I pointed to my best friend. “I’ll take one of her energy lozenges.”
Shea waved in front of my man’s face. “Hello? Ear falling off.”
Lincoln sighed, lighting up his hands and dousing Shea with the sunflower-colored magic. He looked tired, his normally upright posture slouched, sweat shining on his forehead while he winced as if in pain.
“Any tips for us?” I asked him as I started to rev up my own magic.
I’d set Sera on the floor so she could hopefully cool off inside of my cuff.
Lincoln nodded. “Yeah, you both need to be quicker, fight dirtier, and you should’ve killed that bitch. She nearly set you on fire,” he barked.
“Gee, is that all?” I should have known my lover would never go easy on me. Not if it meant protecting me, and teaching me how to protect myself.
“I sent Luke to watch the other fights. They aren’t making other people put weapons in the middle,” he added.
“Yeah, I’d figured that.” My voice shook a little as the pain in my arm transferred into my hand. Self-healing was doubly painful, and I was a total newbie, so I needed to take it slow. My one goal was to stop the bleeding and form a thin scab. Noah said small healing goals were good and attainable, so I wouldn’t be worrying about tendons and ligaments and all that.
Stop bleeding, form a scab.
Shea’s face finally relaxed; Lincoln had taken a good chunk of the pain, I could tell.
“Oh, I forgot something,” he said.
“Hmm?”
How could there be more?
My boyfriend’s cobalt blue eyes cut right through me. “Stay the hell away from that Abrus demon. He reeks of hellfire.”
The second Lincoln said it, I knew Lucifer had sent the Abrus demon to watch over me. Goose bumps invaded every square inch of my skin, and I was reminded of James’ prophecy. The one they apparently told at Tainted Academy. A far cry from the one our sweet Raphael believed in.
I pinned my eyes on the ceiling, praying for the first time in forever.
God, let me get through this night alive and end up in Angel City by morning.
With my mom.
And all my limbs.
Amen.
Chapter Eighteen
Lincoln hadn’t had time to heal me, as it had taken the entire break time just to re-adhere Shea’s ear. I was exhausted after healing myself, but Shea’s energy spell lozenge was akin to chugging three energy drinks. After taking them, I’d felt zippy and ready to throw down for the next two fights.
They went well. And by well, I mean I’d broken my pinky, probably needed some stiches in my left eyebrow, and was missing some hair from my ponytail, but we’d won. These kids were freaking badass scrappy hood kids. They knew how to survive, but so did we.
When we exited the cage of our third fight, Chloe and Luke were there, but no Lincoln.
“What’s wrong?” I limped over to Chloe, whose face was giving away that something bad had happened.
She immediately lost the ‘something’s wrong’ face and smiled. “Oh, no big deal. Lincoln just… fainted, so my dad’s guys took him back over the border.”
“He fainted!” Oh God. Maybe we overestimated how long the Celestials could be in Demon City. How many hours had passed? I didn’t know, but I was freaking exhausted.
Shea reached out a shaky hand and gave me one of those energy lozenges.
“Thanks.” I popped it on my tongue and my heart jackknifed in my chest as the adrenaline shot through my body.
Limping to the corner that was now our healing space, I struggled to get to my chair. It was basically two chairs and a sleeping bag that had been set up for us. We were fighting every fight in the main cage, whereas other smaller fights were going on outside in the field. It was totally to exploit us. I’d also learned that freaking gray-haired Abrus demon was in charge of the night, and was the one donating the million dollars to the winner. He was front and center for every fight, watching me like a monster watches prey. My leg was killing me, my pinky hurt way more than you’d think a pinky could hurt, and there was no way I could see myself doing four more fights.
“Lincoln’s calling,” Luke said, then thrust his cell phone in my face.
I collapsed into the shitty picnic chair and grabbed the phone. “You okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine. Are you okay?” His voice sounded groggy.
No. I needed a five-hour nap, chocolate peanut butter ice cream, and a million dollars.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I lied.
“Listen, I sent another healer. She’s going to cover the next two fights, and then Noah and I will come back for your big finish. You got this. We’re bringing your mom home.”
He sent a new healer? Who is it?
His pep talk totally made me cry, tears streaming down my cheeks as I fought to keep my emotions in check. “Everything hurts,” I admitted.
He sighed. “I know. You need to reach that point where you’re fighting with something other than your body. Your mind needs to take over. The hurt will heal, you just need to power through.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it sounded legit.
“Okay.”
“Brielle, I love you and I’m so proud of you.” He sounded tired and defeated. I knew it was killing him not to be there with me every second. It would kill me to not be with him too.
“I love you too,” I told him and hung up.
After taking a deep chug of water, I checked in with my best friend.
“How you doing? Lincoln said he’s sending another healer for the next few fights, and he and Noah will come for the last two and fully patch us up.”
She looked awful, bruised and bloody, probably how I’d look if I checked the mirror, but her spirit wasn’t broken, that I could see. She hated this school, these asshole kids. They’d made their mark on her in her short time here, and she hadn’t forgotten.
“I’m ready for a three-week vacation in Hawaii, but I’m good.” She grinned and her healed lip cracked, dripping blood onto her teeth.
“Looks like you girls are in need of a healer,” a familiar female voice trilled.
I spun in my seat to see Mrs. Greely standing there, clutching her tan purse and looking like a poodle in a pit bull shop.
“Mrs. Greely! You came.” I stood and pulled her in for a hug even though it hurt. When she moved back, she smoothed my hair.
“Of course, dear. Raphael had to bribe the border guards a bit, but I’m here.”
Raphael took part in bribing Demon City border guards? Now, that I would have paid to see.
Mrs. Greely made quick work of resetting and healing my pinky, then moved on to Shea’s elbow. It was hit with some type of damaging spell. A ton of these students were Dark Mages, and they’d clearly been throwing premade spells their advanced teachers had crafted.
During my most recent fight, I’d squared off with a Centaur, hence the split eyebrow. He’d kicked me right in the face! We were lucky each competitor had submitted and we’d yet to have to kill anyone, but I doubted the entire night would go that way.
Shea leaned into me. “The others are getting tired too. We need to be explosive, go big right off the bat, and end these next few quickly.”
It was a good plan, but harder when reality didn’t pan out that way.
“What do you have in mind?” I mused, thinking she may have some plan to use our weapons. The announcer had stopped asking us to put them in the center of the room after it became obvious Sera was loyal to only me.
“Remember that black whip thing you did on the Succubus demon?” Shea recalled.
I shivered. I hated that I was using my dark magic to win these fights. It was also depleting my energy quickly.
“Yeah, assuming I can just do that again,” I retorted.
“Next few fights, the second the buzzer sounds, just lash out with that whip. I’ll create a magical shield of sorts to keep any spells from hitting us.”
It was a good plan that hinged on me being able to just conjure up the whip like I did it all the time.