A week? Then what? I didn’t want to know.

“Okay,” I croaked.

He hung up, and I shoved my face into the pillow and screamed. I screamed with pain, rage, and utter desperation. I felt like I was so full of all of those emotions that they would drown me if I didn’t let them out. Too much was going wrong lately. I’d lost Sera, my devil mark was permanent, my brother was stuck as a beast, and I wasn’t totally convinced I was going to get my mom out of Demon City.

I needed something, just one thing, to go right.

My phone buzzed with a text.

Mr. Rincor: Are you coming to class?

Shit! I was his only student, so it was kind of hard to ditch. With Fred graduated, and my twenty-watt bulb hands, I’d tried to drop the class, but Mr. Rincor wouldn’t let me.

Jumping off the bed, I wiped my eyes, and put all thoughts of my brother out of my mind as I grabbed my bag.

I texted Mr. Rincor that I had a family emergency and would be there in five minutes, then hauled ass out my dorm and into the open quad.

Lincoln was just leaving Raphael’s office. When he saw me, a smile lit up his face and he called me over.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked him. “I thought you had work.” He was supposed to be out there doing army stuff today.

He held up a pair of keys. “Raphael called me in early. I got my new apartment assignment. A two-bedroom three doors down from Noah.”

I raised my eyebrows in appraisal. “Not too shabby, Mr. Grey.”

He grinned. “And Raphael gave the groundskeeper job to Mrs. Finley, so she and her girls can get out of my cramped trailer and have the cottage.”

“Wow, that’s awesome!” Of course, that made me think of Mikey, since he’d lived in the cottage for a short time, but when he got back, he’d be in the dorms with me, and that was good. I didn’t want to bring up Mikey now and ruin the moment of happiness about his new place.

He looked off into the open space. “Guess I don’t need my trailer anymore. Maybe it’s time to sell it.”

I frowned at the idea. After all, he’d told me it was his parents’ camping trailer and full of happy memories. Selling it would be a mistake. “No way. It’s a badass little pad. Just hang on to it for a while. No need to make rash decisions.”

He nodded, grinning, and pulling me in for a kiss. “Small gathering at my new place tonight. Bring your friends.”

My lips curled into a smile, and I’d stepped up on my tiptoes to kiss him again when a loud throat clearing sounded behind me.

I craned my neck to see Mr. Rincor and Mr. Claymore standing there. Whoops.

Lincoln took a step back. “See you later,” he said and bailed.

I winced, turning to fully face my professors. “Sorry. I really did have a family thing. My brother….” I let the sentence hang in the air as a thought struck me.

Why is Mr. Claymore here?

Mr. Rincor nodded. “I’m aware of the sensitive situation. Mr. Claymore has made you something. Please join us in the classroom.” His voice was monotone, but his words spoke volumes.

What the hell would the head Light Mage have for me? Was I in trouble?

The two tall men simply led the way inside as I shuffled behind them, a jumble of nerves.

Once we entered the small classroom, I set my bag down and stared at my palms. This class was so defeating. Every time Mr. Rincor tried to work with me, it either yielded super unimpressive twenty-watt lightbulb results, or some dark blob flew from my palms .

Mr. Claymore pulled up a chair and set an amulet on the table. It was a mixture of silver and gold, in a braided chain with a large two-inch clear pearlescent oval stone pendant.

My eyes widened. “Whoa, is that for me?”

He chuckled. “Normally it would be inappropriate for a teacher to give a student jewelry, but yes, it’s for you.”

I raised one eyebrow. “What is it?”

Clearly this wasn’t a normal pendant.

His lips quirked. “Brielle, you’re a Celestial blessed by four angels. There is no way you do not carry their light inside of you.”

His words shook me. After the Lucifer tattoo, the dark magic and all that, I hadn’t realized how much I needed to hear that. My eyes grew misty.

“But my light… it’s broken.” I gestured to my hands. When that Succubus had tried to attack me, light hadn’t shot out of my hands, darkness had.

He shook his head and picked up the necklace. “I think it’s hiding. I can’t remove the Dark Prince’s mark, but I can trap the dark powers within you.”

With that statement, he confirmed it. I had dark powers. I hadn’t even told him yet about the black whip I could produce. But his words about containing it gave me hope.

“So I wear this and no more dark blobs flying out?” I reached for the pendant.

He nodded. “That’s right. Unless you take it off.”

My heart pained then, Sera wasn’t here to experience this with me. She’d be so happy for me. I missed her. It’d been too long, but I couldn’t come up with a viable plan about how to get her back. Shea said she’d open a portal for me and I could try to call to her, but that was a huge risk and a shot in the dark. Especially after learning from my history class that our world directly overlaid Hell. Sera would be back in Inferno, unless someone in Hell moved her. That was a possibility I couldn’t even think about.

Mr. Claymore stood and took the necklace, attaching it around my neck. The moment the stone rested against the tattooed mark on my chest, I felt a tingle throughout my body as a weight seemingly lifted from me.

“Whoa,” I whispered. Taking in a deep breath, I felt lighter than ever before, as if the stress I’d been carrying, the self-doubt and worry just… disappeared.

“Feel something? That’s a good sign,” Mr. Claymore added.

Footsteps approached as Mr. Rincor made his way over to my desk.

“All right, Brielle. I have a feeling this has been our roadblock. Let’s give it a go now, what do you say?”

My light studies professor was so patient and sweet with me. We’d been through a lot on my journey, including months of him telling me just to not use my powers, and nearly giving up on me. There was a time when we’d both admitted I may not have light powers within me beyond my barely glowing palms. But now… now I had hope, which that was a good and dangerous thing. Hope could let you down, but it could also redeem you.

I nodded nervously as the two professors stepped behind me. They weren’t worried about getting blasted with light. No, they stepped behind me because when I usually tried this, dark magic flew out of me and tried to hurt whoever was in my way.

Holding my hands up, I pointed them in front of me at the vacant room.

“I’m nervous.” The confession flew from my lips.

“Whatever happens, or doesn’t happen, it’s okay, Brielle,” Mr. Rincor’s smooth voice assured from behind me.

Okay. Here goes nothing.

I wish Sera was here.

Taking a deep breath, I felt for my Celestial power, which was a bit like a buzzing electrical feeling. It was always there but only awakened when I focused on it. Shining my attention on it now, I felt the high-wire buzz run throughout my body, stronger than ever before.

Maybe this was going to work.

One more deep breath and I pushed, hard. A bright buttery yellow light shot from my hands and illuminated the room, forcing me to turn my head, and stumble backward to avoid blindness.

“Holy mother of Mary,” Mr. Rincor breathed.

I shook my hands, trying to dim my power, but there was still an immense glow. Turning to look at my palms, I saw the glow was no longer there, but in the middle of the room was a floating, glowing… orb.

“What the heck is that?” I asked.

Mr. Rincor stepped out from behind me, his jaw slack and his eyes wide. “That is an archangel power. A Celestial orb.”

I swallowed hard. “Okay, but what exactly does it do?”

Mr. Rincor walked over to the far wall where a few swords were mounted and pulled one off. Then he approached the orb and dipped the sword into it.

“Be careful,” I deadpanned.

Now Mr. Claymore had walked out and was staring curiously at the spectacle before us. He seemed as baffled as I was.

Mr. Rincor pulled the sword from the orb and it was… on fire. Well, that wasn’t quite right. It was glowing with… light.

“Watch this,” the light studies professor warned. Then he brought the sword down slowly into one of the desks and cut through it like butter. It crashed in half, falling to the floor, and leaving Mr. Claymore and me with our eyebrows raised.

“Um, is that normal? That I made that?” I hated that word ‘normal,’ but I also desperately yearned to be normal. Catch-22.

Mr. Rincor looked at me with blazing blue eyes. “It’s incredible. This could change the war. If you were to make these orbs and leave them for the troops in the war zones, it would greatly improve our odds.”

I swallowed hard.

“Let’s talk to Raphael. She’s still learning.” Mr. Claymore laid a protective hand on my shoulder.

“Of course,” Mr. Rincor stated, looking a bit guilty. “In time, I meant.”

We all stared at the glowing orb.

“So, what do we do with it?” Mr. Claymore finally asked.

Mr. Rincor rubbed his chin. “You can throw an Abrus demon into one of these things, and they’ll dissolve. But it could also hurt a student, so I’ll have to have Raphael break it down.”

Right. Okay. Basically I was a dangerous weapon. Awesome.

The professor turned to me. “Let’s hold off on doing that again until class on Monday. We’ll go for something less grand.” He winked.

I nodded, chuckling. “You got it.”

To be honest, it had taken a lot out of me; I was ready to take a nap after that energy outburst.

Mr. Claymore motioned to the necklace. “Keep it on and I think you won’t have any… unpleasant magical issues anymore.” He meant the dark magic, of course. The unpleasant “magical issue” was that I had Lucifer’s Archangel power inside of me, to a certain degree.

I just nodded, feeling drained of energy all of a sudden.

“Can we end class early? I’m tired,” I confessed to the two gentlemen.

Mr. Rincor shook himself. “Oh, of course. You’ll probably be drained for a few days. That much light leaving you all at once is… something.”

I just bobbed my head and shuffled out of the room. Since this was my last class, I decided to go back to the dorm and take a nap.

Pulling out my phone, I shot Shea a quick text telling her about Lincoln’s party tonight, and asked her to wake me if I wasn’t up by dinner.

I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. The moment I saw my bed, I crashed onto it, and all thought left me as the fatigue won over.

Chapter Ten