His face contorted in agony. “No. Never.”

He pulled me by the shoulders, and crushed me into his chest for a bear hug. As those strong arms wrapped around me, his scent washed over me, mixing with the warmth of his tight muscles, I felt so safe, so at home.

Lincoln Grey was hugging me. Hard. Like he didn’t want to let go.

Maybe I am still sleeping.

“We’ll figure this out together,” he promised.

What?

I looked up into his eyes as he looked down at me, our lips a mere agonizing inch apart. “Together?”

He nodded. “Yeah. You’ve grown on me. You’re mine now.”

“You’re mine now.”

My brain barely had time to process those delicious words, when his lips claimed mine in a tender kiss. It wasn’t heated like the one on the beach; it was soft, exploring, and over all too soon.

When he pulled back, he brushed his fingers through my hair. “When I met you, I was in a dark place, fresh from the loss of my family, but something about you lit me up again, made me care again. I tried to fight it, to look for reasons why this wouldn’t work, but I can’t anymore.” His thumb stroked my jaw, and a pulse of heat shot straight to my gut.

Whoa. I had no words for that announcement.

“Tell no one of this news. Except for Shea.” Then he switched to battle mode. “I’m going to double your training. I want you to become a lethal demon-killing machine by the end of the year. Pass the gauntlet, and get accepted into year two. It’s the only way to keep you safe,” he declared.

My mind was still on that kiss, that declaration that I, Brielle Atwater, lit him up inside. But then reality came crashing down—I was Lucifer’s daughter, for all intents and purposes.

“What if I go dark?” Black throat-choking magic flung from my mouth, after all. We certainly couldn’t ignore that.

He shook his head. “Not possible.”

Denial. I used to live there.

“Lincoln, I appreciate your faith in me, but if I go dark—”

Grasping both sides of my face, he cupped my cheeks. “Brielle, you annoy the shit out of me sometimes, you’re stubborn as hell, you don’t listen, and I’m pretty sure the black magic you choked the Abrus demon with is super-dark stuff, but you are not evil. I know your soul.”

“I know your soul.”

Lincoln must’ve spent a lot of time with his nose shoved in those poetry books I saw in his trailer. Though I wasn’t complaining one bit.

I’d heard rumors of those who went completely dark, and ended up committing suicide after being surrounded by such evil all the time. A twenty-three-year-old Dark Mage killed herself in our building just last year.

“Wait, I annoy you?” I asked, confused, and his laugh warmed my stomach, bringing a smile to my face. “You’re the biggest asshole I’ve ever met.” I winked, turning the gesture against him for once.

He kissed the tip of my nose. “Well aren’t we quite a pair?”

Lincoln Grey and I are a pair. What alternate universe is this? I’d wanted to kill him when I first met him, but now I wanted to see him dripping wet in his towel again. That V needed its own instant replay.

“Now what?” I asked.

His hands fell from my face and he gritted his teeth. “Now we train. I’m going to teach you everything I know, above what I should for your first year of schooling.”

“I’m already tired just thinking about it.”

He nodded. “You should be. I’m no longer going to go easy. It won’t do you any favors in the end.”

Stepping back, I crossed my arms and glared. “Excuse me? Go easy? I saved your ass back at the dance from those bees, remember?”

He chuckled. “No, Sera did. And if they kidnap you, that’s the first thing they’ll destroy. You need to become a weapon—your hands, your mind. I’m going to make a weapon out of you, Brielle.” He ended the last sentence with a sinister look.

Shit. Sounds scary.

I shrugged. “Couldn’t we just go on a date instead? Movies, maybe?”

His face didn’t budge and I groaned.

“When do we start?” I slept on a frickin’ couch last night and he’s injured, so he better not say—

“Now. Go change,” he commanded.

I groaned even louder as I succumbed to my fate.

The next few months were going to suck.

And suck they did.

Lincoln trained me harder than ever before. I was falling asleep in class because I was so exhausted from the extra workouts, but the past few months had been pretty great otherwise. Fred and I had remained friends, and he actually started dating Angela with my blessing. Lincoln and I were going strong, only verbally abusing each other 60 percent of the time.

“Get up, woman!” he roared.

My boy toy stood over me, sword drawn, the tip pressed into my neck slightly. “If you would allow me a weapon, this would be a fair fight!” I snarled at him.

Our make-out sessions, back in his trailer, were epic after a really good training session of talking shit to each other. I kept trying to go all the way with him, but the age thing freaked him out, even though I’d turned nineteen two months back, in November. I also might’ve let it slip that I’d only had sex once for thirty seconds. Now he kept calling me a virgin.

“Demons don’t do fair fights. Get. Up,” he growled, the blade tip tight to my neck.

He was definitely a bit psycho, but his looks more than made up for it. Weren’t we all a little crazy, after all?

“You have a blade to my neck. If I get up, I’ll bleed out,” I explained, in case he was off his meds or something.

He shrugged. “Think of something. Use dark magic, bend light, kick me in the balls. Just do something.”

I wanted those balls to help create my children one day, so that was out. Bend light? Was he drunk? That was some advanced-level shit that Darren was trying to teach me, but I had yet to even be able to produce light. And I wasn’t using dark magic. No way. Never again. And definitely not on him.

“I’m pregnant and it’s yours,” I stated calmly.

His eyes widened and his arm relaxed. “What?” he roared.

Using the distraction to roll out of the way of his sword, I kicked out with my leg, tripping him. He dropped the sword and went flying on his ass.

I grinned from my place on the floor as he turned to glare at me. “That was a low blow.” Then he looked impressed. “But effective.”

My body swiftly moved, crawling over to him, and straddling his waist. We were alone in the smaller side gym, and Lincoln was getting less pissy about public displays of affection. He kept threatening to find me a new trainer so there wasn’t a conflict of interest, but then he’d say he didn’t trust anyone enough.

When I plopped down on his crotch and arched my back, pressing my pelvis into him, he groaned.

“Silly. We haven’t had sex, so I can’t be pregnant.” I bent down and kissed his hot mouth.

He sucked my bottom lip, palm flattening against my back, and then suddenly I was being spun, until I was underneath him.

“Maybe I need to remedy that situation.” He looked me up and down with a half-lidded gaze.

Oh God, yes, please.

I checked a fake watch on my wrist. “Now’s good for me.”

He grinned, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I’ll tell you what. Pass the gauntlet, and then maybe I’ll consider deflowering you.”

A groan escaped me. “I’m not a virgin! Since when does a girl have to beg for sex?”

He kissed my forehead and rolled off me. “Since now.”

The sexual tension between us was so strong, and I knew he was hurting as much as I was. I’d never wanted someone so badly as I wanted him. All of him. We’d been exclusively dating almost three months now. If we used protection, and were both consenting adults, we could totally bring on the sex!

“Pass the gauntlet,” he reiterated.

Standing, I peeled off my tank top to reveal my blue sports bra. I hoped my nipples were hard, like two little fingers flipping him off.

His eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” I answered with a shrug. “It’s hot in here.”

He scowled. “I see what you’re doing. Trying to kill me?”

“Is it working?”

He adjusted his pants. “Yes. We’re done for today.”

I grinned.

Chapter Eighteen

That night, I met Luke, Chloe, and Shea in the training room for practice. We’d heard a rumor that in the gauntlet, you were forced to work in teams, so we were practicing team drills and team takedowns. My arms and legs were ripped after lifting weights with Darren every day, and Shea was getting scary good with spell casting. Last week she’d done some illusion thingy to make it look like Lincoln was sleeping in my bed. It was super depressing to roll over and see him disappear.

“Okay, so my dad let slip that the gauntlet isn’t just to keep you in this school. It also determines your rank if and when you join the Fallen Army. It’s timed, so better time, better rank,” Chloe said, her fanged teeth protruding slightly onto her bottom lip.

I shrugged. “Sounds cool, like a magical fitness test.”

She nodded. “But my dad says they make it real. He couldn’t say more, but he insinuated that our lives could really be in danger.”

That had my eyes widening. “Why would Raphael allow that?”

Shea rolled her eyes. “You put Raphael on this pedestal. Yes, school here is free, but that’s only because the archangels are recruiting for their army.”

“Their army that protects people from demons,” I interjected.

Shea shrugged. “I’m just saying. They want to sort the weak from the strong, and I like my cushy life here, so let’s practice.”

I grinned. “Are you sure you can miss your Wednesday night date?” Wednesday was her “make out with Noah in the car, and leave him with blue balls” day.

“Have you slept with him yet?” Chloe asked.

Shea made a disgusted face. “I would never allow his wee-wee in my va-jay-jay.”

I burst out laughing, not just at her verbiage, but also at the look of horror that crossed Luke’s face when she said it.

“Did you seriously just say ‘wee-wee’? Oh my God, you’re such a kindergarten teacher,” I teased.

Shea rolled her eyes. “Fine, I don’t want his dirty dick near me. He gets around.”

Ew, that was vulgar. I almost prefer wee-wee. “Why not break it off?” I asked, setting up practice mats around the gym.

She shrugged. “I have this fantasy that one day he’ll stop whoring around, we’ll get married, have two-point-five children, and live in the ’burbs.”

Now it was Chloe’s turn to laugh. “Well, he keeps coming back for more, so you must have something he wants.” She winked, and smacked Shea’s butt.