Fallen Academy: Year Three

by Leia Stone

  Never in a million years did I imagine him not here when I returned.

  “So is Lincoln due back later tonight, then?”

  Special mission. Darren’s words were starting to sink in like bricks on quicksand. Lincoln wasn’t here. He was out there somewhere.

  “I texted Noah. He doesn’t believe me.” Blake showed me his phone, both he and Darren ignoring my question.

  Blake: Brielle is alive! We just found her!

  Noah: Screw you, liar. Sick joke.

  I gave them a small smile, trying to jump back into the life of texts and joking, but really I wanted to bawl my eyes out right there.

  Lincoln isn’t here.

  “Hey, can I use your phone to call Lincoln? I’m sure if he hears my voice he’ll believe it, and come home early.” I reached for Blake’s phone.

  Blake let me grab it but spun around to face me, absolute horror in his gaze.

  “Brielle… I’m so sorry. He’s undercover, so he doesn’t have a phone or anything.”

  When Elodie’s gentle hand rested on my back, I lost it. Tears sprang from my eyes, and I burst into sobs.

  “Mom?” The boy clung fearfully to his mother in the wake of my breakdown, and I knew I had to pull my shit together.

  “I’m okay,” I told him after a moment, wiping the tears from my face. “I just miss my friend, that’s all.”

  He nodded. “I know how that feels. I miss my mommy all the time.”

  I wasn’t sure how it was possible, but my heart broke a little more at his words. “Your mommy is an amazing woman,” I told him, picking up on the fact that he called Elodie ‘Mom’ and Raksha ‘Mommy.’

  Darren parked the car at the edge of the school parking lot, and I saw Noah at the top of the school steps.

  “Can you guys please take my friends to Raphael’s office? I’ll meet you there after I’ve seen Shea and my mom,” I asked the boys.

  They nodded, and Blake reached out to squeeze my hand. “It’s so good to see you, Bri. Seriously. I’m so happy.”

  “You too. Thank you. And call my mom, please,” I added.

  They both nodded, then led Elodie and her son away from the van.

  The second I stepped out of the SUV and started to walk toward the school steps, Noah swayed on his feet, clutching the stair railing. But his shock was short-lived, because after a second, he broke into a run.

  “Bri!” His voice was raw with emotion.

  I burst into tears again and limped toward him. I was injured, covered in black demon blood and totally disgusting, but he didn’t care. He crashed into me, picking me up, and spun me around.

  “Thank you, God!” he screamed, his voice catching with emotion. When he set me down, he pulled back and grabbed my face with both hands. “How?”

  “A healer demon healed my neck. Then after months down there, I broke out,” I explained.

  He pulled me in for a second hug, and then tugged my hand, yanking me toward the quad.

  I started to run with him, knowing I didn’t have to ask. He would take me right to Shea.

  We jogged across campus until we reached the gymnasium. Noah didn’t wait, simply burst through the doors where a battle class was in full effect. The second the doors opened, the entire room spun to look. I saw Tiffany’s mouth drop open, and Mr. Bradstone’s hand flew to his mouth, but Shea, she was the one I wanted to see.

  When my eyes fell on her caramel skin and curly hair, I started to run. The moment she saw me, a wail ripped from her throat. Her hands flew to her face, bawling her eyes out as she fell to her knees. Shea’s back shook with the force of her cries, and the class collectively backed away, giving us room. My heart, already so fragile, broke at my friend’s emotional display.

  I slid to my knees, meeting her right there on the floor.

  “I’m here. I’m alive,” I cried, because I knew she needed to hear it. When my arms went around her, she gasped, as if she didn’t think I was real until that moment.

  “I knew it,” she said between her tears. “I knew you were alive.”

  Pulling her hands from her face, she finally looked at me, really looked at me. And that’s when I noticed the giant diamond ring on her left hand.

  Noah. Sweet Noah.

  That was a conversation for another time. For now we just sat there, crying and holding each other, with Noah smooshing us in a sandwich hug.

  Mr. Bradstone started to lead the students out, giving us privacy when the doors burst open. I peered back to see my mother running inside with Mikey. She was pale and shaking, and Mikey looked in shock as well. I wasn’t sure how much more my heart could take. I was an emotional wreck.

  They crossed the room quickly and joined us on the floor, holding on to Shea, Noah, and me. We were in one big hug chain, and all I could feel was love and acceptance. Everything I went through down there, every dark and awful thing, it was all worth it. There had been times I’d wanted to give up on life, but feeling my family holding me now was one of the happiest moments of my life.

  Shadowed only by the absence of Lincoln.

  Where are you?

  We’d all been sitting there for a few moments, just crying, laughing, and holding on to each other, when I felt two very warm, very familiar hands on my back.

  Raphael.

  I burst from my family’s love cocoon and stood, letting him wrap me in a huge hug. His wings came around to encompass my entire body, and I was enmeshed in the calming, restorative presence of the Archangel of Healing.

  “I did bad stuff down there,” I muttered into his chest between my sobs. Raphael had become like a father figure to me, and I felt so guilty about making that promise to the Devil and leaving Sera down in Hell.

  “Shhh.” His healing voice filtered down to me, soft and melodious. “None of that matters right now.”

  Pulling back, I met his gaze. “Are Elodie and her son in your office? They saved my life. You have to let them stay on campus. It’s the only place that’s safe. Everyone needs to stay on campus. He can’t see us here.” I began to panic. Now that my constant state of fight or flight that I’d lived in the past few months was dying down, I was crashing.

  He rubbed my back. “Whatever you need. They can stay here forever. Don’t worry about that right now.”

  I nodded, meeting his blue-eyed gaze, and built the courage to ask him what was truly pressing on my heart.

  “Raph, where’s Lincoln?”

  I could see his heart breaking in the way his face fell, could feel it in the way he tucked my hair back away from my face, preparing me for something awful. “He did not do well with your absence. It broke him, child.”

  Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Where is he?”

  Raph looked down at his feet, unable to meet my gaze. “He went to San Francisco, enrolled in an elite Fallen Army division called the Fallen Resistance.”

  I stopped breathing, and my heart sank into my stomach.

  “Why do you look so scared?” I asked him.

  Raphael’s eyes grew misty. “Because they rarely make it home.”

  Oh God. Lincoln… what have you done?

  Chapter Seventeen

  I’d totally freaked out when Raphael told me Lincoln joined the Fallen Resistance. Now I was in Lincoln’s trailer, with Shea wrapped around me, and Noah sitting at the edge of the bed. My mom and Mikey were grabbing pizza for dinner, and would meet us soon.

  Noah was catching me up on everything. After I’d left, Bernie abandoned the trailer and went in search of me, leaving Maximus with my mom. Lincoln left the apartment, giving it fully to my mom, and moved back into the trailer to be secluded. He’d taken time off from the Fallen Army, pushed Noah and everyone else away for a while.

  Shea held me tightly under Lincoln’s denim-blue covers. Just smelling him on the sheets was driving me crazy. “After your funeral, Lincoln and I refused to believe you were dead. We started going on missions,” Shea told me.

  Noah groaned. “Missions where Shea created
portals, going in with Chloe, trying to find you.”

  Chloe. Luke. Angela. I needed to see them.

  “It killed Lincoln that he couldn’t cross over there,” Shea confessed.

  Yeah, I imagined that would kill me too.

  “Where’s Sera?” Noah asked.

  Way to crap on my already shitty day. “I had to leave her,” I croaked.

  He reached out and grabbed my ankle, giving it a squeeze. “She’ll understand.”

  I nodded. Sera did understand, but that didn’t make it any easier.

  “Tell me something good. Did anything good happen while I was gone?”

  That perked Shea up. She sat up and she moved right in my face, her eyes wide and excited. “Tiffany had a spell go wrong in class, and it singed her hair halfway off.”

  I grinned, slightly entertained and comforted to know that some things just hadn’t changed. Tiffany was still a bitch, and we still hated her.

  “Did she try to move in on Lincoln after I left?” Oh, she would’ve been all over that, no doubt.

  Shea nodded, her lips pursed into a grim line. “But Chloe and I put her in her place.”

  Noah grinned. “Got suspended for a week for it too.”

  I laughed. “What did you do?”

  Shea shrugged. “Totally beat the shit out of her in battle class.”

  “Even Bradstone couldn’t break them up. They had to call us in,” Noah informed me with a smirk.

  I leaned over, giving my bestie a tight squeeze. She protected my man from the Tiffany vulture, and for that I would be forever grateful.

  “What else?”

  Shea’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “Archangel Michael has a daughter, and she started classes here!”

  Noah leaned forward. “She’s seriously badass. Has all kinds of crazy powers. But she’s weird, and withdrawn.”

  Whoa.

  I knew Michael had a daughter, but didn’t know she was going to school here. “What’s her name? What are her powers?”

  This random banter had succeeded in taking my mind off Lincoln, at least for the time being.

  “Her name is Emberly, and her wings are silver and shimmery. She can wield a sword like nobody’s business, and I heard she can read minds,” Shea gushed.

  Noah nodded. “I heard she can influence people’s minds too, plant ideas in there. She wears armor over her wings because they’re frail. Her human half weakens them or something, so her dad built her wing braces.”

  Oh my God, that’s the sweetest and saddest thing I’ve ever heard.

  “Wait.” I sat up too. “While I was down there, Lucifer got a delivery of Michael’s blood. Was that for her tattoo?”

  Shea’s eyes widened. “Yes! They thought it might help control her powers, and strengthen her wings. We were attacked at the shop. Demons ran off with it.”

  Holy shit.

  “Well, Lucifer has it now,” I told them.

  Noah’s brow was furrowed. “I should tell Michael. That’s important information.”

  I nodded. What were those other deliveries he got every day? They could be chocolate bars for all I knew, and all Raksha told me.

  The thought of Raksha pinched my heart.

  “Elodie and her son are okay?” I asked Noah for the fiftieth time.

  He smirked. “The kid is eating endless french fries in the cafeteria, while the mom sets up their living quarters. They’re fine.”

  I’d kept my promise to Raksha. For that I could be proud.

  Shea’s eyes zeroed in on my chest for the first time. “Your devil mark is gone!” she screeched.

  My hand flew to my chest, then my thoughts went to Bernie and my stomach sank.

  “Yeah long story--.”

  There was a rapid knock at the door, and then it flew open to reveal Chloe and Luke.

  They’d been absent from battle class, on some special Fallen Army assignment in the war zone. They must’ve just made it back.

  “Ohmygod!” Luke shrieked in a rushed squeal.

  He plowed over Chloe, shaking the trailer as he ran down the hall and launched himself on top of me. “I missed you, bitch!” he sobbed into my neck.

  I laughed, all my emotions coming back to the forefront again. I had a feeling this was going to be a day of crying.

  Chloe leapt on top of us too, and I struggled to breathe. “We thought you were dead. We saw you die,” she uttered in disbelief.

  When they’d finally moved off me and I could speak, I decided to tell them what happened. I needed to tell someone, so why not my closest friends? I started with the first day, when Lucifer slit my throat and had a healer demon save me.

  “What a psycho,” Chloe interrupted.

  Shea flipped out when I’d mentioned the engagement ring vibrating with magic. “I knew it!” she shouted, jumping on the bed and smacking her head on the ceiling. Then she pointed at Noah. “I freaking told you, asshole!”

  He blanched and apologized.

  By the time I wrapped up my story with Lucifer wanting to have my baby, the entire trailer was silent, jaws gaping open.

  “Pervert!” Chloe shouted.

  I shrugged. “Yeah so… that’s what happened. That’s why protecting Raksha’s family is so important and… yeah.”

  Noah raised his hand like he was in school. “Can you rewind to the part where you promised to help Lucy enter the gates of Heaven, and slaughter everything?” They’d all loved my pet name for Lucifer, but clearly not the promise I’d made.

  Shea reached out, her foot connecting with his rib cage, effectively shushing him. “She did what she had to do to survive,” she snapped.

  “Ow. Okay.” Noah rubbed his ribs and glared at her.

  I didn’t want to talk about that right now, and I couldn’t hold it in any longer, so I grabbed Shea’s left hand and held it up to the light, distracting everyone from the current conversation. “What is this? Are you getting married?” I grinned.

  Noah scowled at Shea. “Woman still hasn’t answered me.”

  Shea raised one eyebrow. “I’m still thinking about it.”

  Oh. Sorry I asked.

  “But maybe now that Brielle is back, and you don’t think I’m crazy for thinking she’s still alive, I can think harder.” Her voice softened at the end as she looked into Noah’s eyes.

  Oh.

  Shame burned on Noah’s cheeks as he looked at me. “I’m sorry. I just wanted everyone to move on and stop hurting.”

  Through Lucifer’s portal, I’d seen Noah in the parking lot with a drunken Lincoln, so I knew some of what he’d been through to hold everyone together. Whether he knew it or not, Noah was the glue when it came to our little family.

  Reaching out, I grabbed his hand. “It’s okay. You did the right thing.”

  Luke thrust his phone in my face. On it was a wallpaper of him and Donnie kissing. “Screw her engagement, I’m totally dating Donnie!” he squealed.

  Laughter burst out of me. “Aww, you are?”

  I’d missed so much.

  Chloe rolled her eyes. “Eww, they are so gross. Sickeningly in love.”

  My mom and Mikey opened the trailer door then, and the smell of fresh pizza wafted over all of us.

  “How many people can fit in this trailer?” Shea laughed.

  “About to find out,” Chloe answered as she crossed the space, and took a slice from my mom.

  “Thanks, Momma Atwater.” She hip-bumped my mom.

  I chuckled. “Momma Atwater?” I asked Shea, who stayed in the back room with me.

  Shea’s face grew dark. “When you… left, we all stuck together. Your mom fed us every night, and we slept at her apartment for months, just grieving and figuring it out together.”

  My heart clenched as I watched my mom hand out the pizza to all the kids. She’d lost her child, and still she took care of the others. It was such a mom thing to do.

  “Did she find work?” I whispered to Shea. When I’d left last, she was trying to find employment, wh
ich could be hard as a once-demon-bound Necromancer.

  Shea winced. “Not really. Raph gives her jobs here and there around campus, but Lincoln takes care of her. He pays for the apartment, electricity, and has a monthly grocery delivery service bring her food.”

  Tears welled in my eyes and my throat tightened with emotion at her words. I’d been gone a year, with no possibility of coming back, and yet Lincoln still took care of my mother as if she were his own. If it was possible, it made me both love him, and grieve even more because he wasn’t here right now.

  After composing myself, Shea, Noah, and I joined everyone else, and we spent the night talking about everything except my capture and escape. We talked about Mr. Hensley from Marlee’s tattoo shop asking my mom out on a date, and about Mikey accidentally shifting in class and then shifting back to find he was naked in front of everyone. No one mentioned Lincoln or anything sad, and for a short moment I was stuck in this little happy bubble with my reunited family.

  That soon faded with each look around at Lincoln’s home. His guitar was covered in a thin layer of dust, telling me he hadn’t used it in a while. His poetry book was missing, so I assumed he’d taken it with him. I looked back at the bed where we first made love, and tears started to well in my eyes again. One by one, my friends noticed and quieted.

  “All right, guys, I think Brielle needs to get some rest,” my mom told the group.

  They each hugged me, until it was just Shea and my mom left.

  “Want me to stay over, honey?” Mom smoothed my hair.

  I nodded, letting the tears fall down my face.

  I needed her.

  Shea bent down and kissed my forehead. “I can stay too, if you need me.”

  I waved her off. “No it’s all right, but stay on campus, okay? Don’t go to Noah’s. Lucifer can see you there.”

  She looked at me with alarm but nodded. “I’ve been living with Noah for six months, but I’ll see if Raph can open up some extra dorms for us. Don’t worry, okay?”

  Panic seized me. “Promise me you’ll sleep on campus?”

  She held out her pinky. “I pinky swear.”