“Hello, Brielle.” His voice was always so calm.

“Hey. Wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

He made his way behind Mr. Claymore’s desk, and looked up at me with his piercing blue eyes. The way his golden blond hair glowed around his shoulders, sort of reminded me of the halos Catholics always depicted around the angels’ heads. “Oh, I’m just here to drop a little Celestial magic and leave. What you two do with it is none of my concern.”

He winked just as his hands suddenly glowed with a crazy bright orange healing light, so bright, I had to shield my eyes. I peeked back over to the desk, through my fingers, to see him pouring the golden light into a large jar. Once it was full, he nodded to Mr. Claymore, and moved back around the desk to the door.

“Have a good day,” he offered cheerfully, and then he left.

I busted out laughing. “That was super shady.”

Mr. Claymore chuckled softly, but then his face fell into a more stoic pose. “Raphael cannot directly help the humans, so he does what he can in obscure ways.”

My lips turned down into a frown. “Why not? What would happen if he did?”

Mr. Claymore put on a pair of thick leather gloves. “If he does… he can’t go home.”

Home?

‘Heaven, you dingbat,’ Sera barked.

‘Oh shit.’

“Oh. Why?” I was totally prying, but I needed to know everything about this.

The Light Mage picked up the jar with his thick leather gloves and sighed. “It’s just his penance, that’s all. Don’t worry. Now, this might hurt a bit, so take a deep breath.”

Raphael’s penance for what?

He was standing over me now, holding the glowing jar of Raphael’s magic, his own purple light beginning to sneak in and mix. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to drink it or what, until he upended it right onto my bare chest and a burning sizzle erupted across my flesh.

I hissed, as the golden purplish light saturated my chest, and sank into the skin there. Then, a cool minty feeling spread across it.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

I nodded, breathing in and out heavily, looking down at the tattoo that was still very much there. My skin was starting to turn an angry red, and the burning was back. Mr. Claymore began to chant, sprinkling clumps of salt down my shirt.

I was just starting to think this was going to work when movement to my left caught my eye. My head snapped to the side, and my mouth dropped at the portal that was slowly opening in the middle of the air.

“Uhhh,” I said, and pointed.

The Light Mage looked back at the portal and cursed, nearly dropping an entire bottle of salt on me.

“Get behind me,” he muttered.

Oh shit. Why can’t anything go my way?

I stood, pulling Sera out, and stepped behind the professor.

The portal grew wider and a dilapidated stone building came into view. The building didn’t scare me, but the stench of sulfur did.

“Is… is that Hell?” I gasped.

He was throwing streaks of purple across the room, which were attaching to the edges of the portal and forcing it closed.

My chest no longer burned, or felt cool, or felt… anything. I looked down, and other than a few grains of salt, it looked normal. The menacing skull with wings and a lopsided crown was still there, staring up at me.

My eyes flicked back up to see Mr. Claymore wrestling a tiny Yew demon that was trying to fly into the room with its little bat-like wings. It appeared as though Mr. Claymore had magically bound its mouth, purple energy bands wrapped around it like the rubber bands they put around lobster claws. That was a good thing considering they spit fire.

‘Stop horsing around and point me at him,’ Sera demanded.

Oh. Right.

I tipped the blade over Mr. Claymore’s shoulder and pointed the tip right at the Yew demon. A bright shot of white light erupted from the blade and slammed into its chest, knocking it backward. Mr. Claymore pulled tightly on the purple bands and the portal sealed shut.

Once he was satisfied it was closed, the Light Mage spun around and looked at Sera in my hand. “Thanks for that.” He nodded. His hair was a mess, completely wind-blown.

I just bobbed my head. “That was a portal to Hell,” I stated matter-of-factly.

He looked down at my chest and frowned. “Brielle, I’m very sorry I wasn’t able to remove your mark. It looks as though the dark prince has… a security system of sorts on it.”

My gut tightened with fear. “You mean… you tried to take it off and…” I couldn’t say it.

He looked utterly gutted. “And it opened the portal, which means I won’t be able to remove it. I’m truly sorry.”

A mental fog rolled over me, bringing with it a deep depression. I’d been totally stoked that I was going to be rid of the mark. I’d even told Lincoln and Shea to get ready to throw a party for me if it worked.

“I’m glad we didn’t trigger the demon alarm. I’m sorry to have gotten your hopes up.” Now he seemed to be taking all of the responsibility on himself. I wasn’t about to let that happen.

I plastered on a fake smile. “Hey, it’s all right. It doesn’t hurt or anything. I’ll be okay.” I grabbed my bag and shouldered it.

“Go in peace,” he whispered.

I left the room to find Shea and Lincoln across the hall, waiting expectantly. One look at my chest and their faces fell.

Go in peace, I did not.

Chapter Six

The first two weeks of school passed pretty smoothly. I had pretty much the same classes as last year, but instead of two hours with my Celestial master teachers, I had only one hour— alternating with the boys—and I had a new class called war strategies.

My brother was still in his wolf form and living with Clark on his land, which was God knew where. I’d called to check on him a few times, and they’d been brief thirty-second conversations where Clark informed me that Mikey was progressing fine, and then was silent to the point of awkward.

My mom was absolutely freaking out. Mikey was the baby of the family, and she just couldn’t take it. She texted me daily, asking if I’d heard anything. I’d started lying and giving her more information than I’d received, like he was doing so well that he was no longer needing to hunt, he’d made friends, he’d be human again soon. None of that was true, of course, but I would say anything to give her peace.

“Okay, it’s almost done,” Shea announced.

Chloe, Luke, Angela, and I were all huddled around Shea’s desk in our dorm room. She was finally brewing Tiffany’s payback potion.

“Is this going to throw her in the healing clinic?” I asked.

Shea nodded. “It better. Bitch nearly made us all fail by taking out Luke.”

If she went to the healing clinic, she might rat us out. We were Fallen Army soldiers now and had signed a code of conduct form on the first day. I was guessing this was against the ‘respecting fellow Fallen Army soldiers’ bit.

“Is there any way one of the Mage teachers could trace this back to you?”

Shea looked off to the side of the room, seemingly lost in thought. “Good idea. I’ll do a scent masking spell on top of it.” She reached for a few jars of powdered God knew what, and threw a pinch in the potion.

“Whatever. Even if we get two weeks’ detention, it’ll be worth it,” Chloe proclaimed.

We were all fond of shit-talking Tiffany—it’s what had brought us closer. I just wanted to make sure I could keep my cushy job, now that I had my mom and brother to worry about.

I pulled out my phone and texted Lincoln.

Brielle: Hypothetically, if we spelled Tiffany to shit her brains out as payback and got caught…

His reply was immediate.

Lincoln: Delete this text, dummy. You’ll get a week’s community service.

Community service didn’t sound so bad. I deleted the text and then looked at Shea. “Let’s do it.”

Shea grinned before snapping her fingers, and the potion puffed into purple smoke. Reaching in, she pulled out a small blue wafer-thin piece of paper.

Luke held out his hand. “I will have the honors.”

Shea dropped the wafer onto his palm. “Just slip it in her drink or on her food. It’ll dissolve and do the trick.”

He gave a mischievous grin and nodded his head. “I’ve waited months for this day. You distract her,” he told us, closing his meaty hand lightly around it.

We nodded.

Operation “Make Tiffany Crap Her Brains Out” was in full effect.

It wasn’t too hard to slip her the spell—we just asked her questions about herself and she blabbered for ten minutes, then dismissed us like cattle. Now we were sitting at our table on the demon-gifted side of the dining hall, watching her intently. With every bite of soup she took, Luke grinned wider and wider.

“How many months until Fight Night?” he asked, never taking an eye off his prey.

“Six more. Lincoln’s upped our training to insane levels.” I groaned at the thought, but I was definitely going to be a well-trained assassin by the time we were done with all of it.

Shea rolled her neck; she’d mentioned it was kinked the day before. “Yeah, Noah’s riding me hard.” The second the words left her lips, her face took on a bright red hue. “I meant in training.”

We all busted out laughing. Their Wednesday make-out sessions in his car had turned into “movie nights” at his place.

“Have you slept with him yet? I hear he’s amazing.” Chloe took a bite of her apple.

Shea grimaced. “No, and for the exact reason you just said. I’m not letting that dirty car park in my pristine garage.”

Her garage was hardly pristine, but thank God we weren’t saying ‘wee wee’ anymore. We’d finally grown to adult metaphors, and I couldn’t be prouder.

“Oh come on, that’s not what I meant,” Chloe said, looking regretful.

Is now a good time to drop the truth bomb on my bestie? Probably not, but here goes.

“He totally, genuinely, cares for you, Shea. Loves you, even. If you don’t reciprocate that—and I don’t mean sexually, but emotionally—he’ll leave.”

Shea shot me full of ice daggers, and opened her mouth to speak when Tiffany shot out of her seat, clutching her stomach.

“You bitches!” she shouted across the hall at us, clenching her butt cheeks.

We all burst into fits of laughter as she ran out of the room. I laughed so long I was starting to worry I might actually piss myself.

“Revenge feels good. Next time, let’s replace her toilet paper with sandpaper,” Luke declared.

When I could finally breathe, I held my hands up. “There will be no next time. We got her back. Now we need to focus on school.”

The last thing we needed was a raging Tiffany prank war.

Luke rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mom.”