Fallen Academy: Year Four

by Stone, Leia

  Fear was the opposite of love, and it was making humans and the planet sick. I could see that now, felt it, knew it. Michael was gifting me with information that was overwhelming, but powerful. If I lost Lincoln or my mom in this war, I would see them again in the afterlife. We could reincarnate together again, so there was no need to be frightful of that. If I failed at my mission to live up to the prophecy, and rid the Earth of Lucifer, it would be okay. My only true goal on Earth was to love—love Lincoln, love Shea, even love Tiffany.

  We just needed to remember to love each other, to stop spreading fear and hate.

  When Michael pulled his hands away from my head, I realized I was sobbing.

  He gave my shoulders a light squeeze. “May God be with you in the days to come, child.” His voice held a reverence that engulfed me in its warmth. Then he walked away, leaving me feeling pulled in a hundred different directions.

  What the hell just happened?

  Emberly swept into my side and lowered me to the floor, before sitting across from me.

  “He did that to me once. The glowy hand thing,” Emberly shared as I worked to calm my breathing. “I was in a bad place mentally, questioning my existence, and he just grabbed my face and downloaded all that ‘love is the answer’ stuff. It’s overwhelming, right?”

  I just nodded. I felt like something inside of me had shifted. This entire war felt pointless; we were going backward when we were supposed to be going forward. If I could kill Lucifer, and we could rid the Earth of his demons, then the humans would be left to their main task of learning to love each other regardless of their differences.

  That’s why we all came here, to Earth, to learn and practice that one simple, yet powerful lesson.

  Unconditional love.

  “Makes you feel kinda shitty for how you’ve treated people, huh?” Emberly asked.

  I nodded again. “Having an archangel for a father must be so…” I couldn’t find the right word to describe it.

  “It’s maddening at times,” Emberly finished for me. “But also, awesome.”

  Offering her a weak smile, I tried to push away that intense… whatever it was. Love everyone, don’t be afraid, was the takeaway, and pretty much the hardest thing ever to actually do.

  Determination settled over me, and I stood, clenching my fists. “Let’s try this one more time.”

  Fuck fear. I wasn’t going to let it weaken my mind. I was strong, loving, and kind, and I was going to make that my shield.

  Emberly stood also, facing off with me, a determination in her gaze. She wanted me to succeed as much as I did. She was tough on the exterior but a complete softie at heart; I could see that now, after all these trainings with her.

  I would kill Lucifer.

  I would help rid this Earth of his Hellspawn.

  I would love more and hate less.

  I would not let fear rob me of my power.

  I was a badass female, with endless capabilities.

  Bring it.

  Staring Emberly down, I waited, anticipating for her to make me smack my face or something.

  “Hit me with it!” I shouted, fists clenched as adrenaline coursed through my veins.

  Emberly gave me a lopsided grin, her eyes flashing purple. “I did. You didn’t move.”

  Shock and relief ripped through me.

  “What? Try again.”

  Her eyes flashed again, and again, but nothing happened. The teenager grinned at me, showing me her brilliant smile.

  Whatever her dad had done to me, had worked.

  When Lucifer finally came for me, I would be ready.

  Five

  “At this rate, Angel City will fall in three months’ time,” Michael announced, standing before Uriel, Gabriel, and Raphael.

  We were in one of the lecture rooms with the archangels sitting in chairs at the front, and a smattering of Fallen Army captains sitting in the student desks, watching them keenly. I sat beside Lincoln, my eyes flicking from Michael to his wife, Grace. She was wearing full battle armor, hair tied into a tight topknot, and a grim determination on her face.

  Gabriel’s eyes filled with sadness as he looked at his brother. “Ever since the falling, we’ve tried to protect the humans so they could get back to some semblance of normal. The normal we stole from them when we fell to war with Lucifer. But now…” His voice broke and he couldn’t finish.

  “Now, we may lose the fight altogether,” Michael added grimly.

  “How many Fallen Army members do we have at the other academies? Can you spare them to join us in protecting the city?” Raphael pleaded with Gabriel and Uriel.

  The two angels nodded simultaneously. “Absolutely, but our numbers pale in comparison to yours. We have maybe two to three hundred in all of the academies combined who are trained for this sort of scenario.” Gabriel informed him.

  What scenario? The end of the world?

  I cleared my throat and all eyes flicked to me. Swallowing hard, I stood, letting my wings slowly unfurl from my back. One by one the captains’ eyes widened. Even with wings that were white at the tips, I knew the rumors had spread.

  “Hi. I’m sure you all know who I am,” I started. “I just wanted to say that I plan to put a stop to all of this. If you can buy me a little time, I plan to end this war.”

  Raphael beamed at me with pride, nodding. “We’ll do our best, Brielle. Our numbers are low, but our faith is strong.”

  Grace growled from where she stood, leaning against the wall, and all eyes moved from me to land on her.

  “Grace, is there something you would like to share?” Michael smirked at his wife.

  Pushing off the wall, Grace charged at the council of angels like she might cut off their heads. Anger lined her features as she stood tall next to her husband.

  “You say you don’t have the numbers to buy Brielle time, and we all know why,” she declared, addressing the other angels. “Three times I’ve requested that you allow me to start a Demon Hunting Academy. Three times! I could have trained thousands by now! Don’t you see that the solution to your problem, with the growing demon population, isn’t to protect the poor frail humans, it’s to arm them? Let me train them to fight for themselves, so Angel City doesn’t become a page in a history book that no one reads!” She finished her sentence with a growl, and my gaze flicked to Michael.

  Nothing in his face said he was embarrassed by his wife’s outburst. Yet, nothing indicated he disagreed with her either. If anything, he looked madly in love with the woman.

  Raphael sighed.

  “All in favor of a Demon Hunter Academy, led by Grace, in which humans will be trained to kill demons, say aye,” Michael declared.

  “Aye.” Gabriel raised his hand.

  “Aye.” Uriel nodded.

  Michael grinned. “Aye.”

  Every single set of eyes fell on Raphael. I didn’t know what the protocol was here, but it looked like it needed to be unanimous.

  The archangel swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, Grace, but I cannot allow the humans to be put in harm’s way deliberately. My job is to protect them.”

  Grace screamed out in frustration. “Why, because we’re weak? Because we don’t have special abilities like your beloved angel blessed?”

  Raphael’s features tightened. He was clearly annoyed with Grace’s outburst, but something else shown there too—he respected her. “Yes, humans are fragile. They don’t regenerate and heal like we do. As a healer, I feel it is my moral duty to do no harm, and I don’t feel right sending them out into battle.”

  Reaching for her belt, Grace pulled out a long glistening sword. The blade ripped from its sheath with a menacing sound, and a few of the captains gasped, clearly unsure of her intentions.

  “Raphael, I challenge you to a sparring match. If I can hold my own against you, then you give me my school.” She was dead serious.

  Amusement danced behind the other archangels’ eyes.

  “That sounds fair, Brother. I’ve trained her mys
elf. If anyone can show us what the humans are capable of, it’s Grace,” Michael added in support of his wife.

  Raphael stared at her a long moment, then finally nodded. “Okay, Grace. If you show me that I won’t be sending humans out to be slaughtered, I will give you Fallen Academy to be turned into a school for humans to learn demon hunting.”

  My heart was racing in my ears. Seeing Grace’s passionate plight for the humans brought tears to my eyes. Since the Fallen War, we’d always seen humans as weak, but that needed to change, and Grace was proof.

  Raphael looked to one of the captains who sat in the front row. “Please fetch my sword, and meet us on the field. “

  Holy shit. Archangel Michael’s wife is going to fight Raphael.

  Lincoln gave me a look of shock, and then we all stood and filed out of the meeting room in eager anticipation. If Grace won, this could change the face of the war. Maybe not this year, or the next, but as students graduated from the Demon Hunter Academy, it would bolster our numbers against the Hellspawn.

  I hoped like hell that she won.

  * * *

  We all stood on the field. It was midday, and the sun shining brightly in the sky, reflected on the swords readying for a fight, making them almost glow. Raphael held his sword tightly, decked out in full plate armor with a shield, as was Grace. I’d fetched Emberly—sure she wouldn’t want to miss this—and now we stood with rapt attention, along with the captains of the army, and the other fallen angels in a semicircle.

  “Kick his ass, Mom!” Emberly shouted, causing a grin to pull at the corner of Grace’s lips.

  Raphael just stood like a sentinel, no emotion on his face. “I have a healer standing by in case you’re seriously injured,” he told Grace, then nodded to Noah, who was waiting off to the side.

  “No. If I’m injured, I’ll heal naturally. Let’s do this, Raph. No more postponing the inevitable. You know this Demon Hunter Academy is the future.”

  Raphael sighed and then waved her forward. “I’ll be the judge of that. Show me your best.”

  Grinning, Grace began to stalk forward, waving her sword in a figure eight motion before her. While she was making a spectacle with her sword hand, I saw her free hand dip into a thigh holster at her side and pluck out a silver throwing knife. Before I could even register what she was doing, she threw it at the half-inch gap in Raphael’s armor, right near his collarbone. It sank into the meat of his shoulder, causing the angel to gasp in shock. That’s when Grace sprang from her spot, hurtling at him, sword raised.

  Raphael yanked the throwing knife out of his shoulder, and tossed it to the ground, throwing up his shield just as Grace’s sword crashed into it. He blocked her blows, lashing out with his own sword, which she seemed ready for each time. It was like watching a dance—Raphael would push her back, cutting out her advance with his sword, and she would block before pushing him back once more.

  “Don’t go easy on her!” Michael yelled. Not something you would expect a man to say to another man who was attacking his wife.

  At his words, Raphael reached out with his giant foot and planted a boot into Grace’s chest, sending her flying ten feet up into the air with his superhuman kick. Grace must have practiced this, because she seemed ready for the fall and rolled into it as she landed, before springing up quickly into a crouch.

  Charging forward, Raphael lifted himself into the air with his wings, and she tracked the motion across the space until he started to descend, fast and hard. She held her crouched position, sword out before her, until he was right on top of her. In that moment, she sprang from her spot on the ground and threw a handful of dirt into his face.

  It was like watching a ninja.

  Raphael coughed and sputtered as he landed, caught completely off guard, while Emberly cheered. Grace collided with the angel, sending her sword right through one of his wings, slicing into the meat. Raphael roared in pain or anger—I couldn’t tell—and lashed out with his sword, catching a piece of Grace’s exposed arm and drawing blood.

  I held my breath, totally forgetting that breathing was essential to life. I was riveted to the spot.

  Still, Grace barely winced at the large gash he’d made in her arm—blood now flowing freely down to her elbow. She just stood there, strong and steadfast, holding her sword up before her.

  Raphael had stopped his advance, brow creasing. “Doesn’t it hurt?” he asked, his concerned gaze on the cut he’d made on her arm.

  She shrugged. “Not as bad as childbirth, and humans have been doing that for thousands of years. I’m not going to forfeit at the first sight of blood, Raphael. I’m stronger than that.”

  The healer angel sighed. “Yes, I suppose you are.” With that, he lowered his sword to the side, before letting it fall to the ground. “I guess I’ve misjudged what the human spirit is capable of.”

  His wing was bleeding, and there was dirt on his face, but he looked… relieved, like maybe he’d wanted this demon hunter school all along, but didn’t want to put a bunch of weak humans in harm’s way.

  “Does this mean…?” Grace eyed his sword on the ground, probably unsure if it was a trick, or if Raphael had given up the fight.

  “It means you get your school, Grace. You can be headmaster, and I’ll advise you when you need it. I think it’s high time we empowered the humans to protect themselves.”

  A triumphant grin lit up Grace’s face as she dropped her sword, and threw herself into Raphael’s arms, to embrace him. His hands came around her, squeezing her back, and you could clearly see there was no love lost between these old friends.

  When she pulled back, Raphael rubbed his eyes. “You threw dirt in my face.”

  Grace shrugged as if to say, ‘I had to do what I had to do.’

  Michael stepped toward them with a slight grin. “I taught her that.” He winked at Raph.

  Raphael chuckled, clapping Michael on the back. “Of course, you did.”

  At that moment, Emberly crossed the space to give her mom a hug, and the two were quickly smiling, and talking in hushed tones.

  “A Demon Hunting Academy for humans. Crazy, but it just might work,” Lincoln whispered, slipping his hand into mine.

  Glancing at my husband, I nodded. “Damn right it will, and I want to teach there when it’s ready. Grace has already asked me.”

  Lincoln reached out, tucking a lock of stray hair behind my ear. “I think that would be wonderful.”

  What he didn’t say was, ‘if we can survive until then.’ We only had a few months to bolster Angel City, or no future academies would exist at all.

  Six

  Michael had approved my need for a couple Snakeroot demons, and today was the day I was going to train my small summer crew how to fight them. We were just two weeks from the date of the second gauntlet, so it was now or never. Tonight, the other soldiers from our sister academies would start showing up, and the cat would be out of the bag. Everyone would finally know there were other schools, but the risk was worth the reward. Saving Angel City had become a top priority. Catia, Lincoln’s friend from his time in San Francisco, was also slated to arrive tonight, and I was super excited to meet her.

  “All right, listen up!” I called to my class. “Captain Grey will be here shortly, to bring a couple of Snakeroot demons for us to train with. If you cannot trap, or kill, a miniscule Snakeroot demon, you do not belong in the Fallen Army.”

  Silence descended among my eleven students. People started to come out from their apartment buildings, to watch the spectacle; I’d put notices on their doors last night, that the parking lot would be used for training purposes today. Looking up, I saw my mom and Mikey, and both gave me a little wave.

  “Now, what do you know about Snakeroots?” Shea asked the group.

  Shea and I had fallen into an easy form of co-teaching. I was the sane one who did things by the book, and she was the psycho, breaking the rules to try and toughen up the students. Together, we made a pretty good team.

  The
smallest girl, nicknamed Tiny, raised her hand. “They spit acid and they like candy.”

  I nodded. “So, who came prepared?”

  One by one, my students pulled packets of gum and candy out of their pockets.

  Good. The little shits were listening when I spoke.

  They just might pass this test after all.

  Lincoln pulled up in his Fallen Army-issued SUV at that moment, and I nodded to my students. “Showtime. Split into your groups, pick a team leader, and prove to me that I should recommend you to Raphael to be in the second gauntlet test.”

  A grim determination settled on each and every one of their faces, as they started to split up into their assigned groups.

  Lincoln stepped out of the car, Noah opening the passenger door at the same time, and both boys came to greet us.

  “Think they’re ready? I could only find one Snakeroot, so I grabbed a Yew demon as well. Little shit nearly set the car on fire,” my husband confessed.

  Good. Switching it up on them would be perfect training for real life. “That’s fine. They better be ready, because if they don’t pass today, then they have no hope of passing the gauntlet a second time.”

  Lincoln nodded. “It’s hard when you want them to succeed so badly, but you can’t do the work for them.”

  He was right. I’d forgotten that he had been my mentor—still was, technically—for so much of my journey at Fallen Academy. He knew exactly how I felt, and how invested I was in this group.

  I’d set up three little areas in the parking lot with stacked boxes and crates, broken pieces of wood and hay bales, so each group could try to contain their demon within the allotted space.

  Lincoln called Shea and me over to the SUV, to help him unload the demons. “We’ve got some stainless-steel carriers, but I’m not sure how long they’ll hold up to the acid spitters.”