Fallen Academy: Year Four (Fallen Academy #4)(21)

Take that, you demon motherfuc—

My thought died out as a Snakeroot demon spat acid right at my face, and the fluid began to slowly eat away at my shield.

Oh shit.

“No!” Emberly cried. More blue light erupted from her palms and coated my arm, and the hole from the Snakeroot’s acid started to patch itself together with her help.

Turning, I faced Emberly. “Please take the others and run. I can’t hold this much longer.”

Her eyes were alight, reminding me of the full moon. It was like she was made of light. She shook her head. “They’ll come after us. You just need to push through this. Hold on a little longer. Help is on the way.”

My brow furrowed. It is? How could she—never mind. Tremors shook my arms from the straining pressure of trying to hold up the damn wall. If I weren’t already on one knee, I would have been by now. A deep throbbing pain was working its way into my limbs as exhaustion pulled at me.

“Everything hurts,” I groaned.

“I know pain. We’re friends, pain and I.” The teenager fed more and more blue light into my arms. “It will pass. Just beyond the place where you think you can’t take any more, there is a numbness. You’ll get there, and the pain will be manageable,” she told me sagely.

A whimper caught in my throat as my hands started to involuntarily lower with fatigue.

Emberly’s hands latched onto mine with a viselike grip. “Brielle.” Her voice was low and controlled. “I don’t want to scare you, but there are over a hundred demons on this campus, and they are all headed this way. If you drop the shield, we’re all dead. I can’t fly in this pain, and I can’t fight off that many. You are our only hope.”

Oh God. She had some kind of telepathic ability or something.

Over a hundred?

Mrs. Greely, the injured….

“They got away,” Emberly informed me, but I knew she might lie to keep me sane right now.

Wait. She could read my mind this entire time and didn’t tell me?

“It’s not polite,” she explained.

I was about to retort when, beyond the translucent wall I’d built, I saw blobs of people walking slowly our way. As they neared and their figures became clearer, my stomach dropped.

“What. The hell. Is that?” I gasped.

It was… a pack of three-headed Hellhounds.

Emberly sighed. “New demons. Lucifer is really cranking them out.”

Without a word, one of the Hellhounds slammed into the wall, and it shook. The other demons, encouraged now, began to batter the wall in unison, and my shield flickered. Burning pain laced up my arms and my knee started to wobble, causing me to fall to the side.

Keeping my hands up, I cried out as I slumped down to sit on my heels. A gap formed on the side of my shield, and a Monkshood demon slipped right through before I could close it again.

Emberly jerked in the direction of the Monkshood demon, who was beelining for my students.

“Don’t make eye contact! He can control your mind,” I shouted behind me, trying my best to hold this damn shield. I wanted to give up—my arms were on fire, and my energy was depleted—but I found that space Emberly spoke of, just beyond the pain. It was a numbness, like she’d said, and it spread through my limbs, momentarily giving me a small measure of relief.

There were sounds of fighting behind me, but it was the blue glow that had just walked through the door that had me transfixed.

“Brielle!” Lincoln wailed. Each and every demon ceased its battering on the wall, and spun to look at the small army that had just arrived. It was hard to tell from so far away, but it looked like Michael was with them.

“Emberly!” the Archangel cried out, confirming my assumption as blue shards shot from his weapon, goring some of the demons in attendance.

Thank God, backup had arrived.

“I’m here!” she grunted, followed by the sound of knife hitting flesh. Peering back, I saw that the Monkshood demon was dead.

“Brielle, don’t drop your shield!” Lincoln rumbled, as clangs and growls rang throughout the space.

Easier said than done, husband!

“Die, you demon douchebags!” Shea’s Demon City accent roared from somewhere in the room, bringing a slight smile to my face.

She’s okay.

I couldn’t see much unless someone was really close to the shield or had glowing magic, but I could pick out voices when they yelled around me.

“Whoa, this shield is weird.” Chloe’s voice joined the group.

“Super weird Brielle magic,” Luke agreed, and it brought tears to my eyes to know that when I’d reached out, all of my friends had come back for me.

I was loved. I never wanted to forget that.

“I can’t hold it much longer!” I shouted when my arms shook yet again.

Dizziness threatened to overtake me. I was tired as hell, in pain, anxious, and damn near passing out. How much time had passed already? It felt like hours.

“You have to!” Lincoln shouted, and I peered through the shield to see a streak of dark hair had just entered the room.

“Scarlet?” Catia shouted.

“I’m okay!” Scarlet called out from behind our little pocket of safety.

My arms were quaking like they were holding a jackhammer, and the shield started to flicker.