wanted anything more in my life than to wear this
ring. Not as a piece of jewelry, but because I thought I could find meaning in saving others, in being a hero. But the meaning I’ve finally found in my
life is from meeting you.” He set the ring on the palm of his hand and held it out. “I want you to have it.”
― Scott Speer, quote from 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, quote from Immortal City
“You sleep like an angel" Jacks said. The shock of his words in the dark room sent Maddy's stomach leaping into her throat. She didn't even realize she had screamed until it came out of her mouth.
"Don't be frightened," Jacks said, sounding worried. "It's just me. I'm sorry, I so didn't mean for that to sound creepy. Let me start over.”
― Scott Speer, quote from Immortal City
“He stopped and pointed an accusing
finger at her. “I didn’t ask for this. But I felt something in that back room with you, and it’s stayed with me ever since. I want to be with you. I need to be with you.” His tone was both angry and helpless.”
― Scott Speer, quote from Immortal City
“Jacks stood beside her. Instead of saying anything, she felt his fingers trace up her palm and then lace into hers. He had taken her hand
before, quickly and for functional reasons—usually to drag her off to someplace she didn’t want to go—but he had never held her hand. Not the way
couples did in parks or lovers did in old movies. Maddy stood there and felt the heat of his grip. It made her think of that first night in the diner, when
they had talked about pretend memories and she had felt so connected to him.”
― Scott Speer, quote from 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, quote from Immortal City
“You are my Guardian Angel, Maddy,” a voice said, but it was far away from her.”
― Scott Speer, quote from 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, quote from Immortal City
“I was in the machine. My whole life. Then the machine coughed and spat me out. So I thought, OK, if I'm out, I'm out. All the way out. I was a little angry and it was probably an immature reaction. But I got used to it.”
― Lee Child, quote from One Shot
“He vowed that the thought of her should continue ever before him to help him keep his hands as clean as a man might in this desperate trade upon which he was embarking. And so, although he might entertain no delusive hope of ever winning her for his own, of ever seeing her again, yet the memory of her was to abide in his soul as a bitter-sweet, purifying influence. The love that is never to be realized will often remain a man’s guiding ideal.”
― Rafael Sabatini, quote from Captain Blood
“This was like no library I had ever seen because, well, there were no books. Actually, I take that back. There was one book, but it was the lobby of the building, encased in a heavy glass box like a museum exhibit. I figured this was a book that was here to remind people of the past and the way things used to be. As I walked over to it, I wondered what would be one book chosen to take this place of honor. Was it a dictionary? A Bible? Maybe the complete works of Shakespeare or some famous poet.
"Green Eggs and Ham?" Gunny said with surprise. "What kind of doctor writes about green eggs and ham?"
"Dr. Seuss," I answered with a big smile on my face. "It's my favorite book of all time."
Patrick joined us and said, "We took a vote. It was pretty much everybody's favorite. Landslide victory. I'm partial to Horton Hears A Who, but this is okay too."
The people of Third Earth still had a sense of humor.”
― D.J. MacHale, quote from The Never War
“If we played three CDs of praise at the same time, we’d have a cacophony of noise that would drive us crazy. This was totally different. Every sound blended, and each voice or instrument enhanced the others. As strange as it may seem, I could clearly distinguish each song. It sounded as if each hymn of praise was meant for me to hear as I moved inside the gates.”
― Don Piper, quote from 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life
“Loyalty is proved by what we do, not where we come from!”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Sunset
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