“Did she try to move in on Lincoln after I left?” Oh, she would’ve been all over that, no doubt.
Shea nodded, her lips pursed into a grim line. “But Chloe and I put her in her place.”
Noah grinned. “Got suspended for a week for it too.”
I laughed. “What did you do?”
Shea shrugged. “Totally beat the shit out of her in battle class.”
“Even Bradstone couldn’t break them up. They had to call us in,” Noah informed me with a smirk.
I leaned over, giving my bestie a tight squeeze. She protected my man from the Tiffany vulture, and for that I would be forever grateful.
“What else?”
Shea’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “Archangel Michael has a daughter, and she started classes here!”
Noah leaned forward. “She’s seriously badass. Has all kinds of crazy powers. But she’s weird, and withdrawn.”
Whoa.
I knew Michael had a daughter, but didn’t know she was going to school here. “What’s her name? What are her powers?”
This random banter had succeeded in taking my mind off Lincoln, at least for the time being.
“Her name is Emberly, and her wings are silver and shimmery. She can wield a sword like nobody’s business, and I heard she can read minds,” Shea gushed.
Noah nodded. “I heard she can influence people’s minds too, plant ideas in there. She wears armor over her wings because they’re frail. Her human half weakens them or something, so her dad built her wing braces.”
Oh my God, that’s the sweetest and saddest thing I’ve ever heard.
“Wait.” I sat up too. “While I was down there, Lucifer got a delivery of Michael’s blood. Was that for her tattoo?”
Shea’s eyes widened. “Yes! They thought it might help control her powers, and strengthen her wings. We were attacked at the shop. Demons ran off with it.”
Holy shit.
“Well, Lucifer has it now,” I told them.
Noah’s brow was furrowed. “I should tell Michael. That’s important information.”
I nodded. What were those other deliveries he got every day? They could be chocolate bars for all I knew, and all Raksha told me.
The thought of Raksha pinched my heart.
“Elodie and her son are okay?” I asked Noah for the fiftieth time.
He smirked. “The kid is eating endless french fries in the cafeteria, while the mom sets up their living quarters. They’re fine.”
I’d kept my promise to Raksha. For that I could be proud.
Shea’s eyes zeroed in on my chest for the first time. “Your devil mark is gone!” she screeched.
My hand flew to my chest, then my thoughts went to Bernie and my stomach sank.
“Yeah long story--.”
There was a rapid knock at the door, and then it flew open to reveal Chloe and Luke.
They’d been absent from battle class, on some special Fallen Army assignment in the war zone. They must’ve just made it back.
“Ohmygod!” Luke shrieked in a rushed squeal.
He plowed over Chloe, shaking the trailer as he ran down the hall and launched himself on top of me. “I missed you, bitch!” he sobbed into my neck.
I laughed, all my emotions coming back to the forefront again. I had a feeling this was going to be a day of crying.
Chloe leapt on top of us too, and I struggled to breathe. “We thought you were dead. We saw you die,” she uttered in disbelief.
When they’d finally moved off me and I could speak, I decided to tell them what happened. I needed to tell someone, so why not my closest friends? I started with the first day, when Lucifer slit my throat and had a healer demon save me.
“What a psycho,” Chloe interrupted.
Shea flipped out when I’d mentioned the engagement ring vibrating with magic. “I knew it!” she shouted, jumping on the bed and smacking her head on the ceiling. Then she pointed at Noah. “I freaking told you, asshole!”
He blanched and apologized.
By the time I wrapped up my story with Lucifer wanting to have my baby, the entire trailer was silent, jaws gaping open.
“Pervert!” Chloe shouted.
I shrugged. “Yeah so… that’s what happened. That’s why protecting Raksha’s family is so important and… yeah.”
Noah raised his hand like he was in school. “Can you rewind to the part where you promised to help Lucy enter the gates of Heaven, and slaughter everything?” They’d all loved my pet name for Lucifer, but clearly not the promise I’d made.
Shea reached out, her foot connecting with his rib cage, effectively shushing him. “She did what she had to do to survive,” she snapped.
“Ow. Okay.” Noah rubbed his ribs and glared at her.
I didn’t want to talk about that right now, and I couldn’t hold it in any longer, so I grabbed Shea’s left hand and held it up to the light, distracting everyone from the current conversation. “What is this? Are you getting married?” I grinned.
Noah scowled at Shea. “Woman still hasn’t answered me.”
Shea raised one eyebrow. “I’m still thinking about it.”
Oh. Sorry I asked.
“But maybe now that Brielle is back, and you don’t think I’m crazy for thinking she’s still alive, I can think harder.” Her voice softened at the end as she looked into Noah’s eyes.
Oh.
Shame burned on Noah’s cheeks as he looked at me. “I’m sorry. I just wanted everyone to move on and stop hurting.”
Through Lucifer’s portal, I’d seen Noah in the parking lot with a drunken Lincoln, so I knew some of what he’d been through to hold everyone together. Whether he knew it or not, Noah was the glue when it came to our little family.
Reaching out, I grabbed his hand. “It’s okay. You did the right thing.”
Luke thrust his phone in my face. On it was a wallpaper of him and Donnie kissing. “Screw her engagement, I’m totally dating Donnie!” he squealed.
Laughter burst out of me. “Aww, you are?”
I’d missed so much.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Eww, they are so gross. Sickeningly in love.”
My mom and Mikey opened the trailer door then, and the smell of fresh pizza wafted over all of us.
“How many people can fit in this trailer?” Shea laughed.
“About to find out,” Chloe answered as she crossed the space, and took a slice from my mom.
“Thanks, Momma Atwater.” She hip-bumped my mom.
I chuckled. “Momma Atwater?” I asked Shea, who stayed in the back room with me.
Shea’s face grew dark. “When you… left, we all stuck together. Your mom fed us every night, and we slept at her apartment for months, just grieving and figuring it out together.”
My heart clenched as I watched my mom hand out the pizza to all the kids. She’d lost her child, and still she took care of the others. It was such a mom thing to do.
“Did she find work?” I whispered to Shea. When I’d left last, she was trying to find employment, which could be hard as a once-demon-bound Necromancer.
Shea winced. “Not really. Raph gives her jobs here and there around campus, but Lincoln takes care of her. He pays for the apartment, electricity, and has a monthly grocery delivery service bring her food.”
Tears welled in my eyes and my throat tightened with emotion at her words. I’d been gone a year, with no possibility of coming back, and yet Lincoln still took care of my mother as if she were his own. If it was possible, it made me both love him, and grieve even more because he wasn’t here right now.
After composing myself, Shea, Noah, and I joined everyone else, and we spent the night talking about everything except my capture and escape. We talked about Mr. Hensley from Marlee’s tattoo shop asking my mom out on a date, and about Mikey accidentally shifting in class and then shifting back to find he was naked in front of everyone. No one mentioned Lincoln or anything sad, and for a short moment I was stuck in this little happy bubble with my reunited family.
That soon faded with each look around at Lincoln’s home. His guitar was covered in a thin layer of dust, telling me he hadn’t used it in a while. His poetry book was missing, so I assumed he’d taken it with him. I looked back at the bed where we first made love, and tears started to well in my eyes again. One by one, my friends noticed and quieted.
“All right, guys, I think Brielle needs to get some rest,” my mom told the group.
They each hugged me, until it was just Shea and my mom left.
“Want me to stay over, honey?” Mom smoothed my hair.
I nodded, letting the tears fall down my face.
I needed her.
Shea bent down and kissed my forehead. “I can stay too, if you need me.”
I waved her off. “No it’s all right, but stay on campus, okay? Don’t go to Noah’s. Lucifer can see you there.”
She looked at me with alarm but nodded. “I’ve been living with Noah for six months, but I’ll see if Raph can open up some extra dorms for us. Don’t worry, okay?”
Panic seized me. “Promise me you’ll sleep on campus?”
She held out her pinky. “I pinky swear.”
Exhaling, I smiled, taking her pinky like when we were kids.
After she left, I took a quick shower, having a minor breakdown when I used Lincoln’s body wash. Smelling him made the dull ache in my chest turn into a painful stabbing, but I got through it. Then I slipped into his bed and my mom slid in next to me, holding me and patting my back. She started to sing a lullaby from when I was younger, and I smiled, but my thoughts quickly turned dark, thinking of Lincoln once again.
“What’s on your mind, baby? You can tell me anything,” she offered.
“Lincoln,” I croaked.
She nodded. “That man loves you, Bri. With a fierceness I didn’t realize before.”
Her words made a whimper form in my throat. This just wouldn’t do, lying here every day pining over him and wondering if he’d ever come back. Having him go out and die with the Fallen Resistance, never knowing I’d returned.
“Mom?” I started to get sleepy.
“Hmm?”
“You know I have to go after him, right?” If I needed to drive up to San Francisco and join the Fallen Resistance myself, I’d do it. Life didn’t feel worth living without Lincoln by my side.
She sighed. “I know, baby. I know.”
Chapter Eighteen
The next day, I sat in Raphael’s office. He’d called a ‘casual meeting,’ in his words, with all the archangels. They wanted to know everything they could about my time with Lucifer. Having to recount it again after just explaining it to all my friends the night before was painful, but I did it anyway. Raphael seemed especially interested in hearing about the times Lucifer spied on my mom and Shea, and how he wasn’t able to see inside the school.