Fallen Academy: Year One

by Leia Stone

  I was going to break my neck and die.

  Chapter Seven

  After mastering a two-second hover where I’d smacked Lincoln in the face with my wing—on complete accident, of course—I’d sat through an hour of history class. Much to my dismay, everyone knew who I was, and stared or pointed at me most of the period. I’d even seen a few of them mouth, “Demon lover.”

  Awesome.

  I wondered if I should cut bangs to cover my demon slave tattoo, or maybe get some heavy makeup, but what was the point? It’s who I was, and I couldn’t change my future. I might as well live with it.

  Now, I was standing in a large gym type of room with walls and walls of every kind of weapon I could think of, nestled in cages with golden locks on them. Our professor, Mr. Claymore, was a Light Mage and looked the part, wearing a long black velvet robe with a silver spiral Light Mage insignia over the breast. His eyes kept flashing silvery gray as he looked each of us in the eye, his gaze lingering on me. I started to squirm as he pinned me with his stare, a heavy feeling pressing on my skin. Then he looked away, and the trance was broken, the feeling fading.

  That was intense.

  Seeing him all Maged out made me think of Shea. I wondered what she was doing at her delinquent school, wishing she could be with me instead.

  “Today is one of the most important days of your life. You’ll find your infinity weapon, and be bound to it for eternity.” His voice boomed around the room, coming at us from all angles.

  Say what? Eternity? Bound?

  A prissy girl, by the name of Tiffany—who I’d learned from history class was a Light Mage in training—raised her hand. “Is it true that your infinity weapon will speak to you after you’re bonded?”

  Either she was high or I hadn’t heard her right. Maybe I was high, because home girl had just asked if our weapons were going to talk to us.

  Mr. Claymore shrugged. “It’s different for everyone. A talking infinity weapon is very rare, but each weapon does have a soul, so you’ll feel its personality even if you can’t hear it.”

  Everyone is high.

  I cleared my throat and raised my hand. “I’m sorry, but how can a weapon have a soul?”

  He looked down at his roster and then at my forehead. “Brielle, right?”

  Damn this tattoo. I was totally cutting bangs. I nodded.

  “In Angel City, we learn all about this in high school, so I’ll forgive you for being unprepared. Infinity weapons were given to us by The Powers. Archangels are humanity’s protectors, and The Powers are the angels of defense, the warriors of Heaven.”

  Whoa.

  “Right. Cool,” I said. Tiffany released an annoying laugh, causing her flock to laugh with her.

  I cut her with a glare, but before I could think more on it the professor clapped, and all of the locks on the cages clicked open, falling to the floor. With another clap, the cages sprung wide open, and we all let out a collective “Ahhh.”

  Magic was cool, I’d give him that.

  “Now, finding your infinity weapon can be a challenge. Be patient. It’ll call to you—you’ll feel a kindred attraction toward it. A love for it. It’ll feel right, like you’ve been waiting for it your whole life,” he explained.

  “If that’s it, then coffee is my infinity weapon,” I muttered softly, making a few students near me giggle.

  The professor gestured to the cases. “These weapons will carry you through every battle for the rest of your life, so choose wisely.”

  A few students started walking toward the cases while I hung back, firmly in the “do not want to pick first” group. Next to me, a gorgeous young guy with overly tweezed eyebrows and black hair gave me a hip bump. “I’m Luke,” he whispered.

  I chuckled at his overfriendly hip bump. “Bri.” My gaydar was going off pretty hard, so I wasn’t worried that he was hitting on me, or anything sleazy.

  He nodded. “Let’s just get this out there.” He gestured to my forehead. “My aunt is demon bound, she has that whole forehead thing going on, so I understand, and I’m totally cool with it.”

  I smiled. Genuinely. “Good to know.” I glanced at the insignia on the breast of his jumpsuit indicating he was a Beast Shifter. Demon gifted.

  I think I just made my first friend. “Shall we?” I gestured to the cages.

  He looked apprehensively at Tiffany, who’d just picked up a large sword that was glowing quite brightly in her hands.

  “Ladies first.” He winked.

  Great.

  Taking a deep breath, I walked slowly past one cage, feeling for something that made me want to love it as much as I did coffee, but I came up with nothing. I passed to the second cage, filled with a bunch of bows and arrows. Luke was lingering behind me, and stopped to gasp a little at the cage holding the bows. I went still, pivoting to look at him as he reached for a solid gold bow. As his hand moved closer, the bow started to glow a faint blue.

  “Ah, the arrows of truth. A very fine weapon, young man. You should be honored,” Mr. Claymore stated.

  When Luke’s hand curled around the bow, his lips popped open in surprise. One by one, the students found their glowy weapons; upon retrieving them, they went to the back of the room to wait.

  There were only three of us left now, and I had passed by nearly every cage. My heart started beating crazily in my chest. What if I don’t have an infinity weapon? Should I just grab one and fake it? But if I did that, it probably wouldn’t light up.

  The last two students found their weapons, and then all eyes were on me. Luke was the only one giving me a look of pity; everyone else seemed… annoyed, like, God why do we have to wait for her?

  “This is not a process we rush. Take your time, Brielle,” the professor announced, making me even more mortified.

  As I stepped over to the last case, I felt something stir within me. My stomach churned with excitement, and it felt like I was standing near open electricity. I scanned the rows of daggers, my heart pounding wildly in my chest.

  ‘Over here, winged one,’ a small female voice said inside my head, making me leap backward two feet.

  Now the class was really staring at me, but not as hard as the professor. He stepped closer, gaping at me like I was topless, or something.

  ‘Second row, third one over. Come on, love, let’s get this over with. I’ve been waiting a long time for this,’ the tiny voice spoke again.

  Holy mother of all things crazy.

  ‘You’re… talking to me?’ I said, wondering if I’d finally lost my mind. I was overdue.

  She gave a little groan. ‘Second row, third one over. Come on, hon. You can do it.’

  Now I was taking far too long and looking far too stupid. In a rush, I charged the case and grabbed the silver dagger that was in the second row, third one over. When I wrapped my fingers around it, a blinding light shot out, at the same time that a great energy ripped through me. It was hard to describe—it was pleasure, the kind I would feel if I got to see my dad again, but mixed with a tremendous power, like I could rip a steel door in half. My wings popped out of my back, causing the entire class to gasp, and I was brought to my knees as the power continued to swirl around me, the breeze lifting my hair.

  ‘I’m Sera,’ the dagger told me. I felt her, like she was a person, an old friend. It was the weirdest and yet most comforting thing I’d ever experienced.

  ‘Brielle, but you can call me Bri.’ I felt stupid introducing myself to a knife, but hey, there were weirder things in the world.

  “Incredible,” the professor breathed.

  The wind had died down, and although my legs were shaky, I was able to stand. All I could do was stare at the dagger in my hands. It was about nine inches long, most of that the blade, with a short golden hilt that was engraved and encrusted with shimmery pearl-like stones.

  “A seraph blade. I didn’t even know we had one in there,” Mr. Claymore gushed.

  He walked over to the case I’d retrieved it from, grabbed a black
leather scabbard and handed it to me. It looked only big enough to attach around my thigh, so that’s where I buckled it.

  “Has anyone learned of the seraph blade in history class?” he asked.

  My eyes widened. Oh my God, he’s going to make a lesson out of this.

  A short brown-haired girl with freckles raised her hand. “Doesn’t it somehow magnify the user’s inner light, or something?”

  Tiffany laughed, pointing at my wings. “That might be a problem in this case.”

  Luke growled at her, an honest animal growl, and she shut up. He was totally my new friend.

  Mr. Claymore nodded. “Partly right, but that is only one feature. If she were fighting to save someone she loved, the light would be extremely bright. If she were protecting herself or other acquaintances, it would be less harmful. The light of true love, coming through a seraph blade, is said to eviscerate a demon without making a single cut.”

  And by the mercy of God, the bell rang then. With a relieved sigh, I turned to follow Luke outside so we could make our way to our final class before lunch—battle class.

  “Stop!” the professor roared.

  The entire class froze.

  He held out his hands. “You must give your weapon a taste of your blood, to bind to it for eternity.”

  I was glad to see my eyes weren’t the only ones that bugged out. Tiffany was the first to pierce her hand with her giant sword, as if the idea of feeding a weapon her blood didn’t bother her. Then everyone followed suit. Luke looked at me and shrugged, poking his palm with one of his arrows.

  Pulling Sera out, I made a small slice across my palm. I wasn’t even sure I’d cut myself until the blood bubbled up. It didn’t even hurt, just felt weird, like I’d put a piece of cold ice on my palm. A blue light shot out of the hilt, and swirled around my torso, making gooseflesh break out on my arms.

  That earned me a dozen more stares, including the professor.

  “All right, go in peace,” he said to the group.

  When I looked up, he was watching me with glowing silver eyes.

  As Luke and I walked to battle class together, I tried to get my wings to go back in, but they weren’t cooperating. At one point my wing accidentally brushed against Tiffany—who I now lovingly referred to as Bitchany—and she shrieked, asking for holy water. When everyone laughed, I kept my chin up. I wasn’t going to let her get me down.

  The Nightbloods had to travel the school in underground tunnels because they couldn’t be exposed to the sunlight, so they were waiting for us inside the gymnasium first. The same one I’d learned to fly in that morning.

  The hour passed quickly with basic weapon holding positions. Before I knew it, I was eating lunch with Luke and his demon-gifted friends on the right half of the cafeteria. The left half was unofficially for the angel blessed. Arguably, I was angel blessed since I was a Celestial, but the red crescent moon on my forehead and black wings spoke otherwise. Besides, I wanted to get to know Luke better.

  Luke had an older sister, Angela, who was a Necromancer and two grades above us. “Oh, man, I still remember the day I got my infinity weapon.” She was grinning, looking at Luke’s bow and arrow. “Mom will be real proud.”

  He nodded. “And Dad?”

  Her face fell. “Yeah, I meant Mom and Dad.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “Don’t bother, I know what you meant.”

  I kept my eyeballs on my mashed potatoes.

  “My mom and dad are both angel blessed,” he explained.

  “Ah.” Some families had a weird thing where they wanted their kids to be like them. My mom had wanted me to be a Necromancer so we could work together, but we’d ended up working together anyway.

  “No issue with my being gay, but he threw a fit when he found out I was a Beast and demon gifted,” he said to his broccoli.

  Angela chewed her lip. She had long inky black hair, and was quite pretty with green eyes, and high cheekbones. “He’ll get over it.”

  Then her eyes flicked up behind me, and her back went ramrod straight. “Oh my God, Lincoln Grey is walking over here.”

  I froze, swallowing my mashed potatoes quickly, and turned my head just as he said my name.

  “What’s with the wings?” he asked. Most of the Celestials kept them away unless fighting or showing off.

  I rolled my eyes. “Is that what you came to ask me?” God, he was infuriating. Way to embarrass me, jackass.

  He assessed me, then smirked. “They’re stuck again, aren’t they?”

  Oh my God. I’m going to lie awake tonight and fantasize not about seeing him naked, but about how many ways I could kill him and hide the body.

  I didn’t answer, and he snaked a hand out and stroked the top of my wings in one suave move. My wings snapped into my back, as warmth ran down my spine. Not gonna lie, my body liked his touch, but I could barely stand him. Sure, he may have been through some tragedy, but he was just… irritating. On all levels.

  “You have to leave, right? I’ll walk you out,” he asked, looking at my friends.

  Okay, that was a not-so-subtle way to kill my lunch. “Yeah, okay.” I grabbed my messenger bag, and turned to my new friends. “See you tomorrow.”

  Luke frowned. “You only have half days?”

  I chewed my lip and pointed to my forehead. “Yeah.”

  Angela kicked him under the table, and they both put on fake plastic smiles. “Cool, see you tomorrow Bri,” she offered in an extra-chipper tone.

  Bless her heart.

  Lincoln tugged on my bag. “I need to speak with you.”

  Ugh. This tall drink of water is nice to look at, but becoming a major thorn in my side.

  We were making our way through the throngs of students, when Tiffany bolted into a standing position, blocking Lincoln’s way. “Hey, Linc.”

  Linc. That must be something they all call him after they’ve slept with him.

  “Hey, Tiffany.” Was that annoyance in his tone? He totally knew her!

  “Sucks that Raphael has you babysitting the archdemon,” she spat, glowering at me.

  Anger boiled throughout my entire body. How freaking dare she! I moved forward to do something impulsive and crazy, like rip her face off, when Lincoln’s hand came out to stop me.

  “Don’t be a bully, Tiff. It’s unattractive.” He blasted past her with a firm grip on my upper arm.

  The last thing I saw when leaving the cafeteria was Tiffany’s curled lip and a flame of jealousy in her gaze.

  Ha. Take that.

  The moment we were outside, he released my arm.

  “You’re going to need a thicker skin if you want to survive here, or anywhere, for that matter. You can’t go fighting every person who name-calls you,” he said in a fatherly tone.

  “Yeah, thanks, Dad, but I’m aware of that. She’s been at my throat all day,” I huffed.

  Lincoln stopped walking halfway to the parking lot, and faced me. “Are you ever pleasant?”

  I raised one eyebrow. “Are you?”

  He rolled his eyes and kept walking, forcing me to run after him like an idiot.

  “How do you know her, anyway? Ex-girlfriend?”

  He made a disgusted face. “Ew, no. She’s a… family friend.” He didn’t sound too convincing.

  “Well what did you need to talk to me about?” I needed to get going. Master Burdock would have my hide if I was late a second day in a row.

  Lincoln spun and pointed to Sera on my right thigh. “That. That’s what I came to talk to you about.”

  I recoiled a little, hurt by his tone. “What’s wrong?” I stroked Sera’s hilt.

  ‘Do we like him, or not? I can’t tell,’ she asked me.

  I internally groaned. ‘I’m still trying to figure that out myself.’

  “The problem is you can’t bring a seraph blade into Demon City. It’ll be sold or destroyed. Raphael has tasked me with fixing the issue!” He did not sound happy about that at all.

  I wasn’t sure what to s
ay, so for once in my life, I kept quiet.

  Lincoln pulled a key from his jeans pocket. “This is a key to my trailer.” He pointed across the parking lot to the edge of the trees, where the cute little silver Airstream sat among the wildflowers. “Each morning you arrive, I’ll have the blade for you. Each day you leave, you’ll drop it off inside my trailer and lock my door. Do not snoop. Do not use my bathroom, or eat my food. Do you understand?”

  I grinned. “Aw, sweetie, you’re giving me a key to your place already? Gosh, we just met.” I snatched the key from his hand greedily.

  “Don’t lose that,” he barked.

  I rolled my eyes, fixing it on my keyring. “Relax, I’m not a baby.”

  “I can be gone for weeks at a time if things progress with the war, so I’m hoping you won’t set my place on fire or anything,” he added.

  “What’s your problem with me? Honestly. Let’s get this all out there.” I’d decided that now, as I was running late to wash dead bodies, was as good a time as any to have a long, drawn-out argument.

  He took a step closer to me, eating up the distance between us, and my breath hitched. He touched my forehead with his index finger. “That is my problem. I don’t trust you. I never will. One word from your master and you might strap a bomb to your chest and kill us all.”

  I gasped as tears filled my eyes, unprepared for such a hateful answer. His face fell as my bottom lip quivered, but I wasn’t going to give the prick the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

  Ripping Sera from my leg sheath, I handed it to him, and took off running through the parking lot. He called something out, but it was too low and muffled for me to hear it.

  By the time I made it to the reanimation clinic, I’d cried off all my mascara, but I was five minutes early, so there was that.

  I put the car into Park and then stepped out, but instead of heading for the doors like I normally would, I froze as a strong scent of sulfur and oil hit me. A demon was close, one I didn’t recognize by smell.

  I swallowed hard, taking wide steps across the parking lot. Just before I reached the double doors, an honest-to-God Abrus demon jumped out from behind the pillar, making my heart lurch into my throat, and my wings snap out in defense. Abrus demons were second to Lucifer himself. They looked mostly human, with only two small red horns on their forehead, and searing yellow eyes. They were all insanely gorgeous males as well, seductive and dangerous. I’d only met one before in my lifetime.