The next morning, I awoke to a strong hand massaging my back. I inhaled and smelled bacon and coffee. My eyelids snapped open and drank in the sight of my man. Lincoln was sitting on my dorm room bed, rubbing my back in slow, soothing circles.

“Hey, it’s afternoon. I wanted to make sure you were okay,” he whispered.

I eyed the milky coffee, the plate of eggs and bacon on my dresser, and nodded. “I’m fine now,” I declared, shoving two full strips of bacon in my mouth in one go. If a man brought you coffee and bacon in bed, you marry that man.

Lincoln chuckled. “I’m glad to hear it.” He wrapped his hand around my left one and spun the ring on my finger. “Not exactly how I thought that night was going to end.”

Yeah, tell me about it.

He looked around the room at the balloons and toilet paper. “At least it looks like you got a little celebration.”

I chugged the coffee, feeling my soul finally join my body, something only coffee was capable of doing. “This is my life. Black wings, devil marks and… what happened last night.” I wanted him to know what he was in for.

Lincoln frowned. “But it won’t always be. This war is going to end, and we’re going to live… forever, really.”

Forever.

Whoa.

I’d conveniently forgotten about the immortality thing. Live forever unless killed.

I nodded. “But if it doesn’t, and I’m always going to be hunted by him....”

Him. I couldn’t even say his name anymore.

Lincoln shrugged. “Then we’ll deal with it. Together.”

I sighed, nuzzling my head into his neck. He always knew the perfect thing to say.

Tonight was Lincoln’s surprise captain’s promotion.

I glanced at the clock to see it was already three. I’d slept all day.

‘No more Celestial balls. Bad idea, not worth it,’ Sera exclaimed.

‘Agreed.’

“I should shower,” I told Lincoln and peeled back my covers. He looked at my bare legs and his eyes hooded.

“I could use a shower too.” He scooped me into his arms, lifting me off the bed.

Laughter erupted from my belly as he walked me into the bathroom. Threading my fingers through his hair, I couldn’t help but appreciate how perfect Lincoln Grey was in that moment.

I wanted to freeze it and capture it forever.

* * *

That night, Noah snuck me into the reception hall, and I sat at the large white cloth-covered table with Lincoln’s closest friends. Lincoln had been on the stage under the guise that he was helping Raphael honor some other Fallen Army soldiers, which they did. But when Raphael introduced his surprise promotion, I started to cry. He’d listed off my man’s achievements, including the numerous lives he’d saved, and families he’d brought to the safety of Angel City. It was a beautiful ceremony, and when Lincoln saw I was there, he’d beamed with pride.

Now we were at the after party. The archangels had gone home, the music was loud, and Shea, Luke, and Chloe had officially crashed the party.

I was dancing with Lincoln when he leaned into my ear. “I’m thirsty. Want a drink?”

I nodded.

As he made his away off the dance floor, Shea twerked her way over to me, much to the dismay of Noah who had been grinding up on her.

“So, I’ve been thinking.” Shea shouted over the music. “If you’re stuck on campus for the next few years, I’d bet we could convince Raph to give us our own dorm rooms next year, right next to each other.”

I smiled. “Really? You’d stay in the lame dorms with me, even though everyone else will be getting apartments?”

Shea nodded. “What can I say? I’m just that good of a friend.”

I laughed. She really was and I told her so.

After a nod, she leaned in closer. “Did you hear that Fallen Academy will only be open a few more years? After that, all of the children left will be human.”

Her declaration shocked the crap out of me. I quickly did the math and realized she was right. I was five when the war started, so five years after entering the academy, the last angel gifted or demon blessed teen would have their Awakening ceremony and then…

“What are they going to do with the school?” I’d completely stopped dancing by that point, enthralled with the conversation.

Shea looked left and right, as if she was about to reveal some big secret. “I heard Raphael was going to start a demon hunter academy. Training humans.”

Whoa.

Humans? I mean, no offense to humans but they were… weak little humans. It would be a waste to just have the school sit there, though, and I was sure we’d still need soldiers for the army.

I nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Shea was about to respond when the shrill of the demon alarm went off.

The music skidded to a halt and my entire body froze.

My best friend’s eyes widened. “Is that…?” she asked with a shaky voice.

“Brielle!” Lincoln shouted from across the room.

He was looking not at me but behind me, horror marring his face. I knew then, without a shadow of a doubt, that the Dark Prince was standing behind me, probably with his horde of demons. He wouldn’t stop coming for me, I knew that now.

I spun on my heels and faced him. Standing in an immaculate suit—not a dark hair out of place—was Lucifer in all his evil glory. His inky black wings were stretched out behind him, and just as I thought, he had an assortment of Hellhounds, Yew demons, an Abrus, Brimstone, and three or four nauseating Larkspur demons splayed out beside him. Behind him spun a swirling portal right to Hell—I could smell the sulfur from where I stood.

“Brielle, my darling.” Lucifer stepped forward and I moved away from Shea, snapping my wings out to cover her and everyone I loved behind me. Lincoln, Shea, Noah, Chloe, Luke—nearly every person I loved in this world was in the room.

Sera flared to life at my hip, nearly burning my leg.

‘You have no idea what I’m capable of,’ she told me menacingly.

Holy shit.

‘Well, now would be a good time to show me. All of these people could be hurt because of me.’

Sera pulsed as I took her in my hand. ‘The greatest power on Earth is love,’ she said, and then my arm raised out before me as the demon horde advanced, and a firewall of light shot from Sera’s blade, spreading out like an ocean wave.

I had to dig my heels into the wood floors to keep from sliding backward with the powerful thrust that came from her blade. The Celestial light rose like a tidal wave, completely saturating the Dark Prince and his demons. Hissing and screams rang out as the light washed over them. When it passed, Lucifer was standing in a protective black bubble while the rest of his demons were charred to a crisp.

Holy. Freaking. Shit.

Sera had been holding out on me, but it hadn’t been enough, Lucifer was still standing.

Lincoln stepped in front of me suddenly, sword raised. “Back to Hell with you!” he roared, then started to run at the Prince of Darkness. Noah, Blake, and Darren were right behind him.

Idiots!

“Lincoln, no!” The words barely left my mouth when the room exploded.

Lucifer clapped his hands together and then thrust them forward, shooting a million tiny shards of black magic into every single person standing, including me.

It felt like a dozen tiny arrows had sliced through my body.

I fell backward, trying to dodge the black glasslike shards, and that’s when Lucifer really brought out the big guns. He lifted his sword into the air, a red fire erupting along the blade, then slammed it down into the hardwood floors, causing an earthquake to split the room into four different pieces. Shea had to jump to avoid falling into the abyss. I saw Lincoln and Noah dive to try and get on the cracked piece that the Dark Prince stood on but they couldn’t, their wings banded to their backs with dark magic.

Oh God.

‘Don’t panic,’ Sera attempted to calm me.

By the time the room had stopped shaking, Lucifer and I were on the same piece of flooring, only ten feet from each other, with the portal spinning behind him. He snapped his fingers and I started to be pulled in his direction against my will.

‘Okay, let’s panic,’ Sera agreed.

“No!” Lincoln roared. His wings snapped out, pushing against the black bands that bound his arms, the sound of absolute agony ripping from his voice.

They’re broken! He’s trying to pull out broken wings!

I tried to pull my arms up, to aim Sera at the Devil but I couldn’t move, completely immobilized. It was at that moment that I realized Lucifer had been toying with me before, taunting me, and waiting for me to be trained so he could grab me when he wanted to. He could have easily taken me that first night in the gauntlet, but he let me stay. Let me fall in love with all of these people, train to be a badass killer, and for what?

I pumped my wings, trying to fight against the strong pull of his lure. Shea threw purple spell after purple spell, but they all crashed into his dark shield, breaking up and causing no harm.

“A young girl with black wings will go into the underworld and kill Lucifer, ending the war,” the Dark Prince sneered, and my stomach dropped.

The prophecy.

Did he believe it?

“I can’t very well have that, can I?” he asked.

He was going to kill me.

“Brielle!” Lincoln called out one final time, and I spun my head around to see him.

He jumped.

Bless his heart, he jumped the twenty feet, with broken wings and black bands around his upper arms. My heart lurched in my throat. If I had to watch him plummet to his death, I wouldn’t survive.

He sailed across the cavern, but he wasn’t going to make it. It was short.

Oh God.

With a cry, he wiggled his arm out of the restricting band and at the last second caught the lip of the cavernous surface, barely holding himself up by the fingertips.

I’d reached him now, the Devil, the shit-for-brains asshole who’d ruined my life.

“Lincoln!” I shouted behind me, tears falling down my face. I could no longer see him, didn’t know if he was still hanging on.

Lucifer spun me around, holding me tightly to his body, and placed the tip of his sword at my neck. My arms, my legs, everything was cement. I couldn’t move, could barely even breathe.

“Say goodbye, Brielle,” he taunted as we walked backward, my feet dragging along the top of the wood floors, as I fought my invisible restraints. Sera was pulsing with power but nothing was hurting him.

He was invincible.

This is it. He’s going to kill me. I didn’t want to go out like that, be remembered like that.

I looked right into Lincoln’s eyes as he struggled to climb up over the edge.

“I love you,” I told him, then met Shea’s, Luke’s, and Chloe’s gazes as well. “I love you all.”

In that moment, Lincoln burst up from the cavern with a roar and started running at us full throttle. Only one arm was freed and so he wasn’t able to do anything, not even hold a blade.

“I don’t think so, lover boy,” Lucifer trilled, then pulled the blade hard against my neck.

Pain sliced along my skin as warm blood trickled down my shirt.

Lincoln’s grief-stricken face was the last thing I saw before the portal closed, and everything went black.

* * *

Suddenly, a cool hand clamped around my neck, and lights flared to life inside of the dark hell cave.

My legs felt weak, and my head swam with the blood loss… I was totally dying.

But that hand around my neck was colder and colder by the minute, and when I smelled the cinnamon and oil, that distinct smell of demon healer magic I gasped a little. The Dark Prince swam into view, plucking Sera from me, and depositing her in a black charcoal type of box with symbols on it.

‘Brielle!’ She shouted.

I couldn’t answer her, I was trying to figure out how I wasn’t dead.

“Oh, Calm down. I didn’t cut you deep enough to kill you.” Lucifer admonished.

I was lowered to the ground by cool firm hands and came face to face with a nubby horned healer demon. They were stark white, in every aspect, skin, hair and eyes and very very rare. It seemed Lucifer didn’t want to create too many of them.

As that cinnamon smell swirled around me, and the magic worked its way into my neck, I found myself wondering why. Why would he do this? Fake my death?

“Why?” I croaked.

Lucifer grinned, he was devastatingly handsome which sickened me.

Reaching out, he booped my nose with a sharp fingernail. “Better to give them closure little archdemon. You’re never going to see them again.”

Oh God.

‘Brielle! What’s happening?’ Sera begged.

The box he’d put her in had somehow dulled her powers. She couldn’t see or sense things.

‘We’re stuck in hell. Forever. And all my friends think I’m dead.’

* * *

Stay tuned for the next installment, Fallen Academy: Year Three, estimated January 1^st, 2019 (or before).

Fallen Academy: Year Four (the final installment), estimated February 1^st, 2019 (or before).