Fallen Academy: Year Four (Fallen Academy #4)(37)

A noise that sounded like a cat being run over by a car, ripped from the Devil’s throat as he stumbled forward and laid both hands on my shield. His furious face was a mere foot from mine, and the way his black eyes bulged was so terrifying it would haunt my dreams forever. Black inky magic poured from his palms, no longer as swords, but now as an oily fluid. It covered my shield slowly, causing all light to be sucked from the space.

My heart flitted wildly in my chest.

I was a grown-ass woman, but I’d be dammed if I wasn’t a little afraid of the pitch dark. Slowly the blackness crawled over my dome, so it became darker and darker inside.

Sera’s golden glow grew lighter to combat the shadows, and my panic eased a little.

‘Get ready, I think he’s going to take the shield down,’ she told me.

I nodded, standing with my feet firmly planted.

“Can’t you help her?” Bernie begged to someone I couldn’t see behind me.

“I’m not permitted to interfere in mortal affairs,” a strong voice answered.

Typical.

“I got this!” I shouted, mostly to myself, because I was now 100 percent certain that the Devil’s black magic was eating away at my shield. My skin was on fire, and I wasn’t going to be able to hold it much longer.

‘Be ready’ Sera repeated.

My wings snapped out, and I assumed a crouching position to jump up to the skies if my shield were to fall. If I could draw him away from the gate, take the fight to another part of the ‘in-between,’ then maybe I could stop this war.

A cracking sound reverberated throughout the space, and black chunks began to fall to the ground as my shield gave way. Light from the outside leaked in, and then Lucifer was standing there, terrifyingly close.

Without missing a beat, I shoved off the ground and aimed for the skies, but a strong hand wrapped around my ankle, and I was yanked to the ground hard. I landed awkwardly, on one knee and with one wing bent backward. Sharp hot pain sliced into my shoulder and kneecap simultaneously, but I kept my grip on Sera. Light flared from the tip of the blade as I went into prison shank mode, slicing out at Lucifer like a crazed lunatic. Sera cut into his wrist, that was still gripping my ankle, and then I managed to stab him in the shoulder as well before he stumbled backward.

“How dare you go against your promise to me!” he roared, and I felt that pressure press down on my body again.

The strongest urge to get up and walk back over to the gate, overcame me.

Lucifer hovered over me, shoulder and wrist bleeding, and black oily magic crawling all over his skin. “Get. Up,” he ordered.

I did, not because he’d forced me, but because it was a better position to be in to fight.

Without warning, he thrust his hands out and a gust of wind shoved into me, dragging me backward so hard that I didn’t stop until my back had slammed into the invisible gate. The wind knocked out of me, as my wings and back smashed against the glasslike surface that protected Heaven.

‘Hold me up!’ Sera commanded. I did as she asked, barely able to plan my next move. Lucifer was gliding on the tips of his toes like a total psycho, coming right for me.

Sera shot out a major burst of light, but when it hit Lucifer, it merely fell away as if he’d erected his own shield.

Shit.

Sera went rapid-fire then, blasting him with several beams of light, but none of it seemed to make a difference. Just as his hand came around my throat, I jerked my wrist forward to stab him in the eye. He wrapped his other hand over mine, grabbing Sera’s blade in the process. Blood poured over the blade as he gripped her and looked into my face like a lunatic.

“If I didn’t need you, I’d gut you like a fish with your own knife,” he whispered as I struggled to take in small gasps of air. He was going to choke me to death.

‘Oh no! He’s doing magic on me again!’ Sera screamed in panic.

I tried to yank her away from his hand, but the monster held on, even though it must have hurt. He covered her blade with a black blobby mass again, diminishing her light.

No.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. I was supposed to kick his ass. I was supposed to be capable of killing him.

I wasn’t ready after all, and the realization crushed me.

I failed Lincoln, myself, all of Heaven.

Spots danced at the edge of my vision, and I wondered if he even realized he was choking me to death. He looked so enraged, I didn’t think he was in his right mind.

“You can kill him. You are his only equal,” the strange male voice from before murmured from behind me.

Lucifer’s grasp on my neck lessened then, and I was able to suck in a precious amount of air.

“Shut up, Metatron!” Lucifer seethed. “She’s an untrained child who is too soft at heart to fully embrace her power. She’ll never be as powerful as me.”

Metatron. I’d heard that name before. In the Bible, maybe. I didn’t care right then who he was; I only cared that his words had given me a small amount of hope, and they’d distracted Lucy.

Gathering my courage, I reeled my head back and then slammed it forward, cracking Lucy right in the nose. Reddish black blood spurted over his mouth. Then I shoved my knee into his crotch and dropped Sera on the ground; she was covered in black magic and, unfortunately, was useless to me for now. Holding my hands out, I created a small black magic orb in one hand and a white one in the other.