Fallen Academy: Year One

by Leia Stone

  I nodded.

  “Be back here at seven tonight. I have a special training for you.” He started to walk to the corner of the room, where his gym bag and water were.

  “What special training thing? Not Carl, right?” Fear gripped me at the thought. I never wanted to train with that lunatic again.

  He chuckled. “No, not him. But someone very special is going to teach you a lifesaving skill.”

  I sighed. “Cryptic much?”

  He chuckled. “Just be here.”

  With a chaste kiss, he was off, leaving me to my own thoughts.

  It was four o’clock. What was I going to do for three hours?

  I decided to pass the time doing pedicures with Shea and Luke back in our dorm.

  “When are one of you going to go all the way with your boys? I need sex talk here,” Luke pointed out, while painting lime-green polish on his toes.

  I threw my hands into the air. “I’m beginning to think something is wrong with Lincoln. What guy in their right mind denies sex?”

  Shea chuckled. “A guy who is like four years older than you, is afraid of breaking you, and has had a lot more sexual experience than you.”

  I scowled at her. “Noah is older than you, and more experienced, and yet he tries to have sex with you twice a day.”

  Her grin widened. “More like three, if you include the sexting.”

  Luke winced. “Throw that poor guy a bone, girlfriend. If you don’t want something more serious with him, then drop him.”

  Shea studied her red toenails intently. “Well, I don’t know. Last night he got all weird and asked if we were exclusive, then told me I could borrow his car if I needed it. It was creepy.”

  Both Luke and I stopped what we were doing.

  “In what universe is any of that creepy?” I asked. I needed to have a private talk with her. She did this a lot, the whole self-sabotage thing. Growing up without a dad, and with a drug addict for a mom had left its marks on her heart. She didn’t trust anyone in this world except my mom, Mikey, and me. That needed to change, or she would die alone.

  “Right now it’s fine. If he cuts it off, I can walk away unscathed,” she replied.

  “I get it.” Luke answered with a shrug.

  Shea’s gaze keenly focused on him. “Maybe I’m bi. I feel like I could trust a chick more than a dude.”

  Luke grinned. “Can you imagine rubbing up on a girl’s boobs?”

  Her eyes widened in shock and she shook her head. “Ew.”

  He busted out laughing. “Then you’re not bi. You’re just scared of getting your heart broken.”

  “Okay, now that we’ve all questioned our sexuality, and determined we have relationship issues, I gotta go.” I announced, standing.

  They waved me off.

  I was wearing flip-flops, yoga pants and an old T-shirt. My muscles were sore as hell, so I was hoping this was more of a cognitive training than a physical one. I made it to the gym at seven sharp. If Carl was in there, I was going to kill Lincoln.

  Opening the door, I gasped in shock as Archangel Michael came into view.

  “Hello, Brielle,” he greeted in his buttery voice. I had to look away for a second, his skin exuded too much light to look directly at him. The glow suddenly dimmed, as he approached me.

  “Hi. Sir, if I’d known it was you, I would’ve dressed a bit better.” I tugged on the hem of my oversized T-shirt.

  He waved in dismissal. “Propriety doesn’t interest me. Come as you are.”

  I shifted my weight and my muscles screamed in protest. Lincoln had gotten me a training with the most powerful warrior on the planet? I was going to die.

  “I’m still sore from my other trainings, but I’ll do my best,” I hedged, kicking off my sandals and moving into a fighting position. I pulled Sera from my thigh holster and held her out before me.

  Michael’s eyes glittered as a smile danced at his lips. He was insanely handsome, and said to have taken a human wife, but that was just rumor. I’d yet to see her.

  “No, no, this isn’t that kind of training. I’m here to teach you about her.” He pointed to the dagger in my hands.

  ‘Finally, it’s about me,’ Sera sang.

  I smirked at her comment.

  “You two speak mentally, don’t you?” he inquired.

  I nervously chewed on my lip. I hadn’t really told Shea, Lincoln or anyone about my conversations with my knife. It sounded too weird out loud, so I’d just kept it to myself.

  I nodded in acknowledgment.

  Michael smiled again. “The seraph blade is an extremely rare weapon. I’ve never seen one on Earth, nor do I know how it could’ve gotten here.”

  I shifted my weight again, unsure what to say.

  “It’s a rare weapon, even in the kingdom of light. I’ve seen merely a few in all of my existence. The seraphim protect the Creator’s throne with it.”

  Whoa. Suddenly fear spiked through me. Was he going to ask for it back? Maybe it’d accidentally found its way into the school cabinet, and he didn’t think I should have it.

  ‘I dare him to try!’ Sera said boldly.

  She had way too much self-confidence. If the Archangel Michael wanted my weapon, he was getting my weapon, and that was that.

  “She… picked me, and I’d like to keep her….” I tried and failed to sound bold and confident.

  Michael frowned. “Of course. I’d never dream of splitting you up. You’re soul-bound. She’ll help you through your life’s purpose here on Earth. Only death can truly part you.”

  Sera and I sighed in relief at the same time. I wasn’t sure that being soul-bound to a weapon was a good thing, but it was what it was. I couldn’t imagine life without her at that point, as weird as that sounded.

  “I’m here to teach you a fourth-year technique called weapon retrieval,” he continued.

  “Weapon retrieval?” I asked, not sure what he meant.

  He nodded and began to circle me. “In the event that you and Sera are separated, I can teach you to call her back to you from up to a hundred feet away.”

  My jaw dropped. “Like Thor’s hammer?”

  He frowned. “Who?”

  I waved it off as excitement bubbled inside of me. “Never mind. So how does it work?”

  Michael stopped and looked at me—looked through me, it seemed. “The seraph blade is a soul weapon. I can see your light and hers, intertwined in a way that’s similar to soul mates.”

  My eyes grew wide. “Soul mates are real?”

  Michael laughed. “Of course they are. Humans love the concept of soul mates, but in reality, soul mate relationships are the hardest of your life. They challenge you, and force you to grow much more than any other relationship.”

  I was having a freaking conversation with an honest-to-God archangel. Tell me all the things. I wasn’t a religious person, but I was curious about something. And now seemed as good a time as any to ask.

  “So… do Christians have it right? I mean….” I wasn’t sure how to delicately word my question so as not to offend him.

  Michael laughed. “No one religion has it all right. The Creator doesn’t care which path you take to find Him, and all paths lead to Him.”

  Hmm, that kind of made my brain turn into a pretzel. I still wasn’t sure where I stood on religion, but it sounded a little more tolerable after that.

  I was about to ask him if dogs went to heaven when he reached out to me. “May I have her?” he asked kindly.

  With a little apprehension, I handed her over.

  The second she touched his palm, his face took on a look of surprise. “Magnificent. I can actually sense your energy within her.”

  “Umm, cool.”

  Michael studied the blade a moment longer, then set it on the ground. “Now, as a slow start, we’ll have you call her to you from the ground, close by.” I raised one eyebrow and he grinned. “Just close your eyes, open your energy, and call to her.”

  ‘Do you know what he’s
talking about?’ I asked Sera. I usually let her handle things like this.

  ‘Not really, but I can sense you, and I can sense you’re not touching me, so I guess I could manipulate the energies around me to gravitate toward yours… if I tried.’

  That was all way over my head.

  ‘Okay, try that,’ I replied.

  I kept my palm open and took a deep breath in and out, praying she wouldn’t cut my hand.

  Then the cold steel slapped into my palm and my eyes snapped open.

  “Holy shit!” I said, then realized I was in a room with an archangel. “Sorry.” I winced.

  “They’re just words.” He smiled.

  Truth.

  “That was easier than I thought!” I exclaimed, bouncing Sera in my palm.

  He smirked. “Because she did all the work.” He scooped her up from my hand, before walking all the way across the room.

  ‘He smells good,’ Sera told me.

  My face scrunched up. ‘What? You don’t have a nose. That’s ridiculous.’

  ‘And yet I smell him, and he smells so good.’

  Okay, I’m not even going to go there.

  When Michael reached the very farthest corner of the room, he set her down, and stepped back.

  “Now, call her to you.” He was wearing a wicked grin.

  What kind of angel takes pleasure in someone’s failure? Ugh, he’s been spending too much time with Lincoln.

  I widened my stance, held out both hands palms up and took a deep breath. ‘All right, Sera. Show him what we’ve got. Come to me,’ I beckoned. I kind of felt like I was calling a dog, but it was best not to tell her that.

  She was silent a minute, and I began to grow worried. ‘I got nothing, sorry.” She confessed. ‘I sense your general direction, but I can’t move myself to you from this far away.’

  That ruined the really cool vision I had of her flying to me from across the room. I’d take her in my hand, raise her to the ceiling, and she’d send out a burst of light to top the whole thing off.

  “She can’t do it,” I told Michael.

  He nodded. “But you can.”

  Oh Lord. This is going to be a long night.

  Michael looked at me compassionately. “I was told that you’re not the greatest at studies of light, is that correct?”

  I chuckled. “That’s putting it nicely.”

  He walked toward me. “Everything is energy, light. If you can feel that, you can do anything. When you learn to feel Sera’s energy, and use your inner light to call to her, very little can keep her from you.”

  I chewed my bottom lip, pretty sure Michael knew about my… problem, the fact that I had Lucifer magic in my blood, and most likely his wings. “Umm… what if I don’t have any light?”

  Now it was the archangel’s turn to chuckle. “Nonsense! I can see your light, and it’s the brightest I’ve ever seen in a human.”

  His words shocked me. I wasn’t technically a human, but I knew what he meant. “How… how can that be? I have black wings, and dark magic shoots from my mouth and strangles people!”

  He didn’t seem surprised at the truth bomb. He just shrugged. “You’re like a bug zapper.”

  I frowned. “Huh?”

  Michael placed a hand on each of my shoulders. “Those of us with greater inner light attract the most darkness. Don’t ever forget that.”

  I wouldn’t. It was the first time since I’d learned that I was essentially Lucifer’s spawn that I’d been given hope.

  Maybe I wasn’t evil, destined to be evil, or whatever I was afraid of.

  Maybe I was the brightest light Archangel Michael had ever seen in a human.

  Yeah, I’ll go with that.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It took me three days to learn to call Sera from across the room. Michael had taught me as much as he could that night, and then only by sheer exhausting practice had I been able to do it three days later. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it in a life-or-death situation, or in a room crowded with demons, but I’d keep practicing nevertheless, as it was a good skill to have.

  Now, it was the day of the gauntlet, and I’d already thrown up twice. I’d always carried my nerves in my stomach, but once I’d puked, I was pretty unshakable.

  I left the bathroom for the third time and joined Luke, Chloe and Shea in our dorm room.

  Shea made a face. “You okay?” She knew what was going on.

  “I’m good now. Got it all out,” I told her.

  We’d all been delivered letters at six that morning. ‘Choose your team of four to go through the gauntlet. Choose wisely. If one of you fails, you all fail.’

  It was three o’clock, and classes were suspended for the day. Chloe had her long thick black gloves on, and her hood covered up her bright red hair. We’d pulled closed the light-blocking curtains in our room so she could enter, and now she was pacing the floor.

  “We’ve got this. We knew it was going to be a team thing, and we’ve all been practicing accordingly,” she assured us.

  Luke looked terrified. “If one of us fails, we all fail,” he quoted ominously. “I can’t go back to living with my parents. I can’t.”

  I held my hands out in a placating gesture. “No one’s failing. Trust me, Shea and I are homeless if we don’t pass. We’re banned from Demon City, and we have no money, so a lot’s riding on this for all of us.”

  Chloe stopped pacing. “If we fail, I’m sure my dad will give us jobs at the club. We can all share an apartment or something.”

  A little bit of relief ebbed into me, and I saw the others’ expressions settle a little.

  “Yeah. Good plan,” Shea offered.

  “We’re not failing,” I told my team. “Luke, you’re strong and powerful. Chloe you’re strong and fast. Shea is a badass, who can open and close portals to Hell, and I can freaking fly. We are not failing!” I shouted.

  Everyone stopped and looked at me.

  Chloe grinned. “And that’s why you’re team leader.”

  We’d never officially talked about having a leader, or who it should be in the event that we were teamed up. I chewed on my lip nervously at the idea of being in charge of our fates at the academy.

  “Definitely,” Shea echoed, and Luke nodded.

  A knock came at the door and we all froze. The gauntlet wasn’t for four more hours. We were to meet in the parking lot and get loaded onto buses and go to God knows where.

  Luke started for the door, but I jumped up to intercept him, my intuition was screaming, though I couldn’t pinpoint why.

  “Hang on,” I urged, then stepped in front of him, and leaned against the door. “Who is it?”

  “Delivery. Cloud Nine Donuts,” a young female voice answered.

  I grinned, chastising myself for being paranoid, and pulled open the door to a young woman, wearing a Cloud Nine Donuts hat with a box and card. Luke snatched the box out of her hands, and I took the card.

  “It’s all paid for,” she told me, then turned and left.

  I ripped open the card.

  Good luck today, babe. You got this.

  Love,

  Lincoln

  Babe? Love? Lincoln didn’t talk like that. We hadn’t said ‘I love you’ yet, and he didn’t call me ‘babe.’ He’d send something like:

  Woman, remember your training or I’ll kill you. You have to pass.

  -L

  “Stop!” I shouted as Luke licked his fingers, having finished one off already. The girls had the donuts poised at their mouths. “I think it’s a trap,” I told them, and Chloe and Shea dropped their donuts.

  Luke looked positively green before he hunched over and started to moan.

  “What’s wrong?” I ran to him.

  “My stomach!” he cried out, before bolting for the bathroom.

  Just then I heard giggling at the door. A very, very familiar, and annoying laugh.

  Tiffany.

  “I’m going to kill her!” I shouted, going for the door
.

  Shea reached out and stopped me. “Let’s not get suspended right before the gauntlet. We need to let it go. I’ll work on a counter spell to the sick spell Luke took. Let. It. Go.” That was real rich coming from Shea. She was always down for a fight.

  “She’s right,” Chloe added. “We can’t do anything to compromise passing this test. Only 65 percent of Fallen Academy students pass their first year.”

  I hated logic and reason. I’d already had the fight with Tiffany five times in my head, and it was going to be good.

  “Let’s focus on getting Luke feeling better,” Chloe urged me.

  Breathe in. Breathe out.

  ‘I could blind her. Just go out into the hall and hold up the knife,’ Sera egged me on.

  I was pretty sure that, for an angel weapon, she had no angelic conscience.

  ‘Let’s let it go. For now,’ I told my partner in crime.

  “How do we help Luke?” I asked Shea, deciding to take the high road.

  She walked to the bathroom door. “Luke, I need to know more about what’s happening, so I can make a counter spell.”

  His muffled voice came back through the door. “Imagine explosive diarrhea, and then multiply that by ten!”

  Shea winced. “Okay. Got it! Hang tight.”

  She paced the room, mumbling to herself, pulling out books, and checking jars of dried herbs. The healing clinic was freaking closed today, of course, the entire staff having moved to the gauntlet site. Most of the teachers were off campus too. If Luke was going to get help, it was going to be from us.

  “Okay. Chloe and Bri, you need to go to Mr. Claymore’s office and ask him for one ounce of dried carob, two ounces of agrimony, and three ounces of barberry. If he’s not there, break in and get them.”

  My eyes widened. “Don’t you have a key? You’re his assistant.”

  She shook her head. “He took it away after I read that book and opened the portal.”

  Damn.

  “What will all those herbs do?” Chloe asked, nervously eyeing the bathroom.

  Shea rolled up her sleeves. “I’m going to constipate the shit out of him. No pun intended.”

  “I’m dying!” Luke screamed from the bathroom.