‘You have no idea how psycho I can go if I need to,’ Sera told me.

I couldn’t help it as I burst out laughing in the car, which earned me a lot of stares.

‘I love you, Sera. I have no idea how you got your personality, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.’

‘I’m just stating the facts. I won’t let us lose. Mom is coming home tonight.’

Mom. Just like that, Sera became my sister.

“Hey there, bud, how you doing?” Shea whispered to her circular blades. Then she put her ear up to them and laughed uncontrollably. “Oh stop it, you’re so funny!”

I groaned and reached back, smacking her knee.

“Shut up. Don’t be jealous,” I scolded her.

Shea grinned. “Right, I’m so jealous that you look like a lunatic half the time, talking to your knife.”

I knew she was messing with me, and it got me to smile. “Yeah, well, my lunatic ass is going to save you from getting killed tonight.” Sera pulsed her light a few times for good measure.

Shea chuckled.

“We’re here,” Lincoln announced, and holy shit, he was right. We were pulling down the alley that led to Tainted Academy. There were cars all over the place, even pulled up on the sidewalk, and people were walking in big groups to the gates.

There were demons everywhere.

Lincoln winced, his breath hitching as we pulled up to the gate.

“You okay?” I reached out to touch his arm.

He nodded. “So many demons in such a small area. It… hurts. But I’ll be fine.”

The guards at the gate were different this time. They just glanced at our fighter cards and waved us through.

“Special parking in front,” the guard barked, then smacked the side of the car door.

Lincoln drove to the front lot, where there was indeed special parking for the participants. So special, in fact, that the spots were reserved with our names on them. Our sign read “Fallen Academy douchebags.”

“I hate this place,” Shea growled.

“Me too. We’re almost out of here. For good,” I told her.

We wasted no time, parking and rushing through the crowds to get inside. I wanted time to warm up, learn all the rules, and scope the competitors.

After signing in, we were told to go in back to the competitors’ lounge, and that we’d have to leave our friends.

The auditorium was packed. There was a circular cage in the middle about twenty feet in diameter, with people crammed around it as far as the eye could see. Secondary seating was up in the bleachers on a second level.

Lincoln grasped my hand. “You got this,” he murmured and kissed me, his lips lingering just long enough to let me know he was worried that I might not have this.

“I’ll be fine,” I told him.

He nodded. “If not, have Shea create a portal back to school and jump through it. I’ll get Chloe and Luke out.”

And there it was. I knew he’d have a backup plan just in case. But if I did that, my mom was as good as gone. Grim would be livid, and there’d be more of a hunt for me than there already was.

I just nodded.

After giving Chloe and Luke a quick hug, Shea and I made our way to the back room. Two guards stood before it, requesting our IDs, and then we were in.

The moment we stepped into the crowded room, all eyes turned and silence descended upon the crowd. I recognized a few faces, and it was like a punch to the gut. I was going to have to fight some of my old friends.

“Shea, dear, we’ve missed you,” a girl with green hair cooed.

“Fuck off,” Shea spat and pulled out her blades.

Whoa. Shea was ready to throw down. That was good, but we needed to not get jumped before our first match.

I placed a hand on Shea’s arm, pulling her to the corner of the room where I saw two familiar faces—Ben and Stephanie. I hadn’t seen them since the Awakening, but I was hoping I could still count them as allies. At least until the fighting started.

They looked up at us and gave a half smile. My eyes flicked to the insignia on their stark white jumpsuits. Steph was a Necro like my mom, and Ben was a Nightblood.

“Hey,” Stephanie whispered, then walked a bit farther away until we were at the back of the room, leaning against the exit door.

“Can’t really be seen making friends with you guys,” she murmured, looking out onto the crowd.

Oh damn.

“I get it.” I leaned against the door and started to scan the crowd.

Not gonna lie, everyone looked freaking vicious. They were tatted up, weaponed up, and wore psychotic murderer expressions.

Stephanie’s lips didn’t move, but I still heard her voice in a low whisper. “They’ve got plans for you girls. There’s no way they’ll let Fallen Academy students win.”

Shea raised one eyebrow. “What kind of plans?”

Stephanie shrugged, looking casually out onto the crowd of kids who were starting to run warm-up drills, and seemed to have lost interest in us—for the time being. “Just shady shit, like extra stashed weapons and spells the teachers made.”

Freaking fabulous.

“Well, we’re winning. We’re doing this to get my mom out,” I explained to her.

For the first time, she faced me. I could see Tainted Academy had been hard on her. Her once perfect nose looked like it’d been broken multiple times, and the red crescent moon tattoo on her forehead was a reminder of what she was, and what she would always be.

“I heard. My cousin lives in your mom’s building. If we go up against each other, we’ll make it look real, but we’ll submit,” she told me.

Ben, who stood tall next to her, nodded his agreement. “If it gets someone out of this hellhole, then I’m down. You guys have always been cool,” he stated.

Emotion tightened my throat. I hadn’t been expecting that. “Thanks, guys.” I wanted to hug them, cry, show how much their words meant to me, but I couldn’t. Not there.

She gave a weak smile. “We should go work the room. See ya.”

With her out of sight, I stared at Shea. “Okay, that was seriously cool of them. I was—”

The door popped open behind me, and a firm grip landed on my arm, pulling me backward out of the room, and into a dark hallway.

I went to scream, but a hand clamped around my mouth.

Shea burst into the dark hallway after me, purple magic ready, but when she saw who held me she stopped. “James?”

The hand fell away from my mouth. “Go back inside, Shea. I just need to talk to Brielle alone for a minute, and no one can know I did,” he whispered.

Shea looked at him for another second and I nodded. “It’s okay,” I told her.

Reluctantly, my bestie slipped back into the room.

Once the door closed behind her, I spun around.

I’d known James would be declared a Sighted at his Awakening, but seeing him wearing the white Tainted Academy uniform with the purple third eye emblem on his chest still shocked me. Almost two years at Fallen Academy and I hadn’t met one. They did special classes, and were kept away from the students because it was too much energy or something. Not to mention they were extremely rare and prized individuals.

“James,” I breathed.

He stared at his hands. “My gift is a curse.”

Frowning, I stepped closer. “What? Are you okay?”

He swallowed hard. “Yes. But you aren’t. You won’t be.”

My stomach dropped.

“Am I going to lose tonight?” I really had thought I’d win this fight, and come back with my mom. If he told me otherwise, I would be devastated.

He waved his hand. “I’m not talking about tonight. Brielle, Lucifer wants you.”

That statement sent chills crawling up my back and down my arms.

“I know.” I peeled open my shirt and showed him my chest tattoo.

He shook his head. “No. You know the vision every Sighted at Fallen Academy gets, that you’ll go into the underworld and kill him? It’s not the only vision.”

My eyes widened. He knows about that? “What do you mean?”

James sighed. “Every Sighted here sees something different. I… I saw you training with him. Becoming like him. Living down there with him.” He pointed to the ground, to Hell.

Bile rose in my throat.

No.

“I would never do that!” I whisper-screamed.

He looked sad. “I’ve seen it. He trains you. You… create demons with him. Down there.”

I was going to throw up. It was absolute lies. I crossed my arms. “James, there’s no freaking way. Your vision is wrong!”

He shrugged. “I just wanted to warn you. There is another side, another vision, and that’s the one Lucifer believes in.”

I softened, knowing he was only trying to help. “Thank you. You’re a good friend.”

He looked off into the distance. “Either way, you’ll change the world, Bri. I just haven’t decided if for better or worse.”

Not what I wanted to hear. That sick feeling was back.

Then he turned and started to walk away.

“Wait! Will I get my mom out of here tonight?”

I mean, after dropping all that shit on me, the least he could do would be to give me some good news.

“If I tell you, it changes the future,” he called back. Turning to face me, he glanced at my necklace, the one that pushed the darkness back so I could use my light gifts. “Take the necklace off for tonight. It’ll only hinder you.”

Then he was gone.

Mother eff.

I felt a panic attack at the edges of my mind. Me training with Lucifer and living in Hell? Was James completely mad? I would never do that. There was no situation I could think of that would ever make that happen. Not even with a gun to my head.

The door popped open then and Shea urged me inside.

“We’ve been paired for our first fight,” she told me, slightly paler than her usual color.

I’d have to push this to the back of my mind—way back—and focus on my mom and Mikey. She was all we had left, and I was bringing her home tonight.