“Turn right,” Bernie instructed.

I drove along a small side road for another minute, when Bernie asked me to stop. The distinct sound of helicopter blades was whirling in the distance. Were they looking for us?

“Let’s get out here,” Bernie urged.

While Elodie and her son climbed out, Bernie turned to me.

“Brielle, after today I won’t see you again—well, not in this form. I’ll always be with you, but I won’t be permitted to converse with you like this.”

For some reason, that made my heart pinch. “Oh.”

He reached out a glowing hand and placed it on my chest, right over Lucifer’s devil mark. “I just want you to know that I heard every prayer, felt every ounce of pain and desperation, and I’m so incredibly proud of the woman you’ve become.”

A tingling trickled across my chest and then down my arms, tears pricking my eyes as I felt this incredible unconditional love wash over me. I didn’t understand the world, or why bad things happened. If we all had guardian angels, then why the hell couldn’t they just jump in and save us from that car accident, or bad relationship? But none of that mattered right then because in that moment, there was a perfect love filling my body, one I hadn’t felt in a long, long time. One that reminded me of my father, Shea, Lincoln, and every good thing I’d ever cared about in my life.

Finally, he removed his hand, and I looked down to find fresh bare skin. No mark.

“How?” I gasped.

When Mr. Claymore tried to touch it, it had conjured a portal for Lucifer.

“Lucifer is not all powerful. What was never agreed to cannot hold,” he stated cryptically.

Those words, ‘what was not agreed to,’ made me think of what I had agreed to down there. How I’d taken that glowing bone, and agreed to use Sera to open the gates of Heaven.

“Umm, Bernie… what if I did agree to something? Something bad.” My heart thumped in my chest, the sirens sounding closer than ever.

Bernie’s face fell and a frown pulled at his lips. “That’s something you need to figure out yourself, my dear. Come on, we don’t have much time.”

Shit. Sera was right. I never should’ve done that.

Pushing it from my mind, I hopped out of the car and ran to Elodie and her son’s side.

I let the cloak fall to the ground and popped my wings out. They sprang from my shoulders with a slight ache, but with a flew flaps, I knew I could fly just fine. That healer demon had fixed me up well.

“I can’t fly anyone over,” Bernie informed me.

Okay. I got this.

“I’m going to fly you over the border wall one at a time,” I told them. It seemed like the most logical plan, and from there we could head out on foot until we found a car, person, or something to help us. If I could get to a phone, I could call Shea or Lincoln.

“She’s here!” A male voice shouted from far away.

I spun around to see a flatbed truck full of demons was driving our way.

Elodie thrust her son into my arms. “Take him first.”

Without thinking, I grabbed the boy, strapping him to my body like a monkey.

He clung to me, crying out, “Mom!”

“You’re fine. Everything is going to be okay. Have you ever been flying?” I asked him, trying to keep my voice calm as I kicked off the ground and flapped my wings madly.

He yelped instead of answering me, and burrowed his head into my neck.

“I’ve got you,” I promised.

He was lighter than most dogs I knew, and I carried him with ease as we flew higher and higher over the fence. Looking down, I spotted a nice community park. A few kids were playing there, and as I descended, their parents stared at me wide-eyed. When I landed and set the boy down, one of the moms ran for her child in fear.

“I’m a Celestial in the Fallen Army, on official duty. Can you watch this boy for a minute?” I yelled out to her.

She stopped in her tracks, looking at my half-black, half-white wings suspiciously. I held out my arms, showing her the Michael and Raphael tattoos. Her gaze traced over them, until finally she nodded.

Crouching down, I met the boy’s frightened face. “I’m going to get your mom, and I’ll be right back, okay?”

His bottom lip quivered, but he nodded, and I pushed off the ground again.

Bernie would keep Elodie safe.

Right?

I flapped my wings as hard as I could, clearing the fence and looking down to find that all hell had broken loose. Bernie had erected some type of protective dome over Elodie and himself, and the demons were raining down on him with everything they had—a Brimstone demon, a Snakeroot, and an Abrus from what I could gather. I landed on the gravel behind them, and with little effort I called up my light magic, pleased to see it was still there, alive and well.

As the Abrus demon spun around to face me, I lashed out with my whip, wrapping it around his neck.

“Bernie! Get her over the fence!” I shouted, pulling the sword he’d given me.

“I’m not allowed!” he called back, taking hit after hit against his shield.

Angels and their stupid rules!

With a yank, I pulled the Abrus demon closer to me and came down hard across his back with my sword. It sliced into him, sending him sprawling out on the sidewalk. I used the distraction to try and sidestep the fight, intending to get behind Bernie’s shield so I could grab Elodie.

When I was a few feet from them, she screamed, “Look out!”

Everything happened in slow motion then.

I heard the firing of a gun, and I spun quickly to see the Abrus demon I’d cut down was standing, and pointing the gun at me. But before I knew what was happening, Bernie was in front of me in a golden streak of light, and then he was falling. The Abrus demon fired multiple shots into Bernie’s chest, taking him down like he was hunting an animal.

Shock and rage flooded through me, and I went berserk. I exploded with white light, throwing the Abrus demon back, walking towards him until I stood over him, flooding his body with the white-hot light and incinerating him to a crisp. My chest was heaving as I spun and slashed out wildly with my sword, cutting off the Snakeroot demon’s head. The Brimstone demon was standing there in shock, and I used his inaction to lunge and hack the demon’s horns right off his head.

“Come on!” I shouted at him like a maniac.

There was a little boy on the other side of the wall without his mom, and I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her or him. My guardian angel had been shot, and I was mere feet from my freedom. I would cut this guy into a hundred pieces if it meant we could all escape.

The Brimstone demon was clutching the stumps from his hacked-off horns, and looking at me like I was a psychotic maniac, which in that moment I was.

I didn’t wait, just charged him.

His self-preservation seemed to kick in then, because he burst forward, using his forearms to knock my weapon aside before he plowed into me. Dropping the sword, I flew backward as his arms slammed into my chest, falling hard on my already sore body, and groaning at the pain racing through me. The Brimstone demon hovered over me, waving his hands in the air like a lunatic. It took me too long to realize he was creating a portal.

No!

I couldn’t go back there.

Elodie dashed into my peripheral vision then, grabbing my sword and raising it. I kept my eyes trained on the Brimstone demon, holding his gaze so he wouldn’t notice her. He didn’t even glance her way when she raised the sword and brought it down on his neck, cutting off his head clean.

Black demon blood exploded onto me, and I rolled to the side to avoid getting hit with his big-ass body. I scurried to stand, chest heaving with adrenaline, and looked at the Necromancer. “Thank you. I’ll be right back,” I breathed, and then ran to Bernie’s side.

My guardian angel was lying in a heap on his back. His wings that seemed made of light were flickering in and out.

“Bernie!” I crashed to my knees beside him. His chest was full of holes, blood everywhere, but he was smiling as he stared up at the sky.

“I’m so sorry.” Tears rolled down my cheeks, and a sob lodged in my throat as the sirens drew closer.

His gaze found mine and he reached out, cupping my face. “Don’t be. I know not of death, and will be reborn.” His words should’ve given me comfort, but seeing his body, the one I’d loved and helped nurture for so long, in such a frightful sight killed me.

I now understood that his entire life was meant to save mine, and the epiphany pinched at my heart. “I love you,” I whimpered.

“And I you.”

What happened next was something I would never have believed, had Elodie not been there to witness it as well.

Bernie’s mouth fell open, eyes glazed over, and then… his soul stood up. He was made entirely of a golden light, and he shook himself from head to toe, as if ridding himself of the trauma associated with his human form, which still lay crumpled on the ground. He gave me one last look and a smile before taking off to the skies.

What. The. Fu—

“We need to go!” Elodie pressed urgently.

My gaze rose to the sky in fascination as Bernie shrank to a tiny golden blip, and then shook my head, trying to clear it.

I grabbed Elodie, and burst from the ground. Flapping my wings, I pushed past the fatigue and flew us over the wall, and lowered us into the park where the little boy was waiting with the mom I’d asked to watch him. When she saw my body covered in black blood, she grabbed her kid and ran off, leaving Elodie and Raksha’s son clutching his penguin.

I didn’t blame her.

Holy shit, I’d made it. I’d made it back to Angel City.

Lincoln was the only thing on my mind.

Chapter Sixteen

The park was now deserted. Locals who lived near the border knew the kind of shit that could go down, and were hiding in their houses. I was just about to start jogging down the street, to look for another car to steal when a big Fallen Army-issued van turned the corner.

Elodie shrank back, covering her son as if to protect him, but I pulled her out into the street.

“It’s okay. They’re safe. We’re safe now,” I told her, stepping into the street, and waving my arms rapidly.

The van came to a halt and when the doors opened, I burst into tears.

Darren and Blake stepped out of the car, eyes as wide as saucers.

“Blake! Darren!” I sobbed, and started running.

I crashed into Darren, who was nearest me, and his arms came around me, holding me tightly. “Jesus Christ, Brielle, we thought you were dead,” he murmured in my ear.

I pulled back, smiling. “I got out! I escaped, and these people helped me. I owe them my life,” I lied. If they were going to get asylum or whatever it was called, it had to be for a good reason.

Darren seemed to realize there were others there and stood taller. “Get in the van. There’s a riot on the other side of the wall.”

A riot? Just now? Because we left?