I was the one who would have the happy ending.

“No,” I gritted out viciously.

Black wings snapped out of Lucy’s back and he stepped closer to me, arms rising higher. The veins in his neck were bulging. “You will drop the shield and open the gate this second!” he roared, black smoke not only coming from his ears now, but his mouth too.

Holy mother of nightmares.

‘Tell him to stick it where the sun don’t shine!’ Sera cried in my head, and suddenly her blade glowed with a deep golden light.

The pressure on my skin was increasing, making it hard to breathe. Lucifer was pushing everything he had onto my shield, and it felt like I was holding up a five-hundred-pound weight.

“You can do this, Brielle,” Bernie said behind me, aloud that time.

I risked a glance over my shoulder, my mouth popping open in shock at the line of angels that had come to stand guard at the gate. There must have been a hundred of them, wings all touching so they formed a line. A barrier to protect Heaven. They were all clad in the same armor Michael and Raphael wore, and they looked fiercely at Lucifer, swords raised. One of them, a giant of a man with long dark wavy hair and piercing green eyes, met my gaze and nodded.

I gulped.

No pressure.

“Brielle!” Lucifer screamed, completely coming unhinged.

When I spun to face him, I nearly pissed myself. Black ink was crawling up his skin, slithering around his body like a dozen snakes. His eyes were solid black, and there were oily black veins growing up his neck and swirling around his face. I was about to see the full wrath of the Devil. What he’d shown me before was merely child’s play. I had messed up his little redemption plan, and he. Was. Pissed.

“Eat shit!” I shouted. All I had left was my anger and a huge amount of semi-fake confidence. Best to play that hand until it was taken from me.

At my words, two black pointy shards grew from his palms, and I knew he was going to attempt to shred my protection dome. Instinctively, I began to layer more and more energy into it, making it thicker and stronger just like Raphael taught me. Sera’s golden light even pushed out onto the wall, helping me reinforce it.

‘He might break through it,’ I told my dagger.

Her reply was swift and fierce. ‘Let him. I’ve been ready for this day since he took us.’ Her light pulsed then, like a strobe light, and I felt ready too. If I died defending the gates of Heaven from the Devil, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

‘We would definitely get into Heaven then. Probably be declared a saint by the Catholic church,’ Sera stated.

I suppressed a chuckle. ‘God, I missed you.’

Lucifer exploded with rage in that moment. He came at my shield with his black hand swords and hacked away at it like Edward-freaking-Scissorhands. Pain sliced across my abdomen as if he was cutting into me, but my shield held, and I forced myself not to lose my concentration. It was like the energy barrier was a small part of me, and I could feel a painful sensation through it when it was attacked, but I didn’t seem to be sustaining physical injury.

Lucifer tipped his head back and roared at the sky, causing all of his minions to step back a bit. They were armed, just waiting to carry out his plot, and I was the only thing standing in their way.

The sky behind Lucifer darkened as a storm began to roll in over him.

Oh God. A storm in Heaven? How was it possible he had that power?

‘You are at the in-between. It’s a space that is not Earth but not yet Heaven. Lucifer has more power there than he would inside these gates. Still, he could do untold damage if allowed to enter here,’ Bernie informed me.

Great, as if I needed the reminder.

“Fan out! Prepare to attack!” Lucifer screamed at his demons, never pulling his demonic gaze from mine.

They stumbled to do his bidding, and my eyes went to the one who had her head down in submission, silently waiting to be asked to do something.

Raksha.

‘I say you drop the shield, and let me give his scrotum a piece of my mind,’ Sera suggested.

Opening my mind to my soul weapon, I pushed all of my recent training and thoughts at her. She’d always been my number one battle strategist, and I wanted her to know all I had learned without having to explain it all, because there was no time.

‘Ohhh,’ she cooed. ‘You trained with Michael? How is he? I miss the way he smells.’

‘Can we focus on the Devil for now?’ I asked her, holding the shield as best I could as Lucifer rained down another series of blows, this time causing small cracks to form in the outer layer.

‘Right! Thin a small portion of the shield, like you’ve been practicing, and I’ll shoot a beam of light at his crotch,’ she directed.

Wow. Her grudge with Lucy seemed to be a bit more intense than mine, but I liked her plan. Taking a deep breath, I thinned a small six-inch circle of my shield, right around where his junk was. Did the Devil even have man bits? We were about to find out.

A blinding, concentrated beam of white light shot from the tip of Sera’s blade, slamming straight into the Devil’s junk.

A noise that sounded like a cat being run over by a car, ripped from the Devil’s throat as he stumbled forward and laid both hands on my shield. His furious face was a mere foot from mine, and the way his black eyes bulged was so terrifying it would haunt my dreams forever. Black inky magic poured from his palms, no longer as swords, but now as an oily fluid. It covered my shield slowly, causing all light to be sucked from the space.

My heart flitted wildly in my chest.

I was a grown-ass woman, but I’d be dammed if I wasn’t a little afraid of the pitch dark. Slowly the blackness crawled over my dome, so it became darker and darker inside.

Sera’s golden glow grew lighter to combat the shadows, and my panic eased a little.

‘Get ready, I think he’s going to take the shield down,’ she told me.

I nodded, standing with my feet firmly planted.

“Can’t you help her?” Bernie begged to someone I couldn’t see behind me.

“I’m not permitted to interfere in mortal affairs,” a strong voice answered.

Typical.

“I got this!” I shouted, mostly to myself, because I was now 100 percent certain that the Devil’s black magic was eating away at my shield. My skin was on fire, and I wasn’t going to be able to hold it much longer.

‘Be ready’ Sera repeated.

My wings snapped out, and I assumed a crouching position to jump up to the skies if my shield were to fall. If I could draw him away from the gate, take the fight to another part of the ‘in-between,’ then maybe I could stop this war.

A cracking sound reverberated throughout the space, and black chunks began to fall to the ground as my shield gave way. Light from the outside leaked in, and then Lucifer was standing there, terrifyingly close.

Without missing a beat, I shoved off the ground and aimed for the skies, but a strong hand wrapped around my ankle, and I was yanked to the ground hard. I landed awkwardly, on one knee and with one wing bent backward. Sharp hot pain sliced into my shoulder and kneecap simultaneously, but I kept my grip on Sera. Light flared from the tip of the blade as I went into prison shank mode, slicing out at Lucifer like a crazed lunatic. Sera cut into his wrist, that was still gripping my ankle, and then I managed to stab him in the shoulder as well before he stumbled backward.