Fallen Academy: Year Four (Fallen Academy 4)

“Goodbye, Lucy,” I gritted out, feeding my healing golden magic into Sera, just as she let loose a cannon-sized ball of fiery orange light straight into Lucifer’s stomach. One second the ball was coming at him, and I was pinning him there with my golden whip, and the next it was going right through him, taking out his guts with it. I could see clear through his stomach from the big hole Sera had left there. The demons around us went crazy, hissing and shrieking and cutting into the archangels like they were possessed. Lucifer was just staring at me, mouth agape, open and closing like a fish out of water.

I glanced sideways to the base of a dying tree to see Raksha still had the baby cradled to her chest. Grinning, I stepped forward until I was right in Lucifer’s face, shooting more energy whips out of my hand to coil around him. “I’m going to make sure that baby is raised with so much unconditional love, there’s no way in hell she’ll be anything like you. Pun intended.”

He reached out, placing his hands on my shield as black flames erupted from his palms in a last-ditch effort to fight me off him.

I shook my head and with one powerful lunge, I stabbed Sera into his chest. He jerked against me, and the ground shook with tremendous force. How he had so much energy after losing his insides, I had no idea, but he fought me hard, with everything he had left in him.

‘Give him all you got,’ I told my infinity weapon.

‘I’m part of you,’ she reminded me. ‘I’ll give him all we’ve got. As you’ve grown in your training, I’ve grown in mine.’

With that, an explosion of light entered his chest, pearlescent, golden, blue, and black, and a mixture of everything within me. It was all of the magic I possessed in one entity. His body started to convulse as the light entered him.

“Nooooooo!” His roar was so hollow and void of human emotion, it gave me chills, but I held on to him.

I pumped that bastard full of everything I had. His skin started to turn ashy and black as the earth shook harder, the rain fell faster, and the lightning intensified. My arm trembled with the force of trying to hold on to his thrashing body, and I felt weakness pulling at the edges of my mind.

‘No. Stay strong!’ Sera ordered.

Suddenly, two hands landed on my back and golden healing energy raced through my shield and into me. That final burst was what Sera and I needed to land the lethal blow. As light coursed through me and into Sera, she fed it into Lucifer’s chest. He screamed one final time, before his body erupted in black flames and fell to the ground, which had ceased its shaking.

Yet, I wasn’t taking any chances. Pulling Sera out, I brought her down across his neck, severing his head like it was made of butter. The moment his head separated from his body, a shock wave burst outward with a great force.

I stumbled backward, looking at the charred corpse before me. The rain had stopped, as had the lightning; even the demons had slowed their frenzy.

Spinning on my heel, I expected to find Raphael or Noah, but instead Lincoln was standing there, hands outstretched.

“You did it.” He was staring, eyes wide and unblinking, at what used to be the Devil.

I couldn’t respond. I only had one thing on my mind.

“Raksha!” I shouted, blasting past him and the archangels. I slammed into a Brimstone demon, sending it flying over me, and then I was at the base of the tree.

Shea was there, holding the baby in her arms with tears streaking down her cheeks. Noah had his hands over Raksha’s bleeding abdomen, but it was no use. The moment I looked at her frozen face, glassy eyes staring up at the sky, I knew she was gone. Grief and guilt slammed into me with equal measure as I swayed backward.

“I’m… so sorry. She was too far gone. I tried…,” Noah mumbled.

No. No. No.

I fell to my knees, sobbing. The fight had left me, the adrenaline gone, and now I was falling apart.

“Um, is that a baby?” Lincoln asked from behind me.

Shea swallowed hard. “She said her name is Asha, it means hope in Hindi. And that… she wanted Brielle to raise her.”

My grief froze, as my eyes flicked up to my best friend.

“She said that?”

Shea was freely crying. “She said the baby is the only thing that kept her alive down here after you left, that the mom died in labor, and taking care of her—” A sob choked off Shea’s words, and I moved closer to my best friend, placing my arm around her. “I’m sorry, Brielle. I got here and looked for her, but it was too late.”

I’d made Shea promise to get Raksha out, and now she was carrying the guilt with me.

“It’s not your fault. I saw her right after he injured her, and I couldn’t save her either.”

Looking down at my old friend, I reached out and closed her eyelids as I leaned forward, placing my lips to her ear. “I will take care of this baby, and look out for your family until my dying day on Earth. You have my word.”

I wanted to collapse onto my back, cry, and never move again, but I couldn’t fall apart. Not right now. Not when this baby needed me. Raksha was counting on me, and I wouldn’t let her down, ever.

So, I wiped my cheeks and pulled my shit together, standing, and then reaching down to take the sweet baby in my arms. She had the most beautiful blue eyes I’d ever seen. Walking over to my husband, I looked up at him.

“She’s the biological child of Lucifer and a Succubus demon. Lucy used a bit of Archangel Michael’s blood when he made her, but that shouldn’t matter. She’ll probably have black wings and freaky powers, but that doesn’t make her a bad person.”

I moved closer to Lincoln, pressing the baby against his chest, and I saw the exact moment he fell in love with her. His entire face softened, and his mouth went a little slack as he gazed down at the adorable infant.

“She’s blowing spit bubbles,” Lincoln commented, trying to hold in the grin that I knew wanted to grace his face. Babies did that to people.

I nodded. “You wanted kids. Well, she can be our first one.”

Lincoln was a bit prejudiced when it came to anyone who had ties with the demons. Could he raise the Devil’s child as his own? A legion? I just wasn’t sure.

He reached out to touch Asha’s face, and her hand burst from her tight swaddle blanket—still wet with Raksha’s blood. She gripped one of Lincoln’s big fingers with her tiny hand, and pulled it into her mouth, sucking on it.

The grin broke free, and Lincoln sighed. “You know, we’re gonna need a bigger place. Can’t fit a crib in the trailer.”

A half laugh, half sob erupted from me as I nodded.

“And we need to get some formula and bottles. She’s clearly hungry,” he added, looking concerned.

Leaning forward, I gave her a kiss on the forehead. “It’s okay, baby. Everything’s gonna be okay now.”

I’d killed the Devil. Everything had to be okay now that that monster was gone from this Earth.

Twenty-Three

Everything wasn’t exactly okay, but it was better. When I killed Lucy, it set off some type of apocalypse on Earth. Permanent portals from Hell had opened up all over the place, and we couldn’t close them, so hundreds of demons crawled through daily. Our demon problem had definitely intensified, but the Devil was gone, so at least no more new demons could be created, and that was a plus. o;Goodbye, Lucy,” I gritted out, feeding my healing golden magic into Sera, just as she let loose a cannon-sized ball of fiery orange light straight into Lucifer’s stomach. One second the ball was coming at him, and I was pinning him there with my golden whip, and the next it was going right through him, taking out his guts with it. I could see clear through his stomach from the big hole Sera had left there. The demons around us went crazy, hissing and shrieking and cutting into the archangels like they were possessed. Lucifer was just staring at me, mouth agape, open and closing like a fish out of water.

I glanced sideways to the base of a dying tree to see Raksha still had the baby cradled to her chest. Grinning, I stepped forward until I was right in Lucifer’s face, shooting more energy whips out of my hand to coil around him. “I’m going to make sure that baby is raised with so much unconditional love, there’s no way in hell she’ll be anything like you. Pun intended.”

He reached out, placing his hands on my shield as black flames erupted from his palms in a last-ditch effort to fight me off him.

I shook my head and with one powerful lunge, I stabbed Sera into his chest. He jerked against me, and the ground shook with tremendous force. How he had so much energy after losing his insides, I had no idea, but he fought me hard, with everything he had left in him.

‘Give him all you got,’ I told my infinity weapon.

‘I’m part of you,’ she reminded me. ‘I’ll give him all we’ve got. As you’ve grown in your training, I’ve grown in mine.’

With that, an explosion of light entered his chest, pearlescent, golden, blue, and black, and a mixture of everything within me. It was all of the magic I possessed in one entity. His body started to convulse as the light entered him.

“Nooooooo!” His roar was so hollow and void of human emotion, it gave me chills, but I held on to him.

I pumped that bastard full of everything I had. His skin started to turn ashy and black as the earth shook harder, the rain fell faster, and the lightning intensified. My arm trembled with the force of trying to hold on to his thrashing body, and I felt weakness pulling at the edges of my mind.

‘No. Stay strong!’ Sera ordered.

Suddenly, two hands landed on my back and golden healing energy raced through my shield and into me. That final burst was what Sera and I needed to land the lethal blow. As light coursed through me and into Sera, she fed it into Lucifer’s chest. He screamed one final time, before his body erupted in black flames and fell to the ground, which had ceased its shaking.

Yet, I wasn’t taking any chances. Pulling Sera out, I brought her down across his neck, severing his head like it was made of butter. The moment his head separated from his body, a shock wave burst outward with a great force.

I stumbled backward, looking at the charred corpse before me. The rain had stopped, as had the lightning; even the demons had slowed their frenzy.

Spinning on my heel, I expected to find Raphael or Noah, but instead Lincoln was standing there, hands outstretched.

“You did it.” He was staring, eyes wide and unblinking, at what used to be the Devil.

I couldn’t respond. I only had one thing on my mind.

“Raksha!” I shouted, blasting past him and the archangels. I slammed into a Brimstone demon, sending it flying over me, and then I was at the base of the tree.

Shea was there, holding the baby in her arms with tears streaking down her cheeks. Noah had his hands over Raksha’s bleeding abdomen, but it was no use. The moment I looked at her frozen face, glassy eyes staring up at the sky, I knew she was gone. Grief and guilt slammed into me with equal measure as I swayed backward.

“I’m… so sorry. She was too far gone. I tried…,” Noah mumbled.

No. No. No.

I fell to my knees, sobbing. The fight had left me, the adrenaline gone, and now I was falling apart.

“Um, is that a baby?” Lincoln asked from behind me.

Shea swallowed hard. “She said her name is Asha, it means hope in Hindi. And that… she wanted Brielle to raise her.”

My grief froze, as my eyes flicked up to my best friend.

“She said that?”

Shea was freely crying. “She said the baby is the only thing that kept her alive down here after you left, that the mom died in labor, and taking care of her—” A sob choked off Shea’s words, and I moved closer to my best friend, placing my arm around her. “I’m sorry, Brielle. I got here and looked for her, but it was too late.”

I’d made Shea promise to get Raksha out, and now she was carrying the guilt with me.

“It’s not your fault. I saw her right after he injured her, and I couldn’t save her either.”

Looking down at my old friend, I reached out and closed her eyelids as I leaned forward, placing my lips to her ear. “I will take care of this baby, and look out for your family until my dying day on Earth. You have my word.”

I wanted to collapse onto my back, cry, and never move again, but I couldn’t fall apart. Not right now. Not when this baby needed me. Raksha was counting on me, and I wouldn’t let her down, ever.

So, I wiped my cheeks and pulled my shit together, standing, and then reaching down to take the sweet baby in my arms. She had the most beautiful blue eyes I’d ever seen. Walking over to my husband, I looked up at him.

“She’s the biological child of Lucifer and a Succubus demon. Lucy used a bit of Archangel Michael’s blood when he made her, but that shouldn’t matter. She’ll probably have black wings and freaky powers, but that doesn’t make her a bad person.”

I moved closer to Lincoln, pressing the baby against his chest, and I saw the exact moment he fell in love with her. His entire face softened, and his mouth went a little slack as he gazed down at the adorable infant.

“She’s blowing spit bubbles,” Lincoln commented, trying to hold in the grin that I knew wanted to grace his face. Babies did that to people.

I nodded. “You wanted kids. Well, she can be our first one.”

Lincoln was a bit prejudiced when it came to anyone who had ties with the demons. Could he raise the Devil’s child as his own? A legion? I just wasn’t sure.

He reached out to touch Asha’s face, and her hand burst from her tight swaddle blanket—still wet with Raksha’s blood. She gripped one of Lincoln’s big fingers with her tiny hand, and pulled it into her mouth, sucking on it.

The grin broke free, and Lincoln sighed. “You know, we’re gonna need a bigger place. Can’t fit a crib in the trailer.”

A half laugh, half sob erupted from me as I nodded.

“And we need to get some formula and bottles. She’s clearly hungry,” he added, looking concerned.

Leaning forward, I gave her a kiss on the forehead. “It’s okay, baby. Everything’s gonna be okay now.”

I’d killed the Devil. Everything had to be okay now that that monster was gone from this Earth.

Twenty-Three

Everything wasn’t exactly okay, but it was better. When I killed Lucy, it set off some type of apocalypse on Earth. Permanent portals from Hell had opened up all over the place, and we couldn’t close them, so hundreds of demons crawled through daily. Our demon problem had definitely intensified, but the Devil was gone, so at least no more new demons could be created, and that was a plus.