“I’m so over Tiffany,” I declared, picking up a bliss donut. “How did you guys pay for these? I know your salary can’t afford a whole box.”

Shea grinned. “Noah got a promotion. He’s a captain now too.”

I chuckled. “So, you celebrated by spending his raise?”

Snatching a green melancholy donut, she nodded. “Pretty much.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Y’all are crazy for being married, and engaged, this young. I’m not even entertaining the idea until I’m thirty. At least.”

Luke nodded. “You go, girl.”

I had missed my tribe, so much that it squeezed my chest to think about it, but something was still missing.

Sera.

“What’s wrong, Bri? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Shea asked, hand at her mouth ready to eat a donut. I hadn’t yet tasted mine.

Not wanting to ruin this moment of normalcy I so craved, I shook my head, and plastered on a fake smile. “Nothing. Did I tell you guys there are other Fallen Academies?”

There were also Legions, the spawn of a demon and a human or even two demons, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to get into that with my friends just yet. Lincoln had encountered one when he’d been looking for me in Demon City, while I was stuck in hell. He’d told me all about them. Technically Emberly was one, being that she was born of a human and a supernatural creature AKA Archangel Michael.

Luke bolted upright on his seat. “What! Like other campuses?”

I had already told Shea and sworn her to secrecy, but Chloe and Luke had no idea.

Chloe sat down, leaning forward. “Tell!”

A grin pulled at my lips. “Okay, so there’s this chick Catia who helped Lincoln while he was in San Francisco.”

Chloe gasped. “He was with another woman while you were apart?”

Waving away her concern, I rolled my eyes. “No. She’s not into guys. They became besties and, like, emotionally supported each other. Anyway, she smuggled out this teenage girl and got her to safety at the Paris Fallen Academy, where she now works as a professor.”

“Paris!” Luke squealed like a tween. “Ohmygod, tell me we can go there.”

Laughter bubbled out of me. “Maybe one day.”

“How many are there? Paris, LA, and…?” Chloe looked enamored.

“There is also New York, Toronto, and Zurich,” I answered, leaning forward, and enjoying the gossip fest a little too much.

Luke gasped. “What! Like… what? I heard New York was the first to fall, that it’s all a shelled-out war zone.”

My ponytail swayed as I shook my head. I’d asked Lincoln about a thousand questions the night he told me about the other Fallen Academy campuses. “It’s smaller, underground, but they still operate to help students who are angel blessed in the area. Gabriel heads New York and Toronto. Uriel heads Paris and Zurich, and Michael tries to help out whenever he isn’t here.”

Luke’s chest heaved up and down as he registered the news, while Chloe looked dumbfounded. “Why don’t they tell us?” Luke asked.

Lincoln had made me promise I would only tell those I trusted with my life, those who were loyal to the Fallen Army. “Because if it was widely known and the demons found out…”

“Oh.” Luke frowned. “But… Paris!”

A grin tugged at my lips. “He said Catia, the girl he knows there, might come visit on a supply run. Maybe you guys can meet her and ask her all about it.”

Reaching out, Luke grasped my arm, gripping it tightly. “Yes! She can teach us French!”

We all laughed at that, and I chose that moment to bite into my bliss donut. I’d had so few of them in my lifetime, that I could count them all on one hand. Yet, one thing always remained the same—Shea was there every time. The second the sugary center of the donut spilled into my mouth, ecstasy bloomed in my gut, causing me to break out in ridiculous laughter.

I rolled over onto Luke’s shoulder, giggling incessantly as he went for his second donut.

“I missed this. I missed you guys,” I confessed as oxytocin, and God knew what else, flooded my system.

The bear shifter reached up and patted my head. “You have no idea how much we missed you. How long we looked for you. How hard it was to let you go.”

A somber feeling settled across the trailer, and Shea snickered. “Luke ate a melancholy donut.”

That caused us all to cackle in laughter, and I’d truly never felt happier, and at home than in that moment. Maybe some of it was a side effect of the fading bliss donut, but most of it was being home with my friends and family.

The night progressed as we talked, laughed, and ate donuts until we all felt sick. After everyone left, Shea and I snuggled up in Lincoln’s and my bed. We lay there, in silence, just staring at each other for a few long moments.

“What are you going to do when he comes for you?” Shea finally spoke, and her voice shook a little, showing her vulnerability. I could see now that she was as terrified as Lincoln that I would get taken again.

Holding her hand, I squeezed. I didn’t want to lie to my best friend.

“I don’t know.”

I was going to try my hardest to resist him… and pray for a miracle.

It was a long time before I could fall asleep, though it might have been the rope tied around my ankle.

Apparently, Shea hadn’t been kidding.

Three

The last few weeks of my third year passed quickly. I was exempt from the testing, which Tiffany bitched about to no end, and was automatically entered into the fourth year. Emberly had gone on a short staycation with her parents, but assured me our lessons would resume over the summer.

It was now the first week of summer vacation, and the entire Fallen Army had been bumped to full-time duty. Even me. Raph was having me train first years who had failed the gauntlet. For the first time in history, he was going to give them a second chance after my summer course. We needed numbers that badly.

Shea was my teaching assistant. Ready to help with any Mage-related issues, as we stood on the field behind the school, to start my first lesson.

I could play this two ways. Mean “drill sergeant teacher” like Lincoln, and tough-love the shit out of them, or be a softy and try to get to know each one individually, helping them where they needed it, while supporting them.

“I’m really sorry you all failed the gauntlet,” I began my speech, having decided to be a nice teacher. The world had enough assholes.

“But you better sack up if you want to survive year two!” Shea roared from her place at my side.

I growled. So much for having a nice first impression. “I got this. No need to bring the heat,” I whispered to my bestie.

She just glared at the poor group of eleven students with a glean in her eye that said, ‘I might kill you.’

“Shea is right,” I continued. “You will need to toughen up. Demons kill the weak.” At my words, one little blonde girl looked like she might faint. “But that’s what I’m here for,” I added.

“Yeah!” Shea shouted. “By the end of this summer course, you will be kicking ass and taking names.”