She sighed. “I know.” She’d already pulled out the keychain. With one snap, our fake magical handcuffs fell away. Shea stood, feet firmly planted on the concrete, eyes blazing with a beautiful ferocity that only my best friend could muster.
“Time to go, little cherubs,” the abrus demon cooed, and I heard the metal door scraping open behind me.
No way in hell, buddy.
Shea would need time to work her portal spell, and then even more time to get everyone through. Doing what I did best, I didn’t think, just acted.
Planting my feet shoulder-width apart, I positioned myself as a sentinel with the demons before me, Shea and the rest behind me.
“I need a few minutes!” she shouted from behind me as green and purple sparks of magic lit up the cage.
With a nod, I pulled on that power inside of me, no longer trying to distinguish what was light and what was dark. Whatever it was, it was me. All of it.
The Abrus demon seemed to figure out what was going on and rushed inside, throwing the door wide open. I reached out with my left hand, my energy whip crackling to life; it was that same pearl silver from the underground tunnels. Both sides of my magic as one.
With a flick of my wrist, the whip wrapped around his neck, and his eyes widened.
“What are you?” he yelled with a strangled cry.
In that moment, I wanted to reply with something ridiculously cheesy, like “your worst nightmare,” but instead I just yanked on the whip and he fell to his knees. The Grimlock demon had recovered from his shock that Shea and I were not plain old humans, and was now trying to brush past me and get to the others. I needed to get him and the Abrus demon out of the cage and shut the door to give Shea enough time to get everyone to safety.
With all the force I could muster, I reached out with my free hand and karate-chopped the Grimlock’s throat, taking him by surprise. Just as Lincoln had taught me. He fell backward and I made quick work of kicking the Abrus demon in the chest while he was still on his knees, which sent him falling backward out of the cage.
One down, one to go.
Grimlock demons were notoriously heavy, as if they were made of cement. Dragging him wouldn’t work, so I’d need to let him stand, and push him back with a fight.
Allowing him to get up, I positioned myself before him and lashed out with my whip, which sent him stumbling backward toward the open doorway. The lights behind me were getting brighter, which I hoped meant Shea was opening the portal with success.
A few more lashes of my whip left scorched burns on the Grimlock’s skin, and then he was out of the cage. Bursting from the barred doorway, I quickly shut the gate behind me with my boot. The entire train station had caught on to the commotion and was now staring at me.
Shit.
Both the Grimlock and the Abrus demon lunged for me at once. I allowed my wings to burst from my back, fully covering the doorway, protecting Shea and the others inside.
Both men froze, clearly in shock.
“Celestial,” the Grimlock spat.
The Abrus demon was looking at me in a different light, almost pleased. “I know who you are.”
In that moment, a figure behind the demons caught my eye for some reason, and I allowed myself to look. The moment my gaze fell on his broad shoulders, the curve of his neck, his ear, my whole body went weak.
Lincoln.
And then the demons pounced on me.
Lunging forward, the Grimlock wrapped his hands around my neck, while the Abrus demon threw black magic around my left whip wrist, pinning it to the ground. I didn’t care. Nothing mattered but the fact that even with his back turned to me, his head shaved, I knew the man talking to a street vendor was my Lincoln.
Unlike the others, he hadn’t noticed the commotion; he was clear on the other side of the platform. I was starting to feel dizzy now with the Grimlock demon choking off my air supply; I needed to act quickly, or risk being killed when I was so close to being reunited with my love.
Lifting my knee high, I connected with the Grimlock’s crotch. His hands fell away from my throat, and I sucked in a deep breath. Then, with every ounce of strength I had left, I screamed.
“Lincoln!”
His name poured from my lips in agony. It had been so long since I’d seen him, or called his name that it actually hurt.
Lincoln’s entire body went rigid, slowly pivoting to face the direction of my call. When his eyes met mine, he shook his head in disbelief. I was so busy staring at him that I didn’t see the Grimlock demon’s fist flying toward my head until it was too late.
Pain exploded in my skull, and I was brought to my knees.
“Brielle!” Lincoln thundered across the market. His wings snapped out, and suddenly he was flying, heading straight to me.
“Go, go!” I heard Shea shout from behind me.
From my knees, I turned to the side and saw a portal to the Fallen Academy entrance had been opened, the women and children running through it in panic. There was a Snakeroot demon who’d pounced atop the bars of the cage, and was spitting acid to melt them, and try to get inside.
Shea looked back at me.
“Go! I’m fine,” I told her, spinning back around to find the Abrus demon with a knife in his hand.
Lincoln was just landing behind him when the demon plunged the knife into my stomach.
Then all hell broke loose.
The searing pain of the knife licked across my skin, as I tried to throw myself backward and away from the blade. Lincoln landed on his feet and reached forward, taking my attacker’s head in his hands. He jerked his neck quickly, breaking it with a sick snapping sound. The Abrus demon fell to the floor in a heap, either dead or unconscious, I didn’t care. Then Lincoln spun on the Grimlock, scooping the knife and going into full-on attack mode.
I looked down quickly, assessing my wound and determining it wasn’t that bad. It seemed superficial, not deep enough to puncture any of my organs—I’d backed up out of the way before he could cause any real damage. What was bad, however, was that every single demon or demon-gifted human in the room had abandoned their shopping, and were all now stalking toward us.
I had no weapons other than my own special gifts. One look over my shoulder told me Shea was gone, along with everyone else—thank God—but I also saw Lincoln was tangled up with the Grimlock demon. I’d have to fight the onslaught of people myself.
I’d waited months in Hell for this moment, and no one was taking it from me. Although it wasn’t the reunion of my dreams, Lincoln was here, and that was all that mattered.
I’d come too close to have this ripped away from me.
With a frustrated cry, I shook both of my hands in front of me at the advancing army, and two whips lashed from my palms, one white and one black.
The advancing crowd stepped back a little at the sight of my weapons, but they soon realized they had knives, guns, and God knew what else, and charged me. With the most rapid movements of my life, I crisscrossed my arms, arcing the whips through the air like a wild woman. They lashed into the faces, necks, and arms of the advancing mob, which actually fell back for a moment, stumbling over each other to escape.
I was preparing to make one of those shields again when I heard Lincoln curse behind me.
“Succubus,” he murmured.
Oh hell.
Please God no.
Please don’t let us die in some Romeo and Juliet fate bullshit, right before our happy ending.
I hadn’t even gotten to speak to Lincoln yet, or touch him, or look him in the eyes. We couldn’t go out like this.
I felt a tug on my waist as Lincoln backed us into a corner, the empty slave cage at our back, and mob of angry assholes dead center. Looking up, I went weak in the knees at the sight of three Succubus psychos crawling upside down on the ceiling, wearing wicked grins. In one swift move, Lincoln tucked me behind him and held his measly dagger before him, like that would do anything.
Rage like I didn’t know I was capable of, boiled inside of me.
“Get behind me!” I growled, sidestepping my man, and positioning myself in front of him.
Something big, ugly, and beautiful was building within me, something that wanted to kill, protect, and defend, was clawing its way out of my soul. Lincoln was my freaking soul mate, confirmed by the archangels themselves. Nothing was going to tear us apart while I was still breathing.
When I felt like the building pressure was too much, I released the beast inside of me, just as the Succubi leapt from their perches in unison. A massive blanket of plasma-like jelly flew from my hands, creating a dome of silverish goo. It slammed into the advancing Succubus demons and draped over them like a wet blanket, pinning them to the floor. They hissed and screamed as the plasma hardened like cement, freezing over them.
They were trapped inside.
What the hell?
It kept coming, pouring from my palms as it covered the rest of the demons, and stall merchants who tried to advance on us, cementing them in place like statues. It hardened within seconds, the demons beneath it beating at the walls in an effort to break out of their prison.
When all of the threats had been immobilized, the substance stopped coming out of my hands.
I stared at my palms in shock.
This was a new and terrifying power.
Lincoln’s arms quickly went around me and he pulled me into him, pressing me tightly against his chest. I retracted my wings to better fit within his arms as he carried me. The second I smelled him, really smelled him for the first time in so long, I burst into tears. He ran up the stairs with me in his hold, pumping his legs as hard as he could, and kicked down a door. Then sunlight was falling on our faces.
“Stop!” a male voice commanded. I didn’t dare look, just tucked my face into Lincoln’s neck and breathed him in deeply. With one burst, we were airborne, the sound of snapping bullets whizzing past us.
I couldn’t stop sobbing. I couldn’t handle it. It was too much for my fried emotional system.
I was in Lincoln’s arms. He was alive. We were together.
We flew for about twenty minutes before Lincoln started to descend over a thickly wooded area. He hadn’t said one word to me, only held me in a deathly tight grip as we flew in silence.
Once we landed, and were alone in a completely uninhabited area, he finally looked at me for the first time. Really looked at me.
His eyes were lined with tears as he stroked my red hair, my neck, before resting his hand on my chest over my beating heart.
“How?” he croaked.
I could barely speak. “Healer demon fixed me up, but then I was stuck down there.” There was so much more I wanted to say, but I had no idea where to start.
Lincoln was looking at my lips like he wanted to kiss me, but I could tell he was hesitant, like this was all too much for him, like he didn’t believe I was real.
“Brielle, I’ve dreamed of this day a thousand times, and now that it’s come… I fear I’m not the same man you left. Your disappearance… it changed me.” His voice was husky with emotion, and my heart picked up speed at his words.
Stepping forward, I threw my arms around his neck. “Then I’ll fall in love with you all over again.”