Our guards had walked through the small atrium, and were now standing before an open classroom door.
As we approached, Lincoln stepped in front of me and walked up to the door, peering in. The guys had to step out of the way to avoid his wings. Lincoln must have been satisfied with what he saw because he entered the room, his wings folding back to get through the door.
The guards scowled down at us as we followed him inside, Shea in front of me as I tucked my own wings back to fit.
My eyes fell to my watch. We were only permitted to be here one hour. My gut told me if we overstayed our welcome, they had every right to do something about it. Now that Lincoln had moved out of the way, I could see a cheap card table had been set up with a hand-drawn poster in front. ‘Fight Night Sign-Ups’ was scrawled across it in red paint that dripped to look like blood.
“I knew it would be you, Shelly.” The girl who’d spoken sat behind the desk with a big hairy guy. She was staring at Shea.
Shea gritted her teeth, casting me a glance.
Damn, I wish I knew mind reading, because I had no idea who this bitch was.
The girl stood. She was tall with bright pink hair, and had the death mark tattoo on her wrist that marked her as a Dark Mage. “When they told me some prissy Fallen Academy kids wanted to sign up for Fight Night, I just knew it would be that bitch Shelly.” She winked.
Shea’s breath was coming out in ragged gasps, and I knew it was taking everything within her to not run over, and smack this girl down.
I stepped forward. “It’s Shea, actually. And I’m Brielle. You might want to write that down so you spell it right on our million-dollar check.”
She looked momentarily shocked at my words, but she smoothly covered it with a laugh and looked at her hairy boyfriend. “Oh my God, they are adorable. I can’t wait to pulverize them.”
At her last words, a blackish green magic rose up from her hands and I froze.
Shea had seemed to find her Zen now, stepping forward and holding out her hand. In it was our entrance money. “So where do we sign?” Shea added, ignoring the sickly looking magic exuding from the girl’s hands.
The magic retreated and the girl crossed her arms, looking at the one hundred-dollar bill in Shea’s hand.
“Oh, hun. That was the Tainted Academy price. If you want to enter, it’s going to be a grand. Each.” She grinned as her boyfriend laughed.
Bitch.
“We don’t have that kind of money!” I shouted. This was all a shit show. They weren’t even going to let us enter. How was I going to get my mom out of here now? We’d trained for nothing!
She shrugged. “Then run along, sweetie. Your boy toy isn’t looking so hot.”
I followed her gaze to Lincoln, who was grimacing, sweat rolling down his neck. I’d forgotten how badly being there affected him.
“Do you take Angel Express?” Lincoln asked and whipped out his credit card.
My eyes went wide, as did Pink Hair’s.
“You really want a beatdown that badly?” she scoffed.
Shea and I nodded, which felt stupid considering what she’d just asked us.
“Fine. It’s your funeral.” Leaning forward, she snatched Lincoln’s card, swiping it into an attachment on the end of her phone. She also had a little printer set up next to a cash box.
“I need to see ID,” the boyfriend growled.
Shea and I stepped forward, pulling out our Angel City IDs, which showed our name, school address, and age.
He swiped them into some machine and it started printing.
My gaze went over to Lincoln, he was signing his credit card receipt. I wanted to tell him not to, that I’d never be able to repay him two grand, but he just looked at me and winked.
Ah, the wink. Sigh. Wink number four. Each one was engraved in my heart. I was a sucker for Lincoln Grey’s winks.
“Brielle Atwater,” the hairy boyfriend said, looking at his girlfriend.
Her eyes narrowed on me, and then she grinned. “Mike’s sister, I presume?”
In that instant, I saw red. If she said one more word about my brother, I was painting this room with her blood.
“Knock it off,” Shea barked at her, snatching our IDs back from the hairy boyfriend.
She was trying to bait me into a fight. I knew that, and still I couldn’t get myself to calm down.
The boyfriend handed us four shiny barcode tickets. “Each fighter gets to bring someone to claim the body,” he stated as I tucked the tickets into my pocket.
“See you on Fight Night,” the girl called with fists clenched.
Shea smirked. “I hope you’re competing.”
Pink Hair nodded, rolling out her wrists. “Luckily my hands have healed from her brother’s face.” She looked at me and smirked.
I‘m going to jail for murder.
My wings snapped out, and with one gust I was airborne, and flying at her. Her face was about to get ripped off.
A sharp pain shot through my right wing, and I yelped as I was flung backward.
Lincoln.
Motherfu—
“She wants this! You’re playing into her hand. Save it,” he whispered.
The searing pain in my wing was throbbing as he kept an iron grip on it. I’d been thrown against his body, and he now had one hand wrapped around my waist as well.
The girl was grinning at me, blackish green magic erupting from her palms once more. She was ready to throw down.
“Let’s go,” Shea snapped.
With another deep cleansing breath, I forced myself to walk away. I would save her ass-whooping for the ring. My eyes remained on hers while I allowed Lincoln to pull me away.
Payback was going to be a bitch.
We were escorted to the car quickly, where Noah sat anxiously behind the wheel. Once we were all inside—Shea and I in the back, with Lincoln up front—Noah started to drive home.
“How’d it go?” he asked. He looked like shit—sweaty, ashen, and he hadn’t winked once the whole time we’d been in Demon City.
“Fine. They’ve enrolled,” Lincoln told him.
“Um, not fine,” I countered, leaning forward. “I can’t believe you spent two grand on that. It’ll take me two years to pay that back.” Or more if I was going to be helping out my mom.
He chuckled, looking down at me. “You’re welcome.”
I groaned. “Well thank you, obviously, but I hope that didn’t break the bank.” I didn’t know his financial situation, but living out of a trailer while the rest of the boys stayed in nice Fallen Army apartments didn’t bode well.
Noah laughed. “Lincoln’s rich. It’s fine.”
Lincoln cut him a glare.
“Oh,” I murmured. “I assumed with the trailer…”
Noah busted out laughing. “I told you that trailer was ghetto.”
Lincoln reached over and socked him in the arm. “I like my trailer.” Then he turned to face me. “I’m not loaded, but my parents left some money behind with the life insurance so… yeah. I don’t mind spending it on you girls.”
Oh my God. He spent his parents’ death money on me. Love exploded in my chest, and I vowed right then and there to one day have Lincoln Grey’s babies.
Shea squeaked out an “aw,” and I smiled.
“Who knew this entire time you were just a pretend asshole?” I stated.
A frown pulled at his lips. “Pretend asshole? Is that a thing?”
Leaning forward, I ran my fingers through his hair, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “It is.”
“I think he’s a real asshole who only has nice moments,” Noah piped up.
Another sock in the arm.
“Oww.”
Shea chuckled. “An asshole and a manwhore go on an adventure in Demon City. Sounds like the beginning of a messed-up children’s book,” she lamented.
Laughter erupted out of me as we reached the gates to Angel City.
Noah stopped the car when we reached traffic and looked over at Lincoln. “Can I be a manwhore if I haven’t touched another woman besides Shea in almost a year?”
Lincoln grinned. “Nope. You can’t.”
They both looked back at Shea, who was glaring, but she just thrust her palm out in a ‘talk to the hand’ move. “Whatever.”
The hard-to-get act was going to crash and burn soon. She needed to claim that shit, or Noah was going to walk.
But we had an Awakening ceremony to attend for my brother, so no sense in trying to fix her life now. That was going to have to wait.
Chapter Four
“What if I have black wings like you?” my brother asked as we walked up to the Awakening ceremony.
My jaw went slack. I’d never thought of that. In all the scenarios I’d played through my head the past few hours, that had never occurred to me.
“Then we’ll deal with it,” I told him.
Please God, don’t let him be like me. I couldn’t handle Lucifer being after my brother too.
Lincoln and Shea were walking with us, and Lincoln put a hand on my brother’s shoulder. “You’re a free soul, so no matter what, you’ll be at Fallen Academy with your sister. Nothing to worry about, bro.”
Bro. Oh my God. My ovaries did somersaults at Lincoln’s nice gesture toward my little brother.
Mikey grinned at him and nodded.
Shea tipped her chin down and chuckled a little. “Unless you’re a Gristle. Then you’re screwed and the academy won’t want you.”
I reached back and swatted her head.
“Kidding. You’re going to be fine,” she added, rubbing the spot I’d hit.
We finally reached the doors where the other kids were waiting to be let in. I knew the nerves Mikey must be feeling—hell, I’d felt them just the year before.
Leaning over, I gave my brother a tight hug. “Whatever it is will be fine. I love you,” I told him.
He nodded curtly and waved to Lincoln and Shea before walking awkwardly to stand at the end of the line.
Lincoln was wearing his Fallen Army uniform. He was going to work the stage again, like he had with Raphael when I’d gone through my Awakening. It was reassuring to know that if anything went wrong, he’d be there to help my brother.
After making our way inside, we handed the attendant our tickets.
One of her eyebrows raised. “Front row. Fancy, fancy.” She ripped the ticket, giving us the other half.
Front row! I hadn’t even looked. Lincoln had given them to us. I glanced over at my boyfriend and he winked.
Ah, wink number five. Be still my heart.
“I’ll see you after. Don’t worry.” He kissed me chastely.
As he walked away, Shea linked her arm with mine and dragged me toward the interior hall.
“Front row. Damn, girl, Lincoln loves you.” She batted her eyelashes.
I smiled. “He does.”
Front row was for Fallen Army officials, and rich families of kids who were going through the Awakening, not Lucifer’s stepdaughter with the black wings.