Before I could get too lost in my thoughts, we’d reached the top of our little underground lair. I peered out the familiar windows, the ones I saw every morning on my walk to the red door with Raksha. Only, this time there was a crowd gathered outside, and more smoke than usual billowed on the horizon.

We walked past the red door for the first time in forever, and moved toward two giant steel exit doors instead.

Oh my God. I was going outside after weeks down here. Maybe months—I’d lost track.

The second the warm smoke-filled breeze hit my skin, I took in a deep breath. It may have been sulfuric and smoky, but it was fresh air. Well, as fresh as air got in Hell.

“Ah, we’re all here,” Lucifer cooed.

The Devil was standing out in the dusty courtyard, wings extended, hands clasped before him, and grinning wide. The training crew flanked him, a mixture of about a hundred demons and demon gifted.

The Prince of Darkness paced the ground. “If you are not the best of the best, you do not deserve a spot beside me in the times to come.”

His little freak horde screamed their excitement, while Raksha and I stayed mute.

“Today will test your rank, and I will dispose of the weak, allowing room for the truly great to come in,” he finished. Everyone was silent by that point.

I leaned in to Raksha. “What is this, like a culling?” I whispered.

Lucifer must’ve heard me because he replied. “Yes, it is.”

Everyone tensed in that moment. I did a quick scan of those around me to see the others all had weapons. Except for me.

“To be fair, I’ll go first,” Lucifer trilled. “And I pick Brielle as my opponent.”

Rat bastard.

I fisted my hands, and without more than a thought, my wings popped out of my body. They were black as night but for the very tips, which were an ashy white. Each time I used my light magic in training, they grew whiter again, albeit marginally.

“No weapon for her?” Raksha mused. Her tone implied that she was impressed, but I could see the concern in her eyes.

“I don’t think she needs one” came his curt answer.

I was about to inform him that I did, in fact, need a weapon when, out of nowhere, he threw a black magic lasso, wrapping it around my neck. I yelped as it cinched tightly, cutting off my air supply.

‘White whip!’ Sera screamed urgently, as I was dragged forward on my tiptoes, wings flapping furiously behind me.

I hadn’t tried to conjure a whip yet while here for fear it would either be a dark magical one, or a full-on Celestial orb that would knock me out for a day in a sleep coma. But with my oxygen supply running low and those black eyes gleaming in sadistic satisfaction, I had no choice but to try.

My Celestial magic flared to life inside of me, and I decided right then and there that I would bring Lucifer to his knees without calling on my dark magic. Each time I brought my light magic to the forefront, I felt that dark rage slowly shrink. I wished it would just die, because I wanted nothing to do with it anymore. It was my only link to him, the evil man before me.

With a strangled grunt I thrust my palms out, and flung two buttery shimmering cords from my hands that wrapped around the Dark Prince’s black lasso rope. The golden cords twisted around the inky black whip, relieving some of the pressure from my neck.

The people around me gasped, but Lucy was grinning. That sick bastard liked seeing me all riled up and fighting. I pulled tighter on my magic and the Dark Prince jerked forward a little. Reaching out, he touched one of my golden cords, and it started to turn a murky brown.

“Raphael’s magic. I remember it well.”

Hearing him speak that name in such an ungrateful tone killed me. How dare he casually refer to my dearest mentor and friend like that? Then the shock set in that I was using Raphael’s magic. I still couldn’t tell the difference except for maybe the color.

‘Kick him in the balls!’ Sera chimed in, and I grinned.

With a scream, I flapped my wings and lunged forward. The black ropes around my neck suddenly fell away, and I gasped for a full breath, my throat burning with the effort. I barely had time to get one in, when a dark blob sailed across the space and slapped against my stomach out of nowhere. My breath flew from my throat as the wind was knocked out of me, pain clutching at my abdomen.

Asshole!

Lucifer was smiling, flying backward with ease to get away from my frantic and angry attack.

It was then that Lincoln’s training washed over me. Almost two years of coaching me to be a badass, and here I was failing miserably.

Not anymore.

I spun midair, and started to fly away from the prince, toward the open sky. As I did, I placed my hands onto my stomach, and let my healing light work on whatever that dark blob had been.

“Where do you think you’re going!” he roared, and I grinned at the unhinged anger in his voice.

He thought I was fleeing.

If I knew where the hell I was and how to get out of here, I might. If I knew he wouldn’t hurt Shea or Lincoln if I left, then I really might. Instead, I took a calming breath and let the magic within me bubble to the surface. I had the powers of four archangels running through my veins—four. In times like this, I needed to remember that.

When I heard his wings flap behind me, I spun, thrusting outward with everything I had. Blue light shot from my mouth and palms, wrapping around the Dark Prince’s face. He’d been caught completely unaware. A scream of shock left his lips, but it was muffled by the light. Not letting up, I flung myself at him and my boot connected with his throat, sending him tumbling to the ground.

He hit the hard-packed dirt with a thud, and everyone gasped in shock. The blue glowing energy was still wrapped around his face, and I was pretty sure he couldn’t breathe. Did he need oxygen to stay alive? Was he a living being? I had no freaking idea.

I was flying toward him, ready to inflict more damage, when his arms came up and he thrust his palms outward, stopping me in midair. My body jolted to a stop as an unseen force held me there suspended.

‘I hate his stupid puppet thing!’ Sera groaned.

I flapped madly in the air, pumping my wings, but couldn’t move.

‘You and me both,’ I informed my blade.

‘Throw light magic at it. See what happens.’

The blue stuff I’d thrown at his face was dissolving. I needed to act quickly, or risk losing the fight, and face his wrath.

In all honesty, I wanted to kill him. Right here and now.

The electric buzzing feeling I had when I reached for my magic started up, and I flowed with it, pulling it gently into my limbs, up through my torso, and out my arms. With a grunt, I threw a kaleidoscope of magic straight forward at the invisible wall holding me.

Then something shattered, followed by a snapping sound ringing throughout the space, and there were more gasps. I felt whatever was holding me fall away and suddenly my body was plummeting, directly on top of the Devil himself.

Two pumps of my wings slowed my descent.

Never give up. Don’t even blink, just act fast. Lincoln’s words of training rang true now.

The blue magic had faded, and I was face-to-face with a livid Prince of Darkness. I didn’t think, I just reacted. White light exploded out of me as I landed on Lucifer. Straddling him and pinning him to the ground with my legs, I wrapped my hands tightly around his throat, my chest heaving as the hatred boiled inside of me.

I hated this man. He’d taken everything from me, and now I was going to kill him while his little demon bitches watched.

“Brielle!” Raksha shouted. Her voice held partial scorn and partial wonder.

Could I actually kill him?

Just as I thought it, black smoke began to swirl around me while it rose off his body, and clouded my face, making it so I couldn’t see. Then that invisible force slammed into me again, and I went flying. It felt like a truck had hit me, and I heard a few of my ribs snap. The pain exploded in that area of my body. I was picked up into the air once again, then slammed to the ground and pinned there, unable to move. When the smoke disappeared, a disheveled-looking Lucifer was standing over me with a terrifying look on his face.

He wanted me dead.

The facial expression was gone in an instant, and he pasted on a plastic smile, clapping as he turned to his minions. “Haven’t I taught her well?”

Everyone clapped nervously, even the stoic Abrus demons.

I went to stand and found I couldn’t.

“Let me help you with that,” he cooed, then lifted his fingers, causing my body to lurch into the air, jarring my ribs, and sending a fresh wave of pain through it.

I cried out as the hot pain sliced into my abdomen.

He walked forward with me in his control, my body floating back toward the double doors in mid-air. Raksha ran alongside me.

When we were out of earshot, he met Raksha’s gaze. “Put her back on the medication. A full dose.”

“No! Please,” I begged. I wouldn’t be able to talk to Sera, and I’d be all weak and sleepy again.

Reaching out, he smacked me across the face. “When you learn who is in control and mind your manners, you can go off them again.”

Then he released me, and I fell hard onto the floor. A fresh wave of pain ignited throughout my whole body, and I struggled to catch my breath through it all.

Raksha hooked me under the arm harshly, and hauled me up, dragging me inside. The second the door slammed behind me, she grabbed me firmly under the chin, forcing me to look at her.

Something was alive in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“You stupid girl,” she whispered in awe. Peering over her shoulder, to make sure we were alone, she then faced me once more. “That was amazing.”

I grinned. I was injured, going back on meds, and had probably just lost his trust, but I’d just kicked Lucifer in the throat in front of all of his friends.

Totally worth it.

Chapter Nine

That night, no amount of begging would convince Raksha to give me no meds, or even just a half dose. She lived in constant fear of Lucy, and wouldn’t disobey him.

That being said, she was softer to me. She definitely hated the Dark Prince, and being down here. She’d even admired the ass-whooping I’d laid on him. After giving me the drugs as he asked of her, she’d stayed with me, patting my back softly until I fell asleep. Like a mother would her child.