Fallen Academy: Year Two (Fallen Academy #2)(22)

As we were making our way out of Inferno, Lincoln got on his cell phone and called Archangel Michael.

He had his cell number.

No big deal.

“Hello, sir, can you talk for a minute?” Lincoln asked.

I leaned forward in my seat so when he lowered his voice, I could still eavesdrop.

“I’ve got three civilians, a mother and two little girls. We just saved them from a Succubus demon, and I need to get them into Angel City tonight,” Lincoln explained.

Something Michael said must have pissed him off, because his face turned menacing. “I don’t care if the shelters are full.”

More listening. More anger. “She’s a free soul. What about a transfer to San Diego?”

Free soul. That term still made me angry inside. I hadn’t even noticed her forehead was free of the demon mark. Lincoln was always looking for things like that.

My poor mother. Will he ever trust her?

“What if I can find them housing?” Lincoln asked.

There was a pause. He was scowling.

“Yes, sir. I know.” Lincoln sounded dejected. A shadow crossed his face, and then his scowl morphed into a look of determination. “I’ve secured them housing, sir.”

I frowned. Huh?

That fast, without making a call? Michael must have been as confused as I was.

“Yes, sir, you have my word. Long-term housing for all three of them.” Now Lincoln was smiling, looking pleased with himself.

He finally ended the call, and I met his gaze. “What housing did you secure?” I whispered.

He raised one eyebrow. “You were listening?”

I rolled my eyes. “Linc, where are they gonna go?”

Running a hand through his hair, he sighed. “I had a two-bedroom apartment through the army when my parents died. Part of my compensation package. I’ll ask to be reassigned a place, and they can stay in my trailer.”

My heart burst into tiny emoji hearts that floated around his head. Or at least it felt like that’s what it would do if this were a cartoon. “Where will you sleep in the meantime?”

“I’ll crash on Noah’s couch.” His dark lashes framed his crystalline blue eyes, making them pop and look arresting.

“You’re amazing,” I told him. “Seriously.”

He gave me a weak smile. “We saved three tonight, but there are millions more, and with the shelters full and Angel City against seeing homeless tent cities… it’s not enough. But I helped a little.”

I could see now that he tortured himself over this. Lincoln Grey would not rest until every free soul was saved.

I didn’t want to be the one to break it to him, but that just wasn’t possible.





Chapter Nine





The next three weeks were hard emotionally. Sera was gone, and Mikey still hadn’t shifted back to human. He was missing out in school, and my mom and I were going stir-crazy not being able to see him. I had a phone meeting with Clark, his alpha, after my history class, which I was barely paying attention to, focusing more on making the call.

“The underworld, Hell, down there. Whatever you call it, today we are going to learn all about it,” Mrs. Delacourt trilled.

My attention pulled to the front. I still wasn’t used to seeing Centaurs. Mrs. Delacourt was a magnificent white horse on her lower half and a tanned Greek goddess on her upper.

“The realm where the Prince of Darkness rules, lies directly under our world,” she called out.

More than a few eyes landed on me when she mentioned Lucifer. I’d taken to wearing high-collared shirts to hide my mark, but it was useless since everyone already knew it was there. I’d come to terms with the fact that the mark would be a part of me forever.

“If I were to open a portal today and look through, then open a portal next week and look through, I could see the same swatch of landscape. That tells us that the underworld doesn’t move or shift.”

Interesting. I immediately thought of Sera.

A hand shot up, and I inwardly groaned to see it was Tiffany.

“Yes, Tiffany.” Was that a curled upper lip I detected from the professor?

The blonde Light Mage wiggled in her seat. “Is it true that Celestials can’t go there? That it’s, like, a thousand times worse for them there than it would be in Demon City?”

I glared at Tiffany. What an annoying and stupid question.

“Yes, that’s true. They’ve tried, and crossing the threshold inflicts so much pain that it brings the person near death,” the professor admitted.

Tiffany glanced back at me. “But for someone who has no problem in Demon City, someone demon gifted, they’d be fine in Hell, right?”

Bitch. Why was murder illegal? Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to live.

Mrs. Delacourt glared at Tiffany. “Hypothetically, yes. Moving on.”

As our history professor started to draw a diagram on the board, I stared at the back of Tiffany’s glossy blonde hair and thought of all the ways I could inflict harm on her.



“I just want to see him. Just for a minute, to make sure he’s okay,” I pleaded with Clark.

“No.” Clark’s firm commanding voice flared through the phone, getting on my last nerve.

“He’s my brother!” I shouted.