The next day, we set out to register for Fight Night. After getting past the border with our passes, Shea instructed Lincoln on how to get to Tainted Academy. The longer we drove, the more Noah and Lincoln shifted in their seats, looking uncomfortable.

“How come Shea and I don’t feel like shit when we’re here but you do?” I asked Lincoln.

He gave me a side glance. “Shea doesn’t feel it because only Celestials do, and you don’t because….” He eyed the mark on my chest.

Ah. Interesting. Because I wasn’t a full-fledged Celestial, I was a Lucifer hybrid.

Ugh. Sorry I asked.

“Left down this alley,” Shea added, leaning forward.

We careened between two brick buildings and down a skinny alleyway. When we reached the end, there was a black wrought-iron gate guarded by a demon slave who looked like a WWE wrestler. He was clutching a sleek black gun in his oversized left hand.

Lincoln rolled down the window and the guard glared at him, nostrils flaring.

“What are you doing here?” he spat.

Lincoln handed him his phone, which had the barcode showing we were approved to be in Demon City. “We’re here to enroll in Fight Night,” Lincoln told him.

The guard glanced at it and shrugged. “Says you can be in Demon City. Doesn’t say I have to let you in Tainted Academy.”

Dammit.

I was about to speak when Shea rolled down her window, directly behind Lincoln. The guard snapped his eyes in her direction.

“What’s the matter, sugar tits? Afraid you’ll lose to a couple Fallen Academy kids?” Shea questioned.

He glared at her, his eyebrows drawing together to form one bushy scowl. “You the one entering?”

“Me and my bestie,” Shea answered with a nod, waving her thumb towards me. “Gonna wipe the floor with these Tainted Academy kids.”

His glare turned to a grin and then a full-blown laugh. Reaching down, he pulled out his walkie-talkie. “I need an escort for some Fallen Academy douchebags. Keep your eye on the dark-haired one. He’s one of the leaders of the Fallen Army.”

He looked at Lincoln and winked, then slapped the hood of the car.

We drove on through, my man at the wheel, scowling.

Noah turned to Shea. “How did you know that would work?”

She smiled, shaking her head. “Please. Men are run by two things: their dick and their ego. Dick, ego, dick, ego—”

Noah waved a hand in her face, shutting her up. “Got it.”

I chuckled and looked over at Lincoln, who was grimacing behind the steering wheel. “How did he know you?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “I’ve never seen that guy before in my life.”

Noah leaned forward, popping his head between us. “Yeah, that was weird. We should tell Raph.”

Lincoln just nodded and pulled into a parking spot near the entrance, where two large men were standing with automatic rifles.

“Shit, man, they’re packing here. This is a school, right?” Lincoln leaned back to glance at Shea.

A dark look crossed her face and she nodded. “A messed-up school, yeah.”

Now the guys were walking to our car. Lincoln opened the door and stood tall.

“No weapons on campus,” the big brute with black bushy hair, and a red crescent moon tattoo on his forehead warned.

Lincoln was quiet for a whole forty-five seconds before he leaned into the car and whispered, “Noah, you stay here with the weapons. If I text you, drive onto campus and bring me my sword.”

Holy shit, does he think we’re going to have trouble?

Unstrapping his sword, he placed it on the center console.

Noah’s gaze filled with longing while he focused on the campus. It was clear he wanted to see the inside, but he just nodded to Lincoln as Shea and I got out. I wasn’t sure if they were going to check us, and I couldn’t risk Sera getting taken, so I left her on the seat.

As I made my way around the car to stand next to Lincoln, I saw the men looking him over, checking him for weapons.

“What about him?” They pointed to Noah, who had crawled into the front seat.

“My driver isn’t feeling well. He’s going to stay in the car,” Lincoln answered with a straight face.

It was clear Lincoln had been the one to drive us. The dark-haired demon slave scowled at him and then moved on to me. I was wearing pretty tight clothes, but he asked me to lift my shirt and spin around so he could check me for hidden weapons. When I was completing my full spin, he let out a catcall whistle and stared at my abdomen.

Lincoln’s wings snapped out and he stepped forward, no doubt ready to pummel the guy.

My hand shot out and I laid it on his chest. “Let it go,” I murmured.

The demon slave was grinning ear to ear.

“You’re next, sweetheart,” the redhead told Shea.

Shea’s resting bitch face was on as she lifted her shirt and did a spin.

“So, you girls think you can win in a fight against our best?” He looked Shea and me up and down.

Screw this guy. With little more than a thought, my wings snapped out, the tips now touching Lincoln’s.

Their eyes widened at my black wings, and they seemed to just now notice the Prince of Darkness’s tattoo on my chest.

Shea stepped forward. “You just show us where to sign up, sugar. That money is ours.” She was the best at sweet-talking a guy down from a fight.

He grinned. “We’ll see about that.”

Lincoln was like an animal poised to attack. His entire body was tense and rigid, unmoving even to breathe. I knew if those guys even reached for a weapon, he’d grab Shea and me and fly us to Angel City.

The guys took one last look at Lincoln, rolled their eyes, and started walking to the entrance.

I stepped toward my man, slipping my hand into his, and tugged for him to follow. We needed to register for the fight or I couldn’t save my mom.

Lincoln waited until our security detail was a good twenty feet ahead so they couldn’t hear when he started talking shit.

“He looked at you like a piece of meat. I want to cut his eyes out,” he growled.

My eyebrows hit my hairline. “Damn, who’s the dark one now?”

“I told you this school was messed up. They’ll probably let us sign up, and then as we’re leaving, they’ll jump us or some shit,” Shea whispered.

Lincoln scoffed. “I’d like to see them try.”

Shea and I shared a look. They had semiautomatic rifles. We were weaponless, and Lincoln wasn’t looking so hot, sweating and breathing heavy. If they jumped us, we were getting our asses kicked for sure.

We entered the quad, and I could see right away that the buildings had fallen into disrepair. They were all cracked brick and corrugated metal of different colors, with two large buildings off to the left and a smaller strip of classrooms to the right. The campus must have been an old middle school or something. It was nothing grand like Fallen Academy.

Our guards had walked through the small atrium, and were now standing before an open classroom door.

As we approached, Lincoln stepped in front of me and walked up to the door, peering in. The guys had to step out of the way to avoid his wings. Lincoln must have been satisfied with what he saw because he entered the room, his wings folding back to get through the door.

The guards scowled down at us as we followed him inside, Shea in front of me as I tucked my own wings back to fit.

My eyes fell to my watch. We were only permitted to be here one hour. My gut told me if we overstayed our welcome, they had every right to do something about it. Now that Lincoln had moved out of the way, I could see a cheap card table had been set up with a hand-drawn poster in front. ‘Fight Night Sign-Ups’ was scrawled across it in red paint that dripped to look like blood.

“I knew it would be you, Shelly.” The girl who’d spoken sat behind the desk with a big hairy guy. She was staring at Shea.

Shea gritted her teeth, casting me a glance.

Damn, I wish I knew mind reading, because I had no idea who this bitch was.

The girl stood. She was tall with bright pink hair, and had the death mark tattoo on her wrist that marked her as a Dark Mage. “When they told me some prissy Fallen Academy kids wanted to sign up for Fight Night, I just knew it would be that bitch Shelly.” She winked.

Shea’s breath was coming out in ragged gasps, and I knew it was taking everything within her to not run over, and smack this girl down.

I stepped forward. “It’s Shea, actually. And I’m Brielle. You might want to write that down so you spell it right on our million-dollar check.”

She looked momentarily shocked at my words, but she smoothly covered it with a laugh and looked at her hairy boyfriend. “Oh my God, they are adorable. I can’t wait to pulverize them.”

At her last words, a blackish green magic rose up from her hands and I froze.

Shea had seemed to find her Zen now, stepping forward and holding out her hand. In it was our entrance money. “So where do we sign?” Shea added, ignoring the sickly looking magic exuding from the girl’s hands.

The magic retreated and the girl crossed her arms, looking at the one hundred-dollar bill in Shea’s hand.

“Oh, hun. That was the Tainted Academy price. If you want to enter, it’s going to be a grand. Each.” She grinned as her boyfriend laughed.

Bitch.

“We don’t have that kind of money!” I shouted. This was all a shit show. They weren’t even going to let us enter. How was I going to get my mom out of here now? We’d trained for nothing!

She shrugged. “Then run along, sweetie. Your boy toy isn’t looking so hot.”

I followed her gaze to Lincoln, who was grimacing, sweat rolling down his neck. I’d forgotten how badly being there affected him.

“Do you take Angel Express?” Lincoln asked and whipped out his credit card.

My eyes went wide, as did Pink Hair’s.

“You really want a beatdown that badly?” she scoffed.

Shea and I nodded, which felt stupid considering what she’d just asked us.

“Fine. It’s your funeral.” Leaning forward, she snatched Lincoln’s card, swiping it into an attachment on the end of her phone. She also had a little printer set up next to a cash box.

“I need to see ID,” the boyfriend growled.

Shea and I stepped forward, pulling out our Angel City IDs, which showed our name, school address, and age.

He swiped them into some machine and it started printing.

My gaze went over to Lincoln, he was signing his credit card receipt. I wanted to tell him not to, that I’d never be able to repay him two grand, but he just looked at me and winked.

Ah, the wink. Sigh. Wink number four. Each one was engraved in my heart. I was a sucker for Lincoln Grey’s winks.

“Brielle Atwater,” the hairy boyfriend said, looking at his girlfriend.

Her eyes narrowed on me, and then she grinned. “Mike’s sister, I presume?”

In that instant, I saw red. If she said one more word about my brother, I was painting this room with her blood.

“Knock it off,” Shea barked at her, snatching our IDs back from the hairy boyfriend.

She was trying to bait me into a fight. I knew that, and still I couldn’t get myself to calm down.

The boyfriend handed us four shiny barcode tickets. “Each fighter gets to bring someone to claim the body,” he stated as I tucked the tickets into my pocket.

“See you on Fight Night,” the girl called with fists clenched.

Shea smirked. “I hope you’re competing.”

Pink Hair nodded, rolling out her wrists. “Luckily my hands have healed from her brother’s face.” She looked at me and smirked.

I‘m going to jail for murder.

My wings snapped out, and with one gust I was airborne, and flying at her. Her face was about to get ripped off.

A sharp pain shot through my right wing, and I yelped as I was flung backward.

Lincoln.

Motherfu—

“She wants this! You’re playing into her hand. Save it,” he whispered.

The searing pain in my wing was throbbing as he kept an iron grip on it. I’d been thrown against his body, and he now had one hand wrapped around my waist as well.

The girl was grinning at me, blackish green magic erupting from her palms once more. She was ready to throw down.

“Let’s go,” Shea snapped.

With another deep cleansing breath, I forced myself to walk away. I would save her ass-whooping for the ring. My eyes remained on hers while I allowed Lincoln to pull me away.

Payback was going to be a bitch.

We were escorted to the car quickly, where Noah sat anxiously behind the wheel. Once we were all inside—Shea and I in the back, with Lincoln up front—Noah started to drive home.

“How’d it go?” he asked. He looked like shit—sweaty, ashen, and he hadn’t winked once the whole time we’d been in Demon City.

“Fine. They’ve enrolled,” Lincoln told him.

“Um, not fine,” I countered, leaning forward. “I can’t believe you spent two grand on that. It’ll take me two years to pay that back.” Or more if I was going to be helping out my mom.

He chuckled, looking down at me. “You’re welcome.”

I groaned. “Well thank you, obviously, but I hope that didn’t break the bank.” I didn’t know his financial situation, but living out of a trailer while the rest of the boys stayed in nice Fallen Army apartments didn’t bode well.

Noah laughed. “Lincoln’s rich. It’s fine.”

Lincoln cut him a glare.

“Oh,” I murmured. “I assumed with the trailer…”

Noah busted out laughing. “I told you that trailer was ghetto.”

Lincoln reached over and socked him in the arm. “I like my trailer.” Then he turned to face me. “I’m not loaded, but my parents left some money behind with the life insurance so… yeah. I don’t mind spending it on you girls.”

Oh my God. He spent his parents’ death money on me. Love exploded in my chest, and I vowed right then and there to one day have Lincoln Grey’s babies.

Shea squeaked out an “aw,” and I smiled.

“Who knew this entire time you were just a pretend asshole?” I stated.

A frown pulled at his lips. “Pretend asshole? Is that a thing?”

Leaning forward, I ran my fingers through his hair, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “It is.”

“I think he’s a real asshole who only has nice moments,” Noah piped up.

Another sock in the arm.

“Oww.”

Shea chuckled. “An asshole and a manwhore go on an adventure in Demon City. Sounds like the beginning of a messed-up children’s book,” she lamented.

Laughter erupted out of me as we reached the gates to Angel City.

Noah stopped the car when we reached traffic and looked over at Lincoln. “Can I be a manwhore if I haven’t touched another woman besides Shea in almost a year?”

Lincoln grinned. “Nope. You can’t.”

They both looked back at Shea, who was glaring, but she just thrust her palm out in a ‘talk to the hand’ move. “Whatever.”

The hard-to-get act was going to crash and burn soon. She needed to claim that shit, or Noah was going to walk.

But we had an Awakening ceremony to attend for my brother, so no sense in trying to fix her life now. That was going to have to wait.