Fallen Academy: Year Four (Fallen Academy #4)(29)

Shea clapped her hands together and a green magical fire erupted from her palms, just waiting to throw it at a demon, no doubt.

There was a frantic bang on the door.

“Let me in! There’s a Castor demon out here!” Tiffany’s high-pitched voice shrieked.

Shea groaned. “For Heaven’s sake. Let it eat her.”

Mrs. Delacourt shushed Shea, and looked to me with uncertainty in her eyes.

On a small level, I really did want to let it eat her, but on some other more mature level, my conscience couldn’t allow that. Maybe it was that thing Michael had done, or maybe it was Chloe’s new influence. I wasn’t entirely sure what caused it, but pulling my sword free, I sidestepped Mrs. Delacourt.

“Brielle!” Shea hissed. “It’s against protocol. It could be a trap.”

It’s who I am, dammit. Even though she was a bitch to me, the frantic pounding on the door made my heart pinch. It wasn’t a trap, and Shea knew it. Tiffany was great with strategy, but she wasn’t the best at battle. If she was unarmed…

Unlocking the door, I ripped it open, coming face-to-face with a new type of demon. Shock tore through me at the somewhat humanoid-looking man, who grinned before me. His face was gaunt, and where there should have been a nose were just two slits. His teeth were more like tusks, protruding out of his misshapen lips.

Shea was right. It was a trap.

“Let me in!” Tiffany’s voice came from his mouth, and before I could react to the shock of his ability to mimic people, he burst forward, knocking me backward and flat on my ass.

“Stay down!” Delacourt screamed as she leapt over me.

Looking up, I saw the underside of her half-horse belly, and flattened myself to the ground. She landed hard on the new demon, and trampled him until he rolled backward, and away from the room where we hid.

Immediately, I stood, and pulled my sword.

“Brielle! I’m coming for you, dear.” The Dark Prince’s voice slipped from the demon’s lips, where he was rocking on his knees in front of Mrs. Delacourt, and chills broke out across my arms.

Our angel history teacher must have known whose voice that was, because she froze in shock as well.

“I’m coming for you,” he said again.

Stepping out into the hallway, I whipped my head in the direction of a blur of blue light.

Lincoln.

My husband burst out of nowhere and leapt into the air behind the demon. Bringing his sword down on the demon’s neck, he cut off his head clean. The second the demon died, the alarm stopped roaring.

Lincoln was breathing hard, chest heaving up and down, and when he met my gaze, I knew he was totally freaked out. “Was that whose voice I think it was?” he asked me.

I could lie, but what was the use? “Yes.”

A few of the students gasped behind me at my confirmation.

“He mimicked Tiffany too.” Mrs. Delacourt stared at the headless demon, eyes wide and mouth gaping.

“Another new one,” Lincoln grumbled through gritted teeth. “I guess we’ll call them Mimics. Soon, we’ll be running out of names.”

A stone sank in my stomach. I was sitting up here topside, living my life, while psycho Lucy was down there, making new demons to taunt us. To taunt me. I wanted to go down there and kill him, like the prophecy foretold, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready yet. And I definitely couldn’t do it without Sera.

“Mrs. Delacourt, can you excuse Brielle for the period?” Lincoln asked her as he reached out to pull me near him.

She nodded. “Of course, dear.”

“I’ll send a team to clean this up and write a report,” he told her.

Everyone had come out into the hallway now and was staring at the headless demon that lay on the floor. This used to be a safe place. Now demon attacks were becoming a regular occurrence. It made me sick.

Lincoln held my hand, leading me out to the open area, where all four archangels were waiting, swords drawn.

“I’ve neutralized the threat. A new demon that mimics the voices of humans. He also took on the Devil’s voice, and taunted Brielle.”

Michael’s brow furrowed as the veins in his neck bulged. Raphael simply sighed, looking resigned.

“Where are you with her training? Emberly says she’s doing quite well with resisting mental commands,” Michael asked him.

Lincoln side-glanced me. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you both about. I’d like it if all four of you could do a few sessions with her. She needs to really feel the power of a full angel, and I can’t do that. Only you can…”

He let the suggestion hang out in the air, and already my body hurt just thinking about training with all four of the archangels. It was wild seeing them all together on campus. Normally, Uriel and Gabriel were at the sister schools, but with everyone banded together, their place was here… for now.

“Of course,” Michael stated.

“Consider it done,” Raphael added.

“I’m free tonight,” Gabriel said casually.

“Me too,” Uriel confirmed.

Oh God.

Lincoln sighed in relief, while my anxiety ratchetted ever higher.

Training with four archangels?

Lord have mercy.





Twelve





I was dressed for battle. Chain mail armor, a shield and like ten different weapons on my body. Tonight, was my training with the four archangels, and my goal was not to die.