Fallen Academy: Year Four

by Stone, Leia

  Please God, I need air. I couldn’t think straight; all I could focus on was trying to draw a breath past his crushing grip.

  Ever so slightly, his fingers let up from my windpipe, and I gulped in precious oxygen. I didn’t even care that it tasted mildly of sulfur. After I managed a few breaths, his hand opened wider and gripped my jaw, allowing me to fill my lungs. I was so relieved, so happy to be alive and breathing, I didn’t even think of fighting him back or using my magic against him. Eventually, as the oxygen helped my sanity return and my panic retreat, I had the idea that I needed to fight this bastard off me.

  “Almost there. Raksha will be so pleased to see you.”

  All fight fled from my body in that instant.

  Raksha. He’d said the magic word.

  I relaxed, allowing him to take me. This was what I wanted anyway, to be brought to the Dark Prince. I wanted to end him. I just thought I’d have Sera, Lincoln and the archangels on my side when I did it. Yet, if Raksha was in trouble, then I wouldn’t put up a fight. I’d go willingly if it meant I had the chance to save her.

  As we flew, a familiar landscape came into view, the outside courtyard of Lucifer’s underground castle. We neared and my eyes roamed over the faces of the demons that stood at the outer wall. I recognized a few, but when my gaze fell inside the courtyard, complete and utter shock ripped through me.

  Nothing could have prepared me for the sight of Lucifer… holding a baby.

  Twenty-Two

  The first thing that popped into my head was if somehow that baby could be mine. As crazy as it sounded, it wasn’t that far out there, considering Lucifer had wanted to track my cycles and make a baby with me before I broke free. Now here he was, holding a beautiful little infant.

  My gaze flicked to a crumpled heap at his feet, and a sob formed in my throat. Raksha was on the ground, bleeding freely from her abdomen.

  When we were about ten feet from the courtyard, the Abrus demon dropped me. He just let go. I flapped my wings to slow my descent, but I still landed roughly and twisted my ankle, causing pain to shoot up my shin.

  “Ah, Brielle, perfect timing,” Lucifer called out to me.

  At his words, four thick bands of black magic shot from his free hand and wrapped around my body like ropes, binding my arms and legs against me. I didn’t fight it, didn’t even bother to tell him to fuck off. My eyes were glued to the baby.

  “Hey, Lucy.” I spoke calmly, but using my nickname for him had his upper lip curling. “Why are you holding an innocent baby?”

  Lucifer laughed. “Oh, she’s hardly innocent. The spawn of a Succubus demon and myself? No, no, she’ll be anything but innocent.”

  Relief washed through me that the baby wasn’t mine, but then I was filled with horror. The Devil and a Succubus demon had a baby?

  “Michael’s blood… runs… through her veins,” Raksha croaked from her place at Lucy’s feet.

  I tried to process her words, but all I could find myself thinking, was how badly she was injured and how I couldn’t heal her with Lucy standing right there.

  Lucifer waved Raksha off then. “Just a smidgen of Michael’s blood to give her good fighting ability, but not enough to sway her moral scales.”

  That’s what he’d used the blood for, the jar Mathias dropped off while I was held captive down here.

  “No one is born evil,” I declared, my gaze falling on the sweet baby once more. I refused to believe she was born with any hatred. That had to be taught… if I let her father live. Which I wouldn’t.

  I didn’t have Sera, the archangels, or Lincoln, and my hands were tied behind my back, but I was going to kill this bastard one way or another. Just as soon as he put down the baby.

  “You’re wrong in thinking I’m evil, Brielle,” Lucifer stated calmly, while the baby made bubbles with her spit. “I just have a different viewpoint than your other feathered friends.”

  I swallowed hard. “Let me heal Raksha, and then I’ll give you whatever you want.”

  Okay, I’d resorted to begging pretty quickly, but she was freaking bleeding out right in front of me. I was feeling desperate.

  His high-pitched laughter cut through the air surrounding us. “I already have what I want. You’re trapped here with me, and after my army kills the archangels, I’ll never let you leave. Thanks for bringing them here, by the way. Really saved me a trip.”

  Plan B. If Sera were here, she’d do something psycho like lash out with magic and try to blind him. The entire time we’d been talking, I’d built up magic along my skin, like I did with my shield, but this was magic I hoped was about to burn through the bands that held me.

  With an animalistic, roar I pushed the magic from my skin, snapping the bands in half. They fell to the ground as I burst from where I stood, shooting straight forward. My ankle stung as I leapt for the Devil, completely unsure what the hell I was going to do.

  He was holding a freaking baby, for crying out loud!

  Lucifer looked surprised for a moment, but that expression was quickly wiped off his face and replaced with malice. With no plan, and no desire to hurt that damn adorable baby, I just let my momentum slam into him. I turned to the side and lined up my shoulder with his chest, at the same time reaching out to cup the baby in my arms as I did a full football tackle. The force of my hit knocked him backward, and he loosened his hold on the baby, allowing me to snatch her from his grip.

  I had seconds here, mere seconds, to decide of the fate of Raksha, this baby and myself. I could take flight and bring the baby to safety, but he would surely finish off my hurt friend. It would be the smart thing to do, but I couldn’t bear to lose her. Could I carry them both? I had to try.

  Spinning, I deposited the baby into Raksha’s outstretched hands where she lay on the ground, pivoting just as a giant blob of black inky energy crashed into my chest. A burning fire settled into my lungs, and I stumbled backward in pain.

  The second the fire sensation tore through my chest, I called up my healing magic. The buttery warm light flowed from my palms and right into my lungs, soothing the sharp, scorching pain that had rested there. I wasn’t interested in talking anymore; I just wanted Lucy dead. The second I killed him, I’d heal Raksha and everything would be okay.

  Without a word, I flung my left hand out and sent an arc of healing magic into the Devil’s face, relishing in the sound of his painful hiss as it made contact.

  Raksha began to crawl backward with the baby on her chest, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. I needed to get her to safety. I needed to heal her. I needed—

  “Kill him,” she rasped and locked eyes with me.

  I needed to kill him. Even Raksha knew and wanted that.

  “Yes, Brielle. Kill me,” the Devil mocked. “Though I should warn you, if this starts going south, I’ve instructed my men to take you out.” He nodded to the couple hundred demons who stood like sentinels in front of his courtyard.

  Calling up my shield to protect me, I grinned at him. “What’s wrong, Lucy? Scared?”

  Thrusting my arms out, I sent a coil of silver magic to wind around his throat. It shot from my palm like a snake, wrapping around his neck with lightning speed. I didn’t let up as I moved closer to him, and blasted his chest with balls of golden healing light. When they hit him, they singed as if burning him, leaving red marks in their wake.

  The fury on his face was palpable as he raised his arms above his head. I felt a giant gust of wind stir around me, and when he lowered his hands, the wind slammed into my back, hitting me with the force of a truck.

  I stumbled forward, trying to keep my balance and my wits, when Lucy surged at me with a sword in his hands that wasn’t there before. Using a move Lincoln taught me, I leapt into the air, letting my wings pick me up a little, and kicked out in front of me. My foot connected with his face, and then the entire ground started to shake, the brittle castle walls lining the courtyard crumbling before my widened eyes.

  I’d just kicked the Devil in the fac
e, and he was pissed.

  Launching into the air to come face-to-face with me, he thrust his hands out, and sent over a dozen black shards toward my energetic shield. I held my breath as they stuck into my protection wall like toothpicks, hoping to connect with my body.

  “You really think you can defeat me!” he roared, his voice no longer holding any trace of humanity. Black inky veins crawled up his neck, and I tried to rein in my fear, knowing that was how he controlled me. I let my shield drop for a split second, allowing the black shards to drop with it, then flooded him with golden healing light before bringing my protection up again.

  Hissing, he shrank away from it, but it stuck to him like glue.

  “I think you know I can.” I smirked. “That’s why you told your minions to interfere if it looks like I’m winning.”

  He screamed in rage, and a bolt of lightning shot across the sky, the wind picking up all around me.

  “There are consequences to my death, silly girl. Are you sure you want to deal with them?” he growled over the wind.

  Yes. Maybe. No. Shit. What kind of consequences?

  Before I could even think what to do next, he flung his hand out, and threw a black shard right into my abdomen beneath my chest plate, cutting through my shield and chain mail like butter. The shock of him being able to penetrate my shield had me losing concentration on it, as it fell around me leaving me vulnerable. I stumbled backward, hitting the ground hard and disoriented. It all happened so fast; one second I was in the air, and now I was lying in the dirt with a searing pain in my stomach. He’d gotten me good.

  Lucifer grinned, stalking toward me like he was an animal watching his prey. Reaching down, I grabbed hold of the black shard sticking out of me and ripped it out.

  “This is the end for you,” he sneered.

  A shadow passed over us then, and two things happened at once. Sera was literally dropped into my lap, and Lincoln dive-bombed from the sky and laid Lucy out on his ass.

  I shot a burst of healing light into my abdomen, hoping it would stop the bleeding, and then popped to my feet with Sera in my hand. There was no time to think, no time to fully heal, no time for anything but killing the Prince of Darkness, before he pulled on more of his power.

  ‘Sorry I’m late,’ she apologized.

  ‘No problem. Let’s end this scumbag.’

  ‘With pleasure.’

  Lincoln had gone into rage-kill mode, landing blow after blow into Lucifer’s face. The Dark Prince’s demons turned their attention from the outer crumbled gates of the courtyard, to the fight before me and started to advance, forming a circle around Lincoln, Lucifer and me, and shutting out Raksha and the baby so I couldn’t see them anymore.

  This is going to be a lot harder if they’re about to jump us…

  The sound of flapping wings drew my attention upward, and I grinned. The four archangels descended into the yard and each took a corner, fighting the demons backward and out of the circle, giving us a level playing field.

  My gaze flicked back just in time to see Lincoln sail up into the air and land hard on the ground.

  ‘Vaporize this asshole!’ I screamed at Sera.

  Her blinding white light shot from the tip of her blade, in a concentrated beam, and cut right into the Devil’s left thigh.

  A loud screech ripped from him and he kicked off the ground, but I used my free hand to lash out with a whip of golden energy, and coiled it around his arm, yanking him down again. Pulling up my shield, I made it stronger than ever before. Tugging on energy from places I didn’t know existed within me, I thickened the walls, to make sure it could stop whatever he threw at me. I kept Sera’s beam of light directly over his leg, hoping to saw the limb right off. Lucifer would be a pile of body parts if I had it my way.

  Lightning started to snap at the outer edges of our circle, directly in the path of the four archangels, and the ground shook again.

  “How dare you!” the Prince of Darkness screamed just as black oil-like droplets began to fall from the sky. Hissing and screaming sounded all around me, and it took me a moment to realize the black rain was acidic. My shield was covering me from it, but Lincoln and the others were getting drenched. I had to end this now, or everyone I cared about would be gone.

  Anger flared up within me, and I yanked with everything I had, pulling him closer to me.

  “Goodbye, Lucy,” I gritted out, feeding my healing golden magic into Sera, just as she let loose a cannon-sized ball of fiery orange light straight into Lucifer’s stomach. One second the ball was coming at him, and I was pinning him there with my golden whip, and the next it was going right through him, taking out his guts with it. I could see clear through his stomach from the big hole Sera had left there. The demons around us went crazy, hissing and shrieking and cutting into the archangels like they were possessed. Lucifer was just staring at me, mouth agape, open and closing like a fish out of water.

  I glanced sideways to the base of a dying tree to see Raksha still had the baby cradled to her chest. Grinning, I stepped forward until I was right in Lucifer’s face, shooting more energy whips out of my hand to coil around him. “I’m going to make sure that baby is raised with so much unconditional love, there’s no way in hell she’ll be anything like you. Pun intended.”

  He reached out, placing his hands on my shield as black flames erupted from his palms in a last-ditch effort to fight me off him.

  I shook my head and with one powerful lunge, I stabbed Sera into his chest. He jerked against me, and the ground shook with tremendous force. How he had so much energy after losing his insides, I had no idea, but he fought me hard, with everything he had left in him.

  ‘Give him all you got,’ I told my infinity weapon.

  ‘I’m part of you,’ she reminded me. ‘I’ll give him all we’ve got. As you’ve grown in your training, I’ve grown in mine.’

  With that, an explosion of light entered his chest, pearlescent, golden, blue, and black, and a mixture of everything within me. It was all of the magic I possessed in one entity. His body started to convulse as the light entered him.

  “Nooooooo!” His roar was so hollow and void of human emotion, it gave me chills, but I held on to him.

  I pumped that bastard full of everything I had. His skin started to turn ashy and black as the earth shook harder, the rain fell faster, and the lightning intensified. My arm trembled with the force of trying to hold on to his thrashing body, and I felt weakness pulling at the edges of my mind.

  ‘No. Stay strong!’ Sera ordered.

  Suddenly, two hands landed on my back and golden healing energy raced through my shield and into me. That final burst was what Sera and I needed to land the lethal blow. As light coursed through me and into Sera, she fed it into Lucifer’s chest. He screamed one final time, before his body erupted in black flames and fell to the ground, which had ceased its shaking.

  Yet, I wasn’t taking any chances. Pulling Sera out, I brought her down across his neck, severing his head like it was made of butter. The moment his head separated from his body, a shock wave burst outward with a great force.

  I stumbled backward, looking at the charred corpse before me. The rain had stopped, as had the lightning; even the demons had slowed their frenzy.

  Spinning on my heel, I expected to find Raphael or Noah, but instead Lincoln was standing there, hands outstretched.

  “You did it.” He was staring, eyes wide and unblinking, at what used to be the Devil.

  I couldn’t respond. I only had one thing on my mind.

  “Raksha!” I shouted, blasting past him and the archangels. I slammed into a Brimstone demon, sending it flying over me, and then I was at the base of the tree.

  Shea was there, holding the baby in her arms with tears streaking down her cheeks. Noah had his hands over Raksha’s bleeding abdomen, but it was no use. The moment I looked at her frozen face, glassy eyes staring up at the sky, I knew she was gone. Grief and guilt slammed into me with equal measure as I swayed back
ward.

  “I’m… so sorry. She was too far gone. I tried…,” Noah mumbled.

  No. No. No.

  I fell to my knees, sobbing. The fight had left me, the adrenaline gone, and now I was falling apart.

  “Um, is that a baby?” Lincoln asked from behind me.

  Shea swallowed hard. “She said her name is Asha, it means hope in Hindi. And that… she wanted Brielle to raise her.”

  My grief froze, as my eyes flicked up to my best friend.

  “She said that?”

  Shea was freely crying. “She said the baby is the only thing that kept her alive down here after you left, that the mom died in labor, and taking care of her—” A sob choked off Shea’s words, and I moved closer to my best friend, placing my arm around her. “I’m sorry, Brielle. I got here and looked for her, but it was too late.”

  I’d made Shea promise to get Raksha out, and now she was carrying the guilt with me.

  “It’s not your fault. I saw her right after he injured her, and I couldn’t save her either.”

  Looking down at my old friend, I reached out and closed her eyelids as I leaned forward, placing my lips to her ear. “I will take care of this baby, and look out for your family until my dying day on Earth. You have my word.”

  I wanted to collapse onto my back, cry, and never move again, but I couldn’t fall apart. Not right now. Not when this baby needed me. Raksha was counting on me, and I wouldn’t let her down, ever.

  So, I wiped my cheeks and pulled my shit together, standing, and then reaching down to take the sweet baby in my arms. She had the most beautiful blue eyes I’d ever seen. Walking over to my husband, I looked up at him.

  “She’s the biological child of Lucifer and a Succubus demon. Lucy used a bit of Archangel Michael’s blood when he made her, but that shouldn’t matter. She’ll probably have black wings and freaky powers, but that doesn’t make her a bad person.”

  I moved closer to Lincoln, pressing the baby against his chest, and I saw the exact moment he fell in love with her. His entire face softened, and his mouth went a little slack as he gazed down at the adorable infant.