“Now, throw magic at him with your other hand, and pull up your energy shield. You must be able to do things simultaneously to even think about defeating Lucifer,” he explained.

What? I could barely process his words, too focused on meeting each strike of Uriel’s sword with my own. I could easily lose an arm in this “sparring” session.

Trying to pull attention away from my sword fight, I allowed a ball of my mixed silvery magic to form in my hand. Uriel brought his non-wielding hand up, and that gust of wind came at me again, breaking my ball apart in a second.

“Arghhh!” I screamed in frustration and snapped out with a kick, planted squarely at his chest. It was enough to knock him backward and give me the advantage I needed. Calling up another ball, I chucked it before he had the chance to break it apart with his wind magic, or whatever the heck that was. The mixed energy wrapped around the lower part of his face and started to squeeze off his air supply.

“Woo-hoo!” Emberly and Shea both screamed at the same time.

There was surprise in his eyes, and then something else. Pride, maybe? The shimmery magic around his face suddenly ballooned as if he were blowing a bubble and then popped. Shards of the magic flew in every direction before disintegrating.

Uriel stood, relaxed, and lowered his sword. “If you could have pulled up your shield and taken your blade to my neck while I was incapacitated, that might have given you the edge you needed,” he observed.

Wondering if God was watching me kick his beloved angels’ asses, and putting me on the naughty list, I simply nodded.

“She needs to work on multitasking,” Gabriel agreed.

I spun around, unsure if training was over, or if another one of them was going to come at me.

Raphael stepped forward. “Brielle, call up your shield.”

I gulped.

Pulling my sword up, I stood with my feet planted shoulder-width apart, and started to pull my energy outward in a dome-like barrier.

Raphael stepped closer, inspecting the shield. “No. Make it stronger.”

What? I groaned, pulling another layer over the shield, straining to reach for my power deep inside of me.

Raphael made a fist and punched the shield dead-on, and it wobbled, shaking with the force of his hit, but it held.

“Stronger! Like steel!” he shouted. “You are a healer. You have endless amounts of energy. Find the weak parts of the shield and strengthen it until nothing can defeat it.”

Something about his words set off a light bulb in my head.

Healer.

I was a healer. Like him.

If the shield were a sick patient, I would send energy to the frail spots, and that’s exactly what I did now. I focused on the smallest nano-cells of my energy protection, funneling more and more into it, until it was a thick clear dome that looked like it was made of glass.

Raphael nodded, and waved over the other archangels. “Now, I want you to throw your energy balls at us, Brielle.”

A ‘what the hell did you just say’ expression took over my face. “I can’t. I’m trapped in here now,” I told him, my voice muffled through the fortified barrier I’d just created.

“That’s not true!” Emberly piped up from the sideline. “When she protected us from the demon attack, she thinned part of her shield to allow me to come inside.”

I shot her a look.

Traitor.

Raphael grinned. “Come on. Give it a try.”

Exhaling in frustration, I tried to hold my shield strong while also thinning part of it, just enough to fit a baseball-sized black energy ball through it. Instead of what I’d intended, the entire thing weakened.

Walking closer, Michael stuck his metal-booted foot out, kicking my barrier, and sending the whole thing crumbling down instantly. I looked up at him in frustration, and he smiled. “Now you know what you need to work on.”

Yeah. Everything.

Lincoln stepped onto the gymnasium floor and bowed his head slightly. “Thank you, guys, so much. I really appreciate it. We can run drills with her now, working on the shield and multitasking.”

They nodded and shook his hand one at a time, waving goodbye to me before disappearing out the doors for their poker game, like they hadn’t just whooped my ass.

Emberly strode over with Mel and bopped on her heels. “You totally dented my dad’s beloved armor. He’s going to complain to my mom about that one for weeks.”

I just chuckled.

“Come on. We have our work cut out for us,” Lincoln called to me.

I was tired just thinking about the days to come.

Lincoln wouldn’t sleep until I was ready.

This was gonna hurt.

Thirteen

The demon appearances on campus were daily now. A single demon would sneak on campus to try to find me, and tell me Lucifer was coming. Lincoln was beyond stressed—he’d lost weight, and wasn’t sleeping well. When I wasn’t in class, I was training with Emberly, or Lincoln and Noah, or Shea, or whatever Lincoln told me to do. I was an energy shield-making machine, now able to thin certain parts to allow me to throw balls of magic through it at my assailant. I felt ready, more than ready to go into Hell, kill Lucy, and end this entire war. I’d get Sera, free Raksha, and thwart his plan to storm the gates of Heaven. The demons in the war zone were doubling every day now, and pretty soon our forces wouldn’t be able to hold them back. Angel City would fall, unless I could put a stop to it.

“Absolutely, fucking not!” Lincoln roared at the dinner table in our small trailer.

His chicken sat untouched, and I feared he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown or something.

“Just hear me out.” I reached out and clasped his hand, while Lincoln took deep calming breaths through his nose. “You’ve heard the prophecy. You told me yourself that you think I’m meant to fulfill it.” I kept my voice quiet and measured.

“That was before I fell madly in love with you! Now I don’t care about some stupid prophecy. I just want you safe,” he bellowed.

“I won’t be safe, not in the long run. Eventually Angel City will fall, and we’ll all succumb to the demons’ power, to Lucifer’s wrath. If I could just take a team of Fallen Army soldiers down to Hell—”

“No way. You’re never going back down there.” His breathing was ragged, and I knew he was on the verge of a panic attack, having suffered many of them myself in the past.

I yanked my hand away from his and crossed my arms. “Then how are we going to fix this? The world is ending, Lincoln! Do you want all those lives on your conscience, because I sure don’t? I can go down there, and I can fix this. I know what his building looks like, and I know how to fight him. I have to do something.” There was mild hysteria in my voice by the end of my rant, and Lincoln frowned.

All of Angel City was on a curfew now. It just wasn’t the same happy place it used to be months ago.

We were silent for a long few moments, just staring at each other, until finally he placed his head in his hands. “I want to be selfish,” he admitted through tight lips. “I want to keep you safe.”

My heart broke then, because if the roles were reversed, I would want the same thing. “I know, but I’m the only Celestial who can go down there. The only one with powers that can hurt him. This is my destiny, Lincoln.”