Fallen Academy: Year Two (Fallen Academy #2)(48)

“I’m ready for a three-week vacation in Hawaii, but I’m good.” She grinned and her healed lip cracked, dripping blood onto her teeth.

“Looks like you girls are in need of a healer,” a familiar female voice trilled.

I spun in my seat to see Mrs. Greely standing there, clutching her tan purse and looking like a poodle in a pit bull shop.

“Mrs. Greely! You came.” I stood and pulled her in for a hug even though it hurt. When she moved back, she smoothed my hair.

“Of course, dear. Raphael had to bribe the border guards a bit, but I’m here.”

Raphael took part in bribing Demon City border guards? Now, that I would have paid to see.

Mrs. Greely made quick work of resetting and healing my pinky, then moved on to Shea’s elbow. It was hit with some type of damaging spell. A ton of these students were Dark Mages, and they’d clearly been throwing premade spells their advanced teachers had crafted.

During my most recent fight, I’d squared off with a Centaur, hence the split eyebrow. He’d kicked me right in the face! We were lucky each competitor had submitted and we’d yet to have to kill anyone, but I doubted the entire night would go that way.

Shea leaned into me. “The others are getting tired too. We need to be explosive, go big right off the bat, and end these next few quickly.”

It was a good plan, but harder when reality didn’t pan out that way.

“What do you have in mind?” I mused, thinking she may have some plan to use our weapons. The announcer had stopped asking us to put them in the center of the room after it became obvious Sera was loyal to only me.

“Remember that black whip thing you did on the Succubus demon?” Shea recalled.

I shivered. I hated that I was using my dark magic to win these fights. It was also depleting my energy quickly.

“Yeah, assuming I can just do that again,” I retorted.

“Next few fights, the second the buzzer sounds, just lash out with that whip. I’ll create a magical shield of sorts to keep any spells from hitting us.”

It was a good plan that hinged on me being able to just conjure up the whip like I did it all the time.

‘You don’t need the whip. Let me at them and I’ll cut them to pieces!’ Sera screamed.

I snickered to myself. I didn’t like to admit it, but my dark magic was extremely easy to call forth now, so I was betting I could do it. Sera was amazing, but using her required me to get very close to my opponent to cause serious damage. I needed to save Sera’s power for our final fight. She was susceptible to fatigue the same as me, and she wasn’t getting power boost lozenges.

“Worth a try,” I told Shea.

“Shall we bring our pretty angels back in the ring!” the announcer boomed.

He’d nicknamed us “angels,” which couldn’t be farther from the truth.

It hit me then, how messed up the world had become. We were participating in a televised fight to the death to win money that could buy a human being’s slave contract back. As if a human should even be kept a slave in the first place.

“Good luck, girls. I’ll try to stay as long as I can,” Mrs. Greely stated, though already she looked positively green. No doubt this was her first time in Demon City.

What was so wrong with me that I could stand to live in Demon City without being affected? Shit, I’d even walked through Hell without much discomfort—what did that say about me as a person?

‘It says your Lucifer powers allow it. That’s all. Do you overthink everything?’ Sera asked.

I groaned. ‘Do you listen to all of my deeply personal thoughts or just some of them?’ I snapped back.

‘Pretty much all of them. It’s my only form of entertainment,’ she retorted.

A chuckle escaped me, I couldn’t help it.

“Come on, crazy lady.” Shea dragged me up.

Whoops. I’d forgotten the task at hand. If I was ever stranded on a desert island and could only take one item, it would definitely have to be Sera. She’d amuse me until we both died of thirst.

‘I don’t drink water,’ she interjected.

‘Hush. It’s go time,’ I told my infinity weapon.

As we entered the ring, I relaxed a little. We were up against Steph and Ben. They looked beat, Steph holding a hastily wrapped hand to her chest and Ben limping. I guessed they weren’t able to afford a healing demon.

They’d said they wouldn’t fight us, not for real. But trust was a fickle thing. I didn’t want to put my guard down too much, and then have them come out swinging full throttle.

As with the other times, the gate slammed, the fence electrified, and the buzzer sounded all within seconds. Just like that, the fight had begun.

Shea and I shared a look, and I decided to trust. Maybe it was because I wanted to embrace my lighter side and have faith. I didn’t let the black whip come shooting out like I’d promised Shea. Instead I held Sera up and she shot a concentrated beam of light into Steph’s thigh, making her drop to the ground screaming.

Ben burst forward and loosed an arrow at Shea’s head, but it went over, missing her by mere inches.

Was that miss intentional?

I knew it would need to look real in order for them to save face after we left, but I didn’t want to seriously injure them.

‘Don’t hurt her too badly,’ I told Sera, and then my wings burst from my back and I launched into the air. The tips of my wings hit the edges of the cage, and a slight shock zipped through my shoulders.