by Eva Brandt
I was already launching myself into the air, supported by the spiritual magic that was my birthright. I didn’t need my wings to fly, not this time.
Contrary to what most humans thought, angels were among the most brutal, deadly species in the world. The damage they could do in a short amount of time boggled the mind. They could split continents with a thought and wipe out the population of countries within the expanse of minutes. People might believe angels were generous and kind, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Angels couldn’t care less about humans. The only reason why they hadn’t completely destroyed the world until now was the moral dictates they followed. The Supreme Being forbade them from abusing their power and kept them in check. The only exception to that rule was the Guardian Angel order, but everyone agreed they didn’t really count.
Over eighty-percent of the time, nephilim were born as demons with some angelic characteristics. As far as I could tell, Darling belonged to this category. But on occasion, nephilim were angels with demon souls, and I was one of them. I’d always tried very hard to hide that, because I knew I could turn into something very dangerous if I wasn’t careful.
I didn’t care about that anymore. As far as I was concerned, the world had betrayed me one too many times. I wanted revenge.
They’d killed my darkling, the one person who’d accepted us in every way. She might not have realized it, but she’d always been the light to my darkness and the darkness to my light. Without her, I couldn’t exist, not anymore.
Stefan had enough presence of mind to grab Lyssa’s soul and jump out of the way. I would have kept him from getting hurt anyway, but it was better to not have to worry about that.
A blast of heavenly fire emerged from my blade. I directed it at Satan and when it made contact with him, his crimson skin was scorched right off. As I had hoped, his resistance to magic was useless when confronted with celestial energies.
“Mikael, stop!” Darling shouted beneath me. “At this rate, you’ll kill yourself!”
She was right. I’d rejected my divine background for the better part of my life, so now, angelic magic, when used excessively, was like poison. But I didn’t need to survive this if I brought this bastard down.
Satan wasn’t listening to her either. Infuriated by my attack, he roared. “Arrogant swine! Burn!”
A whirlwind of fire flew my way, threatening to consume me. I ducked and the spell almost hit Cain, Lilith, and Eve instead.
Lilith cast a quick shield around them and avoided immolation, but it was a close call. As for me, I took pleasure in taunting Satan with his failure. “If I burn, so will you, Jax Masters. And it would appear so will your little friends.”
After that, I abandoned all banter and flew toward him. When I attempted to blast him with heavenly fire again, it didn’t work. He fought back with a blast of his own and our opposing spells hit each other with a resounding boom. Jax was mostly unaffected, but I was thrown back, the force of the impact making me lose hold of the magic that was keeping me aloft.
I regained my balance at the last minute and saved myself from colliding with the wall. Grimacing, I squeezed my blade tighter. I needed to be more careful in my attacks, because another episode like that could destroy my chances to win this battle.
It occurred to me then that there must be a reason why angels preferred to use swords. They could channel their magic to launch devastating ranged attacks, but they rarely did so, favoring close-quarters combat.
If they’d been demons, I’d have said it might be because they enjoyed getting their hands dirty. But that couldn’t be it, because angels were above all else, practical people. Even those who liked bloodshed wouldn’t let it influence their fighting style and turn it into something less efficient.
Simple logic stated that they must’ve had similar issues before, with their spells clashing against demonic magic. Maybe I could follow their example and use my sword too—for its actual purpose, to cut things.
It wasn’t easy to get close to Satan, but I did it. My connection to Stefan was still in place, and it helped more than he realized. He might be a hell hound and his elemental magic might not have much effect on Satan, but my senses were still sharper than they would’ve been otherwise.
If Callum hadn’t been out of it, I’d have done better, but on the other hand, he would’ve probably reacted even more poorly to Lyssa’s death than I had.
What was I thinking? That was exactly what these bastards needed—a lesson in what a true incubus could do.
But since Callum couldn’t give them that lesson, it was up to me to compensate. I reached for the very core of the academy and called out to it for aid. It answered, just like I’d known it would.
Tentacles of dark shadow exploded from the ground, wrapping themselves around Satan and giving me a stationary, more vulnerable target. I wasn’t directly related to the symbiotes of the island, but they sensed my underlining nature anyway and wanted to help me.
It was just like during those horrible days when Lyssa had been in a coma. The demonic magic tried to consume Satan, the same way it had eaten the students that had tried to get in our way. I couldn’t create a demonic pustule—or a carnivorous, cannibalistic pimple, as Lyssa had so eloquently put it—but I didn’t need to, not when it was creating itself.
Cain and the others watched the whole scene in visible dismay. “This is ridiculous,” he spat from beneath us. “I won’t have an angel get in our way, not after everything we’ve sacrificed.”
“Nephilim!” TB hissed from her position on my shoulder. She’d reached her limits too and she wouldn’t accept more insults addressed to me. “He is a nephilim, not an angel!”
He couldn’t understand her, but he had no problems grasping the full extent of her fury. TB launched herself off me, toward Cain. She landed on his face and dug her fangs into his neck.
Unlike me, Cain had no resilience to her venom. He was powerful and had long ago left his days as a human behind, but TB had taken him by surprise. It only took her a couple of seconds to paralyze him. If she held on for a little longer, she’d kill him.
“No!” Eve screeched, and her voice held so much anguish I might have felt bad for her had she not tried to eat Lyssa. “Get off my son.”
She was close enough to TB that she got to my familiar before I could let her know of the danger. Eve was supposed to be a ghost, but at one point, she’d obviously gained physical substance, as she had no trouble grabbing TB.
I was too far to save my familiar and Stefan hadn’t realized what was going on. Meph and Callum were still immobilized, and although Meph was trying to free himself, he wouldn’t be fast enough.
TB didn’t have a chance. “Snake!” Eve screamed as she squeezed my familiar in her fist. “You’ve already taken my life from me! You won’t take him too!”
It had been an entirely different snake that had led Eve to her fall from grace and he was not here. But pointing that out wouldn’t help me or TB.
TB hissed in pain and cried out for me. “Mikael!”
I tried to go to her aid. Satan stopped me, sending another bolt of magic my way. I avoided it, but by the time I recovered, it was much too late to help TB.
But there was one person who could reach my familiar, someone who cared about TB almost as much as I did. Lyssa’s body might have died, but her soul was still very much present and had some awareness of what was going on.
The sphere that held her essence flashed forward, turning as sharp as a dagger as it flew. It struck Eve’s throat and came out on the other side.
The whole episode was almost anticlimactic. I didn’t process what had happened until the light in Eve’s eyes died and she went down like a rock. She didn’t hit the floor. Her body just faded away, like it had never been there at all.
Now free, TB hastily retreated, but she didn’t return to my side. Instead, she followed my silent wish and went to Alyssa’s soul.
She tried to help it an
d cradle it between her wings, but it didn’t work. Fragments of black dust were already appearing on the previously pure white sphere.
“Oh no…” Lilith said, her mouth dropping open in horror. “What have you done?”
Killing someone left traces on the soul, even if that death had been well earned. Before she’d done this, Lyssa had still been an innocent. She’d come close to killing Professor Jones, but she’d gotten away with it because of his nature.
In this case, we were not so lucky and this was the worst possible moment for Lyssa’s soul to suffer from any kind of modification.
“Lyssa, don’t panic,” Mephistopheles said quickly. “You were only defending TB and Eve was already dead. You’re not a killer.”
It was impossible to tell if the soul was listening. It didn’t have eyes and ears, so it might not register Mephistopheles’s clever words. But it did understand some things, just like it had understood the danger TB had been in.
The black flickers started to fade away into a less alarming gray. Lilith wasn’t too convinced it made any difference. “There’s no way to return hope to the world now!” she shouted. “This is your fault, Mikael! Why couldn’t you all stay out of it? Now, we’ve lost everything, because Alyssa had to protect your familiar.”
“And she shouldn’t have had to do that if you hadn’t stabbed us in the back.”
“There was no other way! Eve deserved better! She’s lived a half-life for millennia because of Lucifer.”
“And you thought making Alyssa suffer in her stead was better.” Mephistopheles chuckled. “You know, I still remember that day when Lucifer made the decision to turn Eve into the first Sacrifice. We’ve been sacrificing humans ever since, trying to reach that goal, to find our hope. But we never managed it, did we, Lilith?”
“We almost did!” Lilith cried. “Why are you so against it now, Mephistopheles? I know you care about Alyssa, but she’s just one person. How can she possibly compare to the fate of the world?”
“How can she not?” he asked. “I stopped worrying about the fate of the world when I left my official position of High Lord of Hell and came here. You might not be like me, but even so, you have to accept that you’re a demon. In the end, we’ll always act selfishly, for our own benefit. I’m not any different and neither are you.”
Lilith said nothing, and all of a sudden, I understood. “Did you love her, Lilith?” I asked. “Did you love your dear Eve?”
If that was the case, if there had been a romantic relationship between the two of them, everything made sense. As Lyssa had once stated, it had always been a little weird that Lilith would support the Adamson clan, even if they were the product of her ex-husband’s relationship with another woman.
“That’s none of your business, child,” Lilith snapped. “And if you think you’ve won by attacking her now, you’re very wrong. Eve is far more powerful than Alyssa can ever hope to be.
“I like you well enough, Alyssa,” she told my lover’s soul, “but you have to admit, at least to yourself, that this power you’re using isn’t yours. It’s stolen and it belongs to another. You owe it to yourself and to the world to give it back, especially now, before it’s too late.”
Alyssa’s essence shivered. She was still blaming herself for what had happened to Eve. I couldn’t allow that, couldn’t let her feel guilty, when she’d only attacked Eve to save TB’s life. “You owe the world nothing,” I told her. “If you want to keep her power, do so. We’ll bring you back and you’ll stay with us.”
It was the wrong thing to say. I wanted us to be together forever, but I’d forgotten that Lyssa didn’t trust our feelings for her, not really.
Several things happened at the same time. Lyssa’s soul started to float upwards, trying to run away. Satan bellowed and reached for it, his magic trying to tie it down. I got in his way, taking the brunt of the blast.
Stefan’s hell hound magic, combined with the gift I’d given him, assaulted Satan, keeping him from advancing. The tentacles of demonic energy I’d summoned continued to attempt to eat him. Shaking in fury, Lilith tried to attack them, but she missed.
Mephistopheles finally broke free of the shackles that had been keeping him trapped until now. His long tail surged forward like a whip, grabbing her by the waist.
In the chaos, Darling made a mad dash for Lyssa’s abandoned body. Since we were so busy trying to keep Lyssa’s soul safe and fighting off Satan, we hadn’t been able to protect her mortal shell as well.
Darling took shameless advantage of that. She grabbed Lyssa’s disembodied head and placed it back where it was supposed to be.
Because of the flaming sword Satan had used to decapitate Lyssa, her wounds were cauterized, which made it simpler for Darling to attach the head. Then, she pressed her hand to Lyssa’s forehead and started to chant.
“Forces of darkness, come to my call. Return this form to the land of the living. In the name of Death itself, this I command.”
No… She couldn’t possibly be doing what I thought she was doing.
“Darling, no!” Lilith cried. “You’ll destroy everything!”
Darling ignored her. Maybe she wouldn’t have, had Lilith not already told us something similar when Lyssa had killed Eve.
As Darling continued to chant, Lyssa’s soul was tugged down, dragged back toward her dead body. Normally, I wouldn’t have had a problem with this, since it was similar to what I’d been planning to do. However, the spell Darling was casting was necromantic in nature. Between that and the divine energies she exuded, this couldn’t end well.
The necromantic construct would end up Darling’s slave and that could extend to Lyssa’s soul too. I would die before I let that happen.
Utterly ignoring the fact that Satan was still there, I tried to fly toward Darling. I was halfway there when Cain opened his eyes and lashed out at me with a bolt of telekinetic magic.
He could barely move a muscle because of what TB had done to him, but his power still lingered under his skin and so he was a huge pest. It wouldn’t have taken me long to send TB to finish the job, but Mephistopheles was close enough to help out. He released Lilith from his hold and slapped Cain with his tail, making him lose his focus.
Unfortunately for me, Cain was the least of our problems. In the time Cain had bought, Darling had completed her ritual. A bright blue light settled over Lyssa’s dead body, entering the corpse, then fading away.
Lilith let out a disappointed breath. “Oh, Darling… Why?”
“Because the soul was going to escape and we were about to lose everything,” Darling shot back. “And because this has gone on long enough.” She clenched her jaw, her eyes sparkling with a fury that rivaled Satan’s. “This place is awful. It destroys people. Even Alyssa has lost that softness that she used to have.”
“Softness isn’t a good thing,” I replied. “I think you made that perfectly clear when you betrayed my trust and Lyssa’s.”
“It was for a purpose.” Darling shook her head, tears glinting in her eyes. “Don’t you see, Mikael? We don’t need an Academy of the Devil. The Devil is just one person and he can stay that way, forever.”
“No one can stay a leader forever,” Mephistopheles said between gritted teeth. “Too much power tends to drive people mad.”
“Do you really think so? The Supreme Being does it. No one has ever tried to take the throne of The Celestial Realm.”
I actually had the feeling that wasn’t true. There was a running joke in the demon community that Jesus had been born on Earth precisely because he’d challenged The Supreme Being for the title of God. Michael hadn’t confirmed it when we’d spoken, but he had said he found the results of that incident ironic.
Either way, that didn’t matter, because Darling’s words didn’t explain her actions. “How do you think this will help solve things?”
“Oh, Mikael… You weren’t paying attention, were you? The magic of hope lies within Alyssa’s soul. But her elemental powers still reside i
nside her body. And through that I will destroy this school and everyone that stands in my path.” She took a deep breath, as if bracing herself for something very painful. “Including you.”
Meph’s Mutiny
Once upon a time, when I’d been High Lord of Hell, I’d stood by the side of the first Satan and supported him in all his actions. When I’d grown weary of it, I’d joined Lucifer, since he’d seemed a far better option.
Officially, now that Lucifer was no longer Satan, I was supposed to have pledged fealty to the current ruler of The Infernal Realm. But I’d never liked following rules much, so instead, I’d come to The Academy of the Devil, to be its dean.
I prided myself on the fact that there hadn’t been a lot of student deaths during my tenure. Not as many as in the past, at least.
And now, here we were, with a crazed nephilim threatening to destroy everything we’d worked so hard to create.
I should’ve cared a little more about that and about her threats. Instead, I mostly found it funny.
At one point during this whole disastrous night, something inside me had cracked. I couldn’t have cared less about Lilith’s betrayal. I’d seen it coming. I didn’t mind them draining me of my magic to give Eve some substance.
But they had crossed the line when they’d dared to hurt Lyssa.
In a way, I knew it was my fault. I should’ve seen what Lyssa was sooner. I should’ve helped her more. When I’d begun to suspect things, I should’ve forced the information out of Lucifer despite the lingering connection between us.
But I hadn’t, and now, Lyssa was dead. And I didn’t care about the school anymore, not really.
When Darling Masters revealed the ace up her sleeve, I laughed. “You think you can control a necromantic construct created from Lyssa’s body? By all means. Do your worst.”
Darling’s expression of triumph faltered. “You’re not going to try to stop me?”
“I don’t have to,” I said with a grin. “You’re already doing an excellent job yourself. Children shouldn’t play with things they don’t understand.”