“I put up special protections ever since he showed up on school property and took you. Looks like they’re holding.” He looked proud, and even Gabriel clapped him on the back.

“Can you do them for the apartment complex? Otherwise I can’t send my mom and Shea back there. He’ll go after them to get to me.” My words came out in a panicked rush.

Raphael put both hands on my shoulders. “I can do better. I can put a protection over you, Noah, Shea, Mikey, your mom—anyone who you think will be in danger. It’ll follow you wherever you go.”

I frowned. “Are you allowed to do that?”

Wouldn’t that be against his ‘do not intervene’ plan?

He sighed, looking forlorn. “Going home is no longer important to me. Protecting humanity is.”

Whoa. I didn’t know what to say. For as long as I’d known Raph, he’d been all about not getting involved, not intervening, so he could go home. Now he’d given up on that?

Michael cleared his throat. “No judgment here, Brielle, but tell us more about the deal you made with Lucifer. When you touched the glowing bone.”

My cheeks burned with shame and I placed my head in my hands. “I’m sorry.” The tears started to fall. “I needed him to trust me, and he’d threatened Shea. I was trying to get closer to Sera and… it seemed casual, like I was just agreeing to help him, but then it turned into some kind of… spell.”

I told them everything I could remember.

Michael shared an interesting look with Raphael, then asked me, “What color was the bone when it glowed?”

All four angels leaned forward as I recalled the memory. I’d never forget anything about it. “It was a sickly dark green color, almost black,” I admitted.

Michael cursed under his breath and my eyes bugged out their sockets.

An archangel legit just said a curse word. This must be bad.

“I messed up bad, huh?” I asked them, my lip quivering.

Before Michael could speak, and probably confirm that I had indeed messed up very, very badly, Raphael stepped forward.

“You did your best given the circumstances.”

That wasn’t an answer.

I looked to Michael. “What does it mean?”

He was a straight shooter, no sugarcoating. I imagined it was what made his daughter so badass, if the rumors were true.

Michael’s blue eyes found mine and he exhaled forcefully. “Eventually, Lucifer will come back for you, and you’ll have no choice but to help him do what you’ve promised. He’ll control your body and mind, because you’ve agreed to it.”

Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

The room started to spin and I stumbled backward, falling onto the small sofa in Raph’s office.

Uriel, the quietest of the bunch, suddenly stepped out of the shadows. “Maybe not. Maybe she can fight him.”

Michael seemed disbelieving. “An agreement made with Lucifer of her own free will? Who on Earth could fight that?”

Uriel shrugged. “I could. You could. Raph and Gabriel could.”

Michael sighed. “We’re angels. We’re Lucifer’s equals.”

Uriel pointed at me. “She’s part us, part him.”

“Part human as well,” Michael added, but his facial features had changed. It seemed as though he was looking at me in a new light.

“I believe she can. With the right teacher,” Raphael offered. “Someone who knows the weakness of a human mind, but also has the power of mind control to test her.”

Michael’s eyebrows shot up. “Emberly?” Now he was rubbing his chin, clearly intrigued.

“Yes. Emberly would be a wonderful teacher,” Raphael admitted.

Michael laughed, and the room filled with light. “Someone else will have to ask her. Anything I ask her to do is met with an eye roll and a ‘no way, Dad.’” He said ‘no way, Dad’ like a sassy teenage girl, and it made me grin.

I raised my hand. “I’ll ask her. I mean, young woman to young woman, maybe she’ll help me out.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “Good luck.” He winked.

It tickled me to see an archangel having very real and normal teenager problems.

The angels started to disband, gathering their things to leave, when I cleared my throat.

“There is one last thing we should speak about.” My voice wavered a little.

The angels froze, looking down at me, waiting for me to share what was on my mind.

I took a deep breath. “So… I just wanted to inform you all that I’m very grateful to be back and all that, but…” Why was I so nervous?

“But you’re going after Lincoln?” Raphael finished for me.

Damn, I’d forgotten his mind-reading abilities.

I sighed. “Yes, I am. I can’t just let him…” God, I couldn’t even say it.

Michael frowned. “San Francisco is the Devil’s playground. You can’t go there unless you’re deep undercover. Anyone associated with Fallen Academy, or our army is killed on sight.”

Oh God. That put a wrench in my plan, but I’d figure something out soon.

I shrugged. “Then I’ll go undercover. I’ll dye my hair, take a death mark, do whatever it takes to get Lincoln back. I need him to know I’m still alive.” Tears lined my eyes.

“I forgot how passionate human soul mates are. It’s very endearing,” Gabriel said casually.

Raphael froze, and Gabriel seemed to understand that he’d said too much.

The entire world stopped spinning in that moment. Something I’d known deep down inside since the first time I’d met Lincoln had been confirmed.

We’re soul mates.

I’d wanted to kill him when I first met him, but I’d also been so attracted to him. He got under my skin, and worked me up from the very beginning.

“We usually let the humans figure that out on their own,” Raphael scolded Gabriel.

The archangel winced. “Right, I’m sorry. I don’t spend as much time around them. I forget how to act.”

I just sat there, breathing in and out, over and over again.

Lincoln Grey is my soul mate.

I jumped up from the couch. “You have to help me!” I pled.

Michael, who was closest to me, placed a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll help you get as close as possible, but we can’t retract our wings like you can. If you’re seen with us, you’ll meet your death.”

I nodded. “I understand. Just send me in the right direction of where you think Lincoln will be, and I’ll go from there.”

My heart was smashing around my chest like a ping-pong ball.

“Hold on.” Raphael held out his hands. “You can’t run off into the night. Going to San Francisco takes preparation, and you can’t go alone. I’ll send a team of—”

“Noah and Shea will accompany me,” I blurted out, knowing in my heart that they wouldn’t let me go alone, even without asking them yet.

Raphael frowned. “What about your schooling? You could be gone weeks, months even. Noah is needed in the war. He’s our greatest healer.”

I nodded. “I understand that, but nothing is more important to me than finding Lincoln. Nothing is more important to Shea than being with me, and nothing is more important to Noah than being with Shea. It’s a chain reaction. If I go, they’ll fight to come with me. I know it.”

Raphael nearly went cross-eyed as he followed my explanation. “Human relationships are so complicated,” he sighed.

Michael was grinning. He had a human wife and a daughter, so he knew exactly what I was talking about. “God help the person who tries to keep soul mates apart.” He was looking at Raphael.

Raph gave him a quizzical look, which finally turned to resignation. “I’ve already broken my promise not to intervene, so I’ll cover for Noah in the war healing efforts. Come by my office tomorrow morning. I’ll have the protections ready for you three, so Lucifer can’t track you.”

Bursting forward, I flung myself into his arms. “Thank you! You have no idea what this means to me.” Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes.

His arms came around me, holding me tightly. “You’re very welcome, Brielle. I sometimes envy the passionate yet reckless love that humans feel,” he admitted as I stepped away.

Michael was grinning. “You should try it sometime. My wife has a nice lady friend I could introduce you to.”

Raphael looked mortally offended, his cheeks turning pink. “All right, this meeting is over.”

We all burst into laughter as Raphael pretended to arrange papers on his desk.

After walking out, I kept Michael behind in the courtyard to speak with him for a moment.

The way the sun hit his golden hair and tanned skin made him look just shy of real. It took me a moment to remember why I’d held him back, as I was so fascinated with staring at him.

“What motivates Emberly?” I finally asked. “What can I offer her to teach me the whole mind control thing?”

He chuckled. “Well, she has a penchant for old comic books, and is always trying to earn money doing chores around the house to buy them. She can’t legally get a job until she’s sixteen, so…”

Comic books and money. I could work with that. “All right. Thank you.” I waved him off, and started to walk inside, due to meet Shea in the lunchroom.

“Brielle?” he called back.

I spun around and his wings were fully extending, ready for lift-off.

“She has her mother’s sharp tongue, and independent streak. Good luck.” He winked and then burst from the ground, taking flight.

I barely registered his words; all I could think of was if I was ever going to see Lincoln wink again.

When I walked in the double doors of the lunchroom, I saw the main crowd was gone and only a few students were milling in the space.

Shea saw me and ran up to tackle hug me, holding on longer than usual.

“I’m going to hug you forever now. I missed you so much,” she informed me as we clung to each other.

Laughter bubbled out of me. “I missed you too.”

I still couldn’t believe I was back. It didn’t feel real.

Her face lit up at my approval of our future long hugging sessions, but then she leaned in closely, raising one eyebrow. “How did the meeting go? Did he grill you about the promise you made to Lucy?”

All my friends had picked up on my pet name for the Devil and were using it every chance they could.

I shrugged. “A little, but they were cool. Said I should ask Michael’s daughter to train me to withstand Lucy’s mind control. I was going to go find her now.”

Shea’s eyes widened. “I sort of know her! I’ll introduce you.”

“Cool,” I replied half-heartedly, but grabbed Shea’s arm before she turned to leave. She spun back to face me, concern in her gaze.