Fallen Academy: Year Four (Fallen Academy #4)(22)

“Chloe, look out!” Shea cried.

Luke let out a blood-curdling scream. The kind of scream you give when a beloved friend sustains a mortal wound. Under that type of stress, I could no longer hold the shield. The protection crashed to the floor like liquid jelly, leaving a physical mess behind and unveiling the full extent of the war before me.

My eyes scanned the room, horrified to see so much blood, but they only grazed the fight, stopping on Chloe’s limp form.

“No!” I cried, picking up my sword only to have it fall from my fatigued fingers. I was useless. Instead, I burst from the ground and let my wings carry me across the room to where Luke was holding Chloe’s lifeless body, wailing in misery as he rocked back and forth.

Her gut had been ripped half open; there was so much blood, I couldn’t even process what I was seeing. Yet, the blank way her eyes fixated on the corner of the room told me she was dead. I’d seen enough death in my life to know when a soul had left a body.

“Noah!” I roared, calling over the healing Celestial as he battled with a Yew demon. He killed the demon quickly, running to my side where I was already calling up my healing magic. An orange buttery glow left my fatigued hands and coated Chloe’s open guts, only to pass right through her and disappear.

Luke looked up at me in horror. “What does that mean?”

I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to guess. Noah was beside me now, working his own healing magic, brighter and stronger than mine. All around us, demons fought Catia, Shea, Michael and Lincoln to the death. A quick glance at the back of the room showed Emberly was protecting my students.

I’d messed up. I’d dropped the shield.

Noah’s light surrounded Chloe like a cocoon before dissolving. His hands shook as he set them on his thighs.

“Noah, why are you stopping?” I shook him. “Heal her!”

Noah turned to me with tears lining his eyes. “Bri, I can heal some pretty horrific injuries, but I can’t bring back the dead.”

No.

Luke’s wails twisted the knife in my heart even further.

“Raph?” I asked hopefully. Where the hell was the Archangel of Healing? If anyone could reverse this, he could. Right?

Noah shook his head. “Even he isn’t capable of that.”

“I can’t bring back the dead…” His words formed a crazy idea in my head.

“Luke, can you run with her?” I asked.

The bear shifter swallowed his sob and nodded. “Why?”

“I know someone who can bring back the dead.”





Nine





We burst from the gymnasium, Noah, Shea, and Luke with Chloe in his arms behind me. Noah had wrapped a hoodie around her abdomen to secure her wound.

“Brielle, this is insane!” Noah shouted, following us out into the moon lit night. There were still a few demons on campus, the sirens blaring, but I also made out the shadowy figures of Fallen Army soldiers fighting them. We’d been totally ambushed, but it looked like things were getting under control now.

“If it brings back Chloe, then I’m insane. I don’t care!” I shouted, cutting down a drunken Mugwort demon who lunged from the shadows. Lincoln, Emberly, Catia and Michael were still fighting the demons in the gym, but at better odds now. When I’d shouted to Linc that I was going to see my mom to bring back Chloe, he’d just looked at me like I’d grown two heads, then barked for Noah and Shea to escort me.

We raced across campus, time ticking away as Chloe’s soul detached more and more from her body.

“Chloe, stay here! Stay with us!” I shouted to the night like a madwoman. “We’re going to bring you back.”

Noah and Shea exchanged a look, one that said they might be planning to sedate me. Yet, Luke looked determined, brow furrowed, lips pressed into a thin line, and I knew he would be my partner in crime.

The second we reached my car, I was relieved to see the parking lot was crawling with Fallen Army. They’d just come back from the raid to find their home was also raided. Now they could rid the campus of demons. We gingerly helped Luke in the back, his limp redheaded best friend in his arms.

“Let me close her up quickly, or she’ll lose all her blood,” Noah instructed, pulling a little surgical stapler from his pants pocket—all of the healers and medics carried them in the war zones.

Noah lifted the hoodie to reveal an open abdominal cavity, and both Luke and I looked to the side, unable to see our friend in that condition. The snapping sound of staple after staple set in place, made Luke wince as tears rolled down his cheeks.

Noah was right to do this. If my mom reanimated Chloe without all of her major organs inside of her, she wouldn’t survive. Still, that didn’t make it any easier to see, or hear.

“All right,” Noah announced, chucking the bloodied stapler into the back of the car. We all climbed inside, Noah driving, Shea in the middle row, and me in the passenger seat.

“Drive like hell to my mom’s apartment,” I told Noah, and he obliged, even burning rubber.

I dialed my mom, who picked up on the first ring.

“Tell me you’re safe,” she answered.

“I’m safe, but Chloe’s not. I need you to prepare to reanimate her. You still have your supplies, right?”

My mom gasped. “Chloe? Oh, honey.”