Fallen Academy: Year One

by Leia Stone

  I stared at my hands, flexing every muscle in my body and pushing.

  Fred laughed. “You look constipated.”

  I picked up my pencil and chucked it at him, which he caught in midair. Show-off.

  Mr. Rincor walked over and sat next to me. “Your tattoos have created a channel for the power that’s already inside of you. You just need to let it flow. Don’t try so hard.”

  If looks could kill, mine would cut through Mr. Rincor. Nothing he said made sense. Ever.

  “Ohhhhh, I gotcha,” I said sarcastically.

  The bell rang then. Thank God.

  The Celestial stood, looking down at me. “I hear you’re good with the weapons. That’s all fine until your weapons are taken away, and all you have are your bare hands.” Then he walked away.

  Debbie Downer.

  I didn’t let his comment bother me. Since I didn’t have work at the clinic that day, Lincoln had asked me to meet him for our private training early. There was something we needed daylight to do, apparently.

  I bolted from the classroom and went into the bathroom to apply some lip gloss and brush my teeth—ya know, in the off chance he wanted to kiss me.

  I’m hopeless.

  After primping and feeling pretty lame for doing said primping, I met Lincoln out on the field. He was standing there, arms crossed, scowl in place. “You’re late.”

  I put a hand on my hip. “So I’m not allowed bathroom breaks, then?”

  He rolled his eyes and started to circle me like a shark. I was pretty sure he couldn’t stand me, and I was totally falling for him. What a horrible combination. I tried to push all thoughts of a relationship aside.

  “The winter ball is coming up,” he said, looking me up and down.

  Oh. My. God. He’s in love with me. He’s going to ask me to the dance. Breathe. Breathe. Water down the V.

  “Yeah?” I croaked. The winter ball was some charity thing Raphael put on. The students got to be wined and dined by the rich benefactors, and there were silent auctions throughout the night.

  He nodded. “I don’t normally work the event, but since it’s off campus, and could lure potential kidnappers, I’ve decided to work security. So just let me know what time you and your date are leaving, and I’ll have a security detail on you at all times.”

  Crash. Burn. Blood. Guts. End of world.

  “Gotcha,” was about the only intelligible thing I could think of to say at the moment.

  “Now, I hear you’re doing amazing in battle class, taking your opponents to the ground, and winning in one-on-one drills.”

  I breathed on my nails and buffed them on my shirt. “One might even call me a badass.”

  His lips quirked but no smile. “And I’m quite impressed with your swordsmanship and weapons control. You’re an amazing shot with the bow, and if there were fencing tournaments for scrappy girls with no proper form, you would probably win.”

  I grinned. “Gosh, you’re really doling out the compliments. What did I do to deserve such stellar treatment?”

  That time he did smile, but it was sadistic and full of teeth. “But you. Still. Can’t. Fly.” He drilled the words into me one by one.

  I rolled my eyes. “This again? You and Mr. Rincor should party together. You’d have a lot to talk about.”

  He crossed his arms, making his biceps flex. “Don’t get me started on your failure at studies of light.”

  Failure. Ouch. That word stung.

  “Brielle, in seven months, there is an end-of-year test. If you fail that test, you’re cast out from the school. Considering you can’t go back to live with your mom, and demons are trying to kidnap you, that would be a bad idea.”

  Gosh. He had to lay on the reality check?

  “Okay, I’ll try harder.”

  I didn’t want to leave school. Shea and I had it pretty good here. I made enough with my part-time job for all the expensive luxuries in life, like tampons and chocolate, and I got to share a room with my best friend. Bonus, they hadn’t asked for the car back. Not that I was allowed to drive it anywhere but circling the campus, of course.

  He placed a hand on each of my shoulders, sending a warm heat to my navel. “It’s time for some tough love.”

  Love. He said love.

  His wings snapped out then, and his grip on my shoulders tightened. Suddenly, I was being hauled into the air.

  “Lincoln!” I shouted as my wings sprang out, my eyes skimming the ground as his hands went from my shoulder to my waist.

  We flew higher and higher, me flailing in Lincoln’s arms, him with a determined scowl.

  “Brielle, as your lead trainer, I will take it as a personal offense if you fail the gauntlet,” he told me.

  I looked down. Big mistake.

  Holy shit! We’re like a hundred feet in the air.

  “Okay, good, then keep training me!” I shouted at him.

  He shook his head. “Me and the boys have gone too soft on you. It’s not working. You need a reality check.”

  “You crazy asshole! Don’t you dare drop me!” I seethed.

  “You’re kinda cute when you’re really mad,” he confessed.

  And then he let go.

  He called me cute.

  I’m falling.

  “Ahhhhh!” My scream echoed, all other thoughts fleeing from my mind. My survival instinct kicked in, and I flapped my black wings like crazy.

  Come on, you bastards, hold up my weight! I’d pinched my eyes closed when I started to fall but opened them now, because by my calculations, I should’ve broken my neck and died by that point.

  Lincoln was hovering in front of my face, grinning like a lunatic. “You did it.”

  “You crazy psycho!” I screamed, reaching out for him, but he flew backward, and took off through the sky.

  “Catch me!” he called out.

  Oh, I would. I would catch him and pulverize him.

  Speeding through the sky after him, I flapped my wings like crazy to catch up. “You could’ve killed me!” I shouted as I got closer.

  Turning back to look at me, he smiled. “You’re totally flying.”

  My gaze shifted downward. Holy crap, I am. We were almost to the ocean.

  “I’m flying!” I shrieked, laughing.

  Lincoln grinned, then spun and came at me. I backed my wings up, stopping my advance to hover in midair as he approached me.

  “Good. Next practice, we’ll fly with weapons.”

  My eyes widened. “Why?”

  He looked at me like I was a five-year-old. “Because there are some demons with wings, remember?”

  Oh. Yeah. I shivered thinking of my battle with Shea’s master and his bat-like wings.

  His hand lifted, gesturing to the horizon. “Outside this city, a war is raging. If you get recruited into the Fallen Army, you’ll have a huge advantage with being able to fight while flying. You could save thousands of lives.”

  Whoa. I never thought about that. Fighting while I flew could help save lives. What would it be like to save thousands of lives? I’d never even saved one.

  “Is that what you do?” I asked him. I knew nothing about the war beyond the city.

  There were open portals out there, where the demons came up from the underworld, and wreaked havoc on the smaller suburbs and towns. We didn’t travel outside the city walls because of it, so it must’ve been bad. The news barely covered it, because reporters said it was too dangerous.

  Lincoln’s face darkened. “Yes. But I can’t save them all. It’s a harsh reality that you’ll learn the hard way.”

  There was something else there, something else he wanted to say but didn’t.

  “All right. Gold star for today, Bri.” He winked, and then started to descend.

  Ah, the wink. It did funny things to my insides. If he was that sexy of a winker, I wondered what it was like to kiss him. I flew back to the field where we’d started and noticed Shea, Luke, and Angela waiting for us. Shea was clutching some type of paper, a
nd bouncing on her heels with excitement.

  “What’s up? You win the lottery?” I asked my best friend as I landed in front of them.

  She laughed. “Close. Noah just invited us to some super-exclusive thing he does every year called ‘the beach games.’ Winner gets a cheesy autographed photo of him, but it’s supposed to be super fun.”

  Angela nodded. “I wasn’t invited last year but I hear it’s a blast. Goes all day and night, bonfire and all that jazz.”

  Lincoln was scowling. “Noah invited you guys to the beach games?” He said it like it was the Emmys.

  Shea thrust the invitation in his face, and put one hand on her hip. “Well gee, I’ve only been reading since I was five, but yeah, I think that’s what it says.”

  I grinned. Shea was the best at a verbal bitch slap.

  Lincoln chuckled, handing her the flyer. “Good luck. My team’s won four years in a row.” Then he turned and walked away.

  I ripped the flyer from Shea’s hand. There was nothing more I wanted in life than to beat Lincoln at something, and lord it over him for the rest of my life.

  The Beach Games

  When: This Friday

  Where: Santa Monica Pier

  What: Volleyball, tug-of-war, sand castle competition and more! Come with a team of four. Using powers is allowed.

  Dress: Beach wear (Ladies, feel free to wear a bikini. Curvy girls, I’m talking to you too.)

  Winner gets a signed copy of a hunky photo of Noah, and bragging rights.

  Oh, that flyer had Noah all over it, the little slimebag, but it sounded awesome. I looked up at my friends. “Okay, this is in three days. It’s time to practice.”

  I assumed it would be some weird magical game thing, but normal beach games? I was all over it. My competitive side was ready to throw down.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The beach games were tomorrow after school, and I was so nervous and excited that I could barely sleep last night. My sand castle game was tight. I’d borrowed cake-decorating supplies from Angela’s mom, and I had a design mapped out in my mind. To top that off, with Angela’s Necromancy skills, she was going to add something to my design that I was sure was going to win us that round.

  We’d asked around and found out there were five rounds, each worth a certain amount of points: beach volleyball, sand castle design, tug-of-war, swim race, and one random new one Noah picked every year. We’d been practicing sand volleyball each night, and I’d already made and crushed my sand castle, so I was feeling super prepared. The tug-of-war, and swim race competitions were just going to have to be an in-the-moment thing, but I figured we could pull it off.

  “So, we get paid tomorrow morning. I say we ditch our last hour, cash our checks, and get new bikinis,” Shea offered, as we walked into the gym locker room to change for battle class.

  Bikini. The word that sent every girl screaming internally. No matter how in shape I felt my body was, it scared the shit out of me. Wearing a bathing suit in front of Lincoln made me want to die.

  “Okay. Yeah…” I feigned enthusiasm.

  Shea rolled her eyes. “Whatever. The beach games aren’t going to know what hit them when we show up.”

  A locker door slammed, making me jump, and then suddenly I was staring at Tiffany. “You got invited to the beach games?” She looked horrified.

  I grinned. “Yeah, didn’t you?”

  Her face recovered and then she was cool, calm, and collected. “Of course. Can’t make it though. Besides, I heard they were deviating from their ‘angel blessed only’ rule, and inviting the riffraff. Now that I see it’s true, I’m glad I’m not going.” She spun on her heel and left.

  “That bitch!” Shea roared, charging after her, but I caught her arm.

  “Throwing her in the healing clinic will only get you detention, and we need you on the team. She’s lying anyway. Noah doesn’t have some elitist ‘angel blessed only’ rule.”

  Right?

  Shea shot a death glare at the door Tiffany had gone through, then nodded. “The day we graduate, I’m going to beat her ass within an inch of her life.”

  My eyes widened. You can take the girl out of the hood…

  “Come on, killer. Let’s just get through this class, and then before you know it, we’ll be bikini shopping.”

  She nodded. “Noah texted me that he likes the color red on me.”

  I laughed as we walked out to the gym. Noah and Shea were making out in the parking lot every Wednesday night, after his clinic shift and her shift with Mr. Claymore. They’d already had the “we’re just having fun, no exclusivity” talk, so I was no longer worried about her getting her heart broken.

  “Then you should totally get a red bikini,” I agreed.

  She leaned in close to me. “He also said sky blue is Lincoln’s favorite color.”

  The color drained from my face. “Shea, you better not be telling Noah I like him,” I whisper-screamed.

  Her mischievous laugh rang around us. “Oh please. He knows. It’s so obvious you both like each other.”

  Shea pulled out her phone and showed me the text. Noah had offered his two cents without her even mentioning it.

  Oh good, I won’t have to kill her. “Trust me. It’s unrequited,” I informed her, thinking of the hundreds of times he’d scowled at me.

  “I don’t think so.” She added with a frown.

  A loud whistle rang out, and Mr. Bradstone raised his voice. “No weapons today. Hand-to-hand combat, and for the first time, we’ll use our magic. Pair up with the names I’ve arranged on the board, and begin.”

  Shit. No weapons. I looked at my useless hands. I’d maybe gotten up to a four-watt lightbulb, but nothing that was going to hurt anyone.

  “Ugh. Sucks to be you,” Shea whispered.

  My eyes snapped up to the board to see I was paired with Tiffany.

  Freaking perfect.

  Tiffany waltzed into one of the battle rings, a ten-foot circle of blue tape, then squatted into a wrestling position, grinning at me like a madwoman. Shea had nearly every class with her and said she was an advanced Mage for her age. Her mother was a Light Mage and her father a Celestial. They helped her outside of school, so she was 100 percent about to kick my ass with some light magic. When I had Sera, or any other weapon, I was definitely on equal playing ground, but using just our magic?

  I was so screwed.

  “Come on, Archie. We don’t have all day,” She crooned.

  Shea caught my arm, and I turned to meet her eyes. “This might be the only opportunity any one of us has to kick her ass without getting into trouble.” Then she winked.

  Ha. I would try my best, but I’d seen Tiffany’s magic at work. It was pretty incredible.

  I stepped into the ring and squatted to her level. We’d been learning jujitsu that month, and I was good with takedowns. But so was she. Mr. Bradstone usually let us pick our sparring partner, so I always chose Shea or Luke. Now I was stuck with my nemesis. Lincoln’s “family friend.”

  We started to circle each other, hands outstretched, gazes locked.

  “You know, Lincoln practically spent all of last summer at my house,” she purred.

  Jealousy flared inside of me, but I didn’t let it show. Instead, I swiped my leg out, trying to take her down, but she jumped over it.

  “Why in God’s name would he do that?” I gave her the stanky-est face I could muster.

  She growled, lunging for me, and yanked me down to the ground. Dammit! With some fast and hard footwork, she had me pinned underneath her.

  “Because my parents were best friends with his parents. I’ve known him my whole life, and he’ll be mine one day, so back. The. Fuck. Off.” Spittle flew from her mouth onto my face. She was legit insane. Her hands were wrapped tightly around my wrists, emitting a warm glow that burned my skin.

  “Let me go, Tiffany,” I warned her.

  My skin grew hotter.

  I jerked my pelvis up hard, trying to buck her off in the wa
y Mr. Bradstone taught us, but to no avail. She was in her zone. She’d probably been planning this since the day she met me.

  “You’re seriously hurting me!” I shouted in her face.

  She grinned.

  Bitch! Anger boiled inside of me like heartburn, starting in my chest and working its way up my throat. When I screamed in her face once again, an inky black smoke flew from my mouth, and wrapped around her throat.

  Shock ripped through the both of us and she fell backward off me, clutching her throat and trying to breathe. A thick black magical band was strangling her.

  Oh frick.

  “Mr. Bradstone!” I screamed.

  Tiffany’s face was turning blue, the black smoke an iron vise around her neck.

  Mr. Bradstone took one look at her on the ground, then at me, and flew into action. Running to the cabinet on the wall, he produced a bottle of holy water and his infinity weapon, a glowing orange blade. Dousing the blade with the holy water, he laid the flat part across her neck. The second the cool steel touched her, the blackness broke apart, and disappeared.

  With a huge gasping breath, Tiffany looked at me, terrified. “Archdemon!” she shouted in a raspy voice.

  Oh my God. What have I done?

  “That was some Exorcist shit,” someone from the class commented. That’s when I ran. Turning around, I bolted out the door, ignoring Shea and Mr. Bradstone’s calls after me.

  I was evil.

  Something dark and evil flew out of my mouth, and wrapped around Tiffany’s throat, nearly killing her. My legs pumped harder as I burst onto the field, tears streaming down my face. I wanted to run away, hide in shame.

  Maybe I was an archdemon.

  “I know what you are,” that Abrus demon had said.

  My wings burst from my back and I took to the skies. This was only my third time flying, but it came back like muscle memory. I pumped higher and higher as I flew away from the school. The night of The Falling, when the archangels fell from Heaven and warred with the demons, power had lashed out at random. Monsters had been created, and I was one of them.

  “I know what you are.”