by Stone, Leia
I was going to cry if I didn’t pull away soon, so I stepped back from him and nodded.
“But our pride will intensify if you lay a beatdown on him.” Michael winked.
Ahhh, a Michael wink. The only thing equal to a Lincoln wink.
“Let’s begin. We have our poker game in an hour,” Uriel stated from the corner of the room, where he looked quite bored.
The three angels shot him a look, and his cheeks reddened.
Poker game? I chuckled, shaking my head. Spend enough time on Earth, and you pick up our habits.
“All right, Brielle. Take your defensive stance, and we’ll each practice coming at you with a full-blooded angel power,” Michael instructed.
I gulped.
“And remember to protect yourself like you would in a real battle. Use shields, both sides of your magic, whatever you have at your disposal. You won’t hurt us,” Raphael added.
Looking over my shoulder, I glared at my husband—it was his brilliant idea to do this—but when he shrugged, I faced forward once more.
“Okay.” Pulling my sword free, I held it aloft in one hand, picking up my metal shield with the other. With ease, I called forth my power, creating the energy shield I had learned to do easily, and dragging it over myself like a dome.
The back doors creaked open, and Emberly and her best friend, Mel, walked in then.
Oh God. An audience?
Mel was an adorable redheaded human, with twice the sass of Emberly. When I looked over, Emberly waved and joined Lincoln and the others on the sideline.
Michael stepped up to the plate first, staring me down. He was looking at my energy shield, seeing the edges of it.
“I’m going to break your shield,” he declared, pulling his sword free with a burst of blazing blue light.
“The hell you are!” Emberly razzed him from the sidelines.
I grinned, but it was short-lived. When Michael’s face turned menacing and he raised his sword, my humor faded, and I braced for impact. Holding my metal shield above me, I tried at the same time to bolster the other one. Michael’s sword came down hard on my energy barrier, causing it to flex and wobble. Pain sliced through my body, everywhere at once, but the shield held. Tiny blue cracks appeared in its outer wall, but his sword didn’t puncture it.
Hell yeah!
Michael looked dumbfounded for a second. “Fascinating. Gabriel, come break this.” He stepped aside.
Oh God.
I tried to repair the cracks Michael’s blue light had made, but they seemed to be growing by the second. Gabriel didn’t wait for an introduction, simply tossed a ball of white fire at me. Coupled with Michael’s blue cracks, the force sent my shield crumbling around me.
My onlookers booed.
“I thought so,” Michael mumbled curiously.
I decided to give them a little taste of what fighting with Brielle was like. If I were fighting Lucy, I wouldn’t let him stand around and talk.
Dropping my metal shield to the ground, I sprang from where I was crouched, sword held aloft and aimed right for Michael. Obviously, I wasn’t going to hurt him if he didn’t move, but I had a feeling he would be ready.
Sure enough, the archangel snapped to the side, grinning as he parried my blow with such a force, that my sword was flung from my grasp.
Damn superhuman power.
“Good!” he shouted. “Never underestimate the power of a surprise attack.”
Yeah, but it didn’t work, and now I was weaponless. I stood there frozen, body tensed, unsure what to do.
Raphael stepped forward. “A Celestial is never weaponless. You have magic within your every pore.”
Right. I kept forgetting that, and it made me really miss Sera. She would make me look like such a badass right now. Maybe this was what I needed to hear all along. I was powerful without her.
Would I go to Hell if I flung black magic at Archangel Michael?
“Give him all you’ve got,” Raphael encouraged.
Mind reader.
Without missing a beat, I clapped my hands together, creating a small baseball-sized black blob of magic. Michael’s twenty-foot wings flapped, causing the other angels to step back a foot, and I chucked the ball. Michael didn’t flinch or try to deflect it; instead, he let it splash across his chest, where it molded to his metal breast plate, constricting it.
“I just wanted to see what that felt like,” he observed, looking down at the dark magic with fascination. “It stings.”
I was glad I could satisfy his curiosities.
Bringing up his sword, he cut lengthwise along his armor, shredding my black magic like it was made of paper. The dark blob fell to the floor and shriveled in on itself, leaving behind dented armor in its wake.
Michael assessed the dents with fascination. “Does it work on the Dark Prince?” he queried.
I shook my head. “No, but a mixture of both sides of my magic does.”
Kind of. My memories of my time down there were full of depression and drug-induced fatigue, so I couldn’t be entirely certain.
“Incoming!” Uriel shouted out of nowhere, then ran at me full speed.
Wind picked up and tossed my hair to the side, and panic ripped through me. Our friendly, chatty, sparring session had taken a turn. Clearly Uriel really wanted to get to his poker session.
My wings snapped out and I pumped them, causing me to rise higher and go over his head. As he passed under me, I collapsed my wings and dropped to the ground near my sword, bending to pick it up again. The moment I wrapped my fingers around the cold steel, a gust of wind slammed into my back, knocking the wind out of me.
I fell forward a bit, trying to get back the air that had been slammed from my lungs.
What the hell? Wind magic? Really?
“Lucifer will often surprise you. He won’t hesitate to harm you when your back is to him. He has no morals,” Uriel’s voice carried on the wind from behind me.
Motherfricker. He was right, and I wanted to prove to the archangels that I could do this. Anger rose up within me and I spun around in my crouched position, before bursting into the air, allowing my wings to help me gain speed. Uriel was ready, wearing the same grin Michael had. These men were angels, yes, but they were also warriors, that much was clear.
I came down hard with my sword, and it clinked against his midair. The shock of the metal weapons coming together stung my arm, sending vibrations throughout my body. We slashed our swords out, back and forth for a few moments when Raphael called out to me.
“Now, throw magic at him with your other hand, and pull up your energy shield. You must be able to do things simultaneously to even think about defeating Lucifer,” he explained.
What? I could barely process his words, too focused on meeting each strike of Uriel’s sword with my own. I could easily lose an arm in this “sparring” session.
Trying to pull attention away from my sword fight, I allowed a ball of my mixed silvery magic to form in my hand. Uriel brought his non-wielding hand up, and that gust of wind came at me again, breaking my ball apart in a second.
“Arghhh!” I screamed in frustration and snapped out with a kick, planted squarely at his chest. It was enough to knock him backward and give me the advantage I needed. Calling up another ball, I chucked it before he had the chance to break it apart with his wind magic, or whatever the heck that was. The mixed energy wrapped around the lower part of his face and started to squeeze off his air supply.
“Woo-hoo!” Emberly and Shea both screamed at the same time.
There was surprise in his eyes, and then something else. Pride, maybe? The shimmery magic around his face suddenly ballooned as if he were blowing a bubble and then popped. Shards of the magic flew in every direction before disintegrating.
Uriel stood, relaxed, and lowered his sword. “If you could have pulled up your shield and taken your blade to my neck while I was incapacitated, that might have given you the edge you needed,” he observed.
Wonderin
g if God was watching me kick his beloved angels’ asses, and putting me on the naughty list, I simply nodded.
“She needs to work on multitasking,” Gabriel agreed.
I spun around, unsure if training was over, or if another one of them was going to come at me.
Raphael stepped forward. “Brielle, call up your shield.”
I gulped.
Pulling my sword up, I stood with my feet planted shoulder-width apart, and started to pull my energy outward in a dome-like barrier.
Raphael stepped closer, inspecting the shield. “No. Make it stronger.”
What? I groaned, pulling another layer over the shield, straining to reach for my power deep inside of me.
Raphael made a fist and punched the shield dead-on, and it wobbled, shaking with the force of his hit, but it held.
“Stronger! Like steel!” he shouted. “You are a healer. You have endless amounts of energy. Find the weak parts of the shield and strengthen it until nothing can defeat it.”
Something about his words set off a light bulb in my head.
Healer.
I was a healer. Like him.
If the shield were a sick patient, I would send energy to the frail spots, and that’s exactly what I did now. I focused on the smallest nano-cells of my energy protection, funneling more and more into it, until it was a thick clear dome that looked like it was made of glass.
Raphael nodded, and waved over the other archangels. “Now, I want you to throw your energy balls at us, Brielle.”
A ‘what the hell did you just say’ expression took over my face. “I can’t. I’m trapped in here now,” I told him, my voice muffled through the fortified barrier I’d just created.
“That’s not true!” Emberly piped up from the sideline. “When she protected us from the demon attack, she thinned part of her shield to allow me to come inside.”
I shot her a look.
Traitor.
Raphael grinned. “Come on. Give it a try.”
Exhaling in frustration, I tried to hold my shield strong while also thinning part of it, just enough to fit a baseball-sized black energy ball through it. Instead of what I’d intended, the entire thing weakened.
Walking closer, Michael stuck his metal-booted foot out, kicking my barrier, and sending the whole thing crumbling down instantly. I looked up at him in frustration, and he smiled. “Now you know what you need to work on.”
Yeah. Everything.
Lincoln stepped onto the gymnasium floor and bowed his head slightly. “Thank you, guys, so much. I really appreciate it. We can run drills with her now, working on the shield and multitasking.”
They nodded and shook his hand one at a time, waving goodbye to me before disappearing out the doors for their poker game, like they hadn’t just whooped my ass.
Emberly strode over with Mel and bopped on her heels. “You totally dented my dad’s beloved armor. He’s going to complain to my mom about that one for weeks.”
I just chuckled.
“Come on. We have our work cut out for us,” Lincoln called to me.
I was tired just thinking about the days to come.
Lincoln wouldn’t sleep until I was ready.
This was gonna hurt.
Thirteen
The demon appearances on campus were daily now. A single demon would sneak on campus to try to find me, and tell me Lucifer was coming. Lincoln was beyond stressed—he’d lost weight, and wasn’t sleeping well. When I wasn’t in class, I was training with Emberly, or Lincoln and Noah, or Shea, or whatever Lincoln told me to do. I was an energy shield-making machine, now able to thin certain parts to allow me to throw balls of magic through it at my assailant. I felt ready, more than ready to go into Hell, kill Lucy, and end this entire war. I’d get Sera, free Raksha, and thwart his plan to storm the gates of Heaven. The demons in the war zone were doubling every day now, and pretty soon our forces wouldn’t be able to hold them back. Angel City would fall, unless I could put a stop to it.
“Absolutely, fucking not!” Lincoln roared at the dinner table in our small trailer.
His chicken sat untouched, and I feared he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown or something.
“Just hear me out.” I reached out and clasped his hand, while Lincoln took deep calming breaths through his nose. “You’ve heard the prophecy. You told me yourself that you think I’m meant to fulfill it.” I kept my voice quiet and measured.
“That was before I fell madly in love with you! Now I don’t care about some stupid prophecy. I just want you safe,” he bellowed.
“I won’t be safe, not in the long run. Eventually Angel City will fall, and we’ll all succumb to the demons’ power, to Lucifer’s wrath. If I could just take a team of Fallen Army soldiers down to Hell—”
“No way. You’re never going back down there.” His breathing was ragged, and I knew he was on the verge of a panic attack, having suffered many of them myself in the past.
I yanked my hand away from his and crossed my arms. “Then how are we going to fix this? The world is ending, Lincoln! Do you want all those lives on your conscience, because I sure don’t? I can go down there, and I can fix this. I know what his building looks like, and I know how to fight him. I have to do something.” There was mild hysteria in my voice by the end of my rant, and Lincoln frowned.
All of Angel City was on a curfew now. It just wasn’t the same happy place it used to be months ago.
We were silent for a long few moments, just staring at each other, until finally he placed his head in his hands. “I want to be selfish,” he admitted through tight lips. “I want to keep you safe.”
My heart broke then, because if the roles were reversed, I would want the same thing. “I know, but I’m the only Celestial who can go down there. The only one with powers that can hurt him. This is my destiny, Lincoln.”
He peered up at me through messy dark hair, so much anguish in his gaze. “If I could just go with you, I would feel so much better. I was so helpless last time.”
My heart pinched and I nodded. “But I’ll take Shea, Luke, and every other demon gifted soldier who wants to go with me. I won’t be alone this time.”
Bringing the war to Hell, that was the only way to win this. I needed to surprise Lucifer on his turf, then get Sera and Raksha the hell out of there. It had been too long.
Lincoln looked up at the ceiling, as if willing God to intervene. “We’ll talk to the archangels in the morning. See what they have to say.” His voice held such defeat, it broke my heart, but a thrill also coursed through me.
Finally, after months of preparation, I was going to give Lucy the ending he deserved.
That night, I went to sleep with a lighter heart than I had in a long while. Most of my daily anxiety was based on the idea that I was doing nothing to help Sera and Raksha, that I wasn’t going after Lucifer when I knew I should. Knowing we were going to talk to the archangels about a mission in the morning had me sleeping like a baby.
* * *
Sometime in the early morning hours, a light shaking, woke me. My eyelids snapped open to see Lucifer’s grinning face hovering over me. At first, I thought I was dreaming, but after blinking rapidly, he didn’t disappear.
Standing tall in a crisp black suit, the Devil beamed down at me.
“Wakey wakey.” His voice was low and raspy.
“Shit!” I kicked out at him and tried to roll off the other end of the bed, but it was no use. He reached out and grabbed my ankle in a viselike grip, fingers digging into my flesh.
“Brielle. So good to see you. Our time has come, my dear.” His voice was so calm, it was terrifying. This man was seriously psychotic.
‘Brielle!’ Sera’s voice desperately boomed in my head, and I burst into tears. In Lucy’s other hand was the black case I knew held her.
‘Sera!’ I shouted mentally, reaching for that link we used to talk to each other.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked.
I tried to control my crying,
so overcome with emotion that I couldn’t answer.
Lucy rolled his eyes. “Get over whatever little emotional breakdown you’re having. We need to leave before your boy toy comes back.”
Lincoln. How the hell had I forgotten about him? I glanced frantically around the bed, but it was empty.
“Where is he?” My voice was deadly as I let a black ball of magic build up in my palm. If Lucifer had hurt him, I’d go so postal, I might actually explode.
Lucifer rolled his eyes again before flicking his wrist in my direction. My dark magic flew from my hand and splashed against the trailer wall. I’d felt his energy pulling on my wrist, and could have resisted, but I wanted him to think I was still under his control. For now. I needed to know where Lincoln was, if Raksha was alive, and have Sera in my hands before I showed him that he could no longer force me to do things against my will. I’d been preparing for this day for months, and I wasn’t scared. I felt ready.
“You will be agreeable, Brielle, or I’m going to have to get mean,” he snarled. “Your lover is attending a skirmish at the front gates.”
He was safe. I sighed in relief, but at the same time it occurred to me that it was oddly quiet outside. “Why isn’t the demon alarm going off?”
Lucifer grinned and it made my stomach turn. “Haven’t you been getting my messengers all month?”
Something clicked inside my head at his words, and my mouth popped open at the realization. “Every time you sent a demon in here, it was to learn something, where I was, or how the demon alarm was triggered.”
He nodded. “Good to see you didn’t lose your intellect in this godforsaken place. Get up and get dressed. We have an appointment in Heaven.”
My face fell. He’d come to force me to make good on my promise to him. He’d brought the key—Sera. What if I couldn’t fight him off? What if I really did open the gates of Heaven for him, and he killed every angel there in his bid for revenge?
‘We’ve got this. Together,’ Sera assured me, and I was almost startled at hearing her in my head. It had been so long, and I’d missed her so deeply that it hurt now to have her near.
