Those glowing hands were freaking me out. I tried to squirm, but it felt like I’d been molded into a statue.

Taking a deep breath, I remembered my training with Archangel Michael and tried to call Sera to me, sending my energy out behind me to brush against hers.

“I want you to be endowed with all of your powers, my child.” He slammed his hot palm right into the center of my chest, gripping my arm with his other hand, and pinning me in place.

A shriek tore from my mouth as pain like I’d never felt before ripped through me. A dark heaviness coated my skin, like a wet blanket, as sadness enveloped me. Mind-numbing depression crawled into the corner of my mind, and I screamed harder as I tried to fight it. Rage built within me at the unwanted violation. I felt that darkness searching inside of me, looking for an outlet. I’d kept it pent-up for so long, trying so hard to be good and full of light, that I wanted to burst.

Another flare of red surged from his palm to my chest. I let it all go. I screamed, as agony and rage swirled within me, letting the dark, ugly monster inside of me loose. A huge, black inky blob crawled up my throat and flew from my mouth, wrapping around his neck, and the lower half of his jaw.

Shock marred his features but was quickly replaced with absolute pride. His eyes glittered as he assessed me with complete adoration.

No.

He snapped his fingers, and the black necktie fell from his throat as if it was made of paper. Then he took his hand from my chest and beamed at me. “You’ll do great and terrible things in my name,” he declared, his voice reverberating off the walls.

Fuck that.

With the last reserve of energy I had left, I wrapped it around Sera and pulled. My legs were still frozen to the spot, but when she flew across the room and into my hand, I was able to move my arm and thrust her at him. Lucifer saw my jab coming and sidestepped it, grabbing me by the neck and trying to pull me with him into the portal.

At that moment, Lincoln and his team burst into the room, screaming my name. He took one look at the Prince of Darkness standing in front of the portal to Hell and the blood drained from his face.

The Mage girl in their group shouted a bunch of words in another language, and a bright blue star shot from her hand before it burst across the ceiling, sending little sparkles of glitter over everything. When they touched Lucifer’s skin, he cried out and pulled his arm back, releasing me. I was still thankfully on my side of the world, him in his, but my toes were inches from being in Hell, literally.

“Come, child,” Lucifer beckoned and thrust his arm out again, latching onto mine. Lincoln leapt into the air, and came down on the Devil’s outstretched arm with his sword, cutting it clean off.

I fell backward on my ass, the Devil’s spell over me broken. The Mage girl jumped in front of Lincoln and started to close the portal as Lucifer sat on the ground, blackish-crimson blood spurting from his forearm.

The arm Lincoln had cut off suddenly levitated through the portal, and Lucifer caught it in midair, smirking at me.

Then the portal closed.

Everyone turned to stare at me, eyes wide in shock. I glanced behind me to see that Shea, Luke, and Chloe were all stirring, waking up. Thank God.

On the ground, panting, I managed to look up at Lincoln, who was gaping in horror at my chest.

“Wha—” I looked down and a sob tore from my throat.

There, branded on my chest, was a skull with a sideways crown, the black wings behind it.

“He’s marked you,” Lincoln said with mild revulsion, as if that made me evil. As if it made me a devil as well. Then his face quickly changed to something more compassionate, trying to mask his initial reaction, but it was there, I’d seen it.

I clawed at the tattoo to no avail, leaving red streaks on my chest.

“What does this mean?” I asked him, and he gave me the same look of pity people had given my father.

Lincoln crouched down and reached out for me, but I recoiled. He sighed, staring off at the floorboards, unable to meet my eye. “I think it means he’s fully activated your dark powers.”

My dark powers. As if I owned them, and had chosen them. A black cloud crossed over my soul then, and I knew I’d never be the same again.

My greatest fear had been realized.

I’d gone dark.

Chapter Twenty-Four

I could hear the hushed voices arguing inside the room as I sat outside the door to Raphael’s office. As much as they tried to keep quiet, I heard everything.

Once again, I’d been whisked away from the revelry like a freak, just like at the Awakening ceremony.

“He branded her!” Lincoln shouted venomously.

“Hang on, we don’t know exactly what he did,” Archangel Michael’s strong voice cut in.

“Raphael, you’re not going to kick her out, right? Her team killed all of the demons. Four demons dead. That means they passed the gauntlet.” Lincoln’s voice was sharp, threatening.

Technically, the fourth demon was dead when we got there—compliments of the Prince of Darkness, I assumed—but I was going to go with it.

There was only silence for a moment, and I started to get nervous.

“Of course I’m going to pass her. Everyone needs to calm down. She’s innocent in all of this. What Lucifer may or may not have done doesn’t matter. Let’s not alienate her any more than she already is.”

Bless him.

“She carries his mark over her heart. That’s very deep, dark magic,” Mr. Claymore said. I hadn’t even known he was there. I’d been in shock since the Devil himself opened a portal in the middle of my school exam and branded me with dark magic, so I figured I was allowed to be a little out of it.

I looked down at the mark and tears welled in my eyes. The skin was angry and red from me scratching at it, hoping I could peel it off. But it was no use.

“But you can get it off, right?” Lincoln asked, a mild hysteria tinging his voice.

Silence. Moments and moments of silence.

“I don’t think so, but I’ll try. My magic is no match for the Prince of Darkness,” Mr. Claymore sighed, resigned.

I drew my knees up to my chest and cradled them. I wanted my mom to wrap me in her arms, and stroke my back while singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” But she was in Demon City, and I was stuck here.

“Let’s all just take a breather and keep an eye on her. See if anything… manifests. We can take it from there.” Gabriel was the level-headed one, the peacemaker.

“Manifests?” Lincoln asked.

I replayed the way he’d looked at me the moment he’d seen the mark on my chest. Fear and horror had marred his beautiful features, filled his shining eyes.

“Let’s just take everything one day at a time. Be here for Brielle, and whatever she may need from us,” Raphael stated.

“Permission to take the rest of the night off, sir.” Lincoln’s clipped tone was back.

“Permission granted, son,” Michael replied.

Raphael’s office door opened and Lincoln stepped out, light poured out of the room with him.

He looked down at me curled up on the ground and scooped me up, one arm under my knees and the other behind my back. Cradling me to his chest, he started walking me to the parking lot in the direction of his trailer.

“I can walk,” I mumbled, but I didn’t really want to walk. I didn’t want to be alive right now. Everything felt too hard.

“No,” Lincoln simply stated.

Ever since Lucifer had put that mark on me, a depression had settled at the edges of my mind, waiting to pounce if I let down my guard. So, I let him carry me—covered in demon blood and guts—across the parking lot, past his motorcycle, and to his door.

He set me down gently, and then unlocked his door. “You can shower. I’m going to make us something to eat,” he murmured.

It was like ten at night, and I wasn’t hungry, but I couldn’t turn him down. I gave him a weak smile and nodded. We didn’t have many dates where Lincoln cooked for me, both busy most nights with my school and clinic job, or his work with the Fallen Army.

Dinner at ten o’clock? Why not?

I trudged through his trailer and went into the tiny bathroom, closing the door and locking it. Resting my forehead against the back of the door, I took two deep breaths. The night had not gone how I’d expected. Then again, who really expected the Prince of Darkness to show up and brand them? Just… wow.

Yep, I’m in shock.

Turning on the water, I started to strip out of my smoky, bloody, demon-coated clothes.

Screw this day. Screw it hard.

Stepping under the water, I felt a little bit of the tension leave my shoulders. I wasn’t alone. I had Lincoln, Shea, and everyone else on my team. I had a good support group. I was going to be fine.

When I grabbed the soapy loofa, and ran it over my chest, a sob stilled in my throat.

The mark.

I’d forgotten about it for three seconds, but there it was.

Never in a thousand years would I have guessed that anything could be worse than the death mark the Dark Mages took. But there I was, marked without even a needle by the Devil himself. The sadness I’d felt before when he’d branded me ramped up a notch. I furiously scrubbed at the mark, but it only hurt my skin.

I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. My body. He’d done something to my body against my will. I felt so violated. My tears turned to sobs as my chest ached with emotion, a physical pain spreading throughout my limbs.

Grief.

Would my dark powers grow stronger? Would I ever find my light like Fred, Lincoln, and the other Celestials had? Did Lucifer break me?

“Bri?” Lincoln’s voice was laced with concern as he called to me through the door.

I tried to control my weeping, but I couldn’t; I’d opened the floodgates, and now it was like a free-for-all. I turned off the water and slowed my breathing, trying to rein in what I was feeling.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt? I mean, physically?” Lincoln sounded panicked. I wasn’t a crier. I’d fainted, and thrown up on him when he’d worked me out too hard, but I wasn’t a big crier.

“The mark” was all I could say in between my weeping.

His reply was instant. “It doesn’t matter. I mean, it doesn’t matter to me. I still… love you. No matter what.”

Shock and hope ripped through my body, chasing the pain and sadness away.

Lincoln just said he loves me.

He loves me.

I wrapped myself in a towel and threw open the door. “What did you say?” Maybe I hadn’t heard him right. The L-word was a big deal, and I could very well be hallucinating in my fragile state.

He grinned and ran a hand through his hair. “I freaking love you, Brielle. I have for a while now, but… the last person I said that to was my parents, and they got killed, so… I don’t know. I—”

I stepped forward and shut him up with a kiss.

Lincoln Grey loves me. I shoot black death chokers from my mouth, and have been personally branded by Lucifer, yet Lincoln Grey still loves me.