Page 37 of Angel Lost (Fates Academy #3)

Chapter Thirty-seven: Lorelei

My bones ache, my muscles scream whenever I ask them to move, and I can’t seem to catch my breath. But we’ve cleared most of the campus. Sheathing my blade, I uncurl my hand finger by finger from the hilt. Sticky black blood coats everything. Skin, hair, nails. I run my tongue over my teeth and spit. Disgusting. Doesn’t matter whether they’re huge and terrifying or tiny with big eyes. Each and every single hellion I’ve fought today was hell-bent on causing destruction.

I fling myself down beside Chano on a bench, watching as tiny hada bear down on the last hellion in sight. It looks for all the world like a wild boar, except for its demonic expression. With a bloodcurdling screech, four hadas clutching a giant skewer fly at breakneck speed at the creature. The pointy end rams straight down its throat and doesn’t stop until it exits near its asshole. Cringing, I look away. By the time I glance back, the hada have lit a fire under the thing and are happily roasting it while it’s still gasping its last breaths. Hada are insane.

Kai shambles up, purple hair invisible under a sheen of black hellion blood, face caked, and clothes torn. His face though, is alight. I’ve never seen him look so alive.

He is also insane.

Groups of exhausted students start to flop to the ground, screams of terror giving way to background chatter.

I eye a group of extra-large men as they shamble around the corner and set up a picnic in the middle of the football pitch. Chano is a big demon, and they are at least half as big again. I chew on my cheek, glancing around. Is someone else going to deal with them? Please let them be someone else’s problem. They clearly don’t belong. But…a picnic? They can’t be hellions. A group of hada fly toward the four, and I sit up straighter. Instead of repeating the hideous skewer scene, however, they bear refreshments. Is that…? I rub my hand over my eyes. Strawberries?! No. Way. Precious hada strawberries? Out of season. Who are these men?

A posse of professors heads toward them. Beside me, Chano pushes wearily to his feet. I catch his hand, and he tows me along behind.

The professors group together in a weary attack formation. All except Hannya, who strides forward, parks her ass on the picnic blanket and starts scarfing fruit. The professor’s tiny frame looks like a child’s toy next to the men. She glances up and winks at Chano. He heaves a sigh, stepping in front of the professors.

“Leave them be. They were dragged here by the rip. Much like the human. Stand down.”

Professor Maximillion slinks to Chano’s side. Always a Maverik man. But the rest shuffle uncomfortably. A couple of the angels ruffle their feathers, the dry, papery noise irritating my brain.

Professor Hannya clears her throat. “I’m with Mr. Maverik. I would not advise attacking, unless they attack you.” She pats the closest man’s knee. “Even then, none of you would stand a chance against a full demon. Never mind four of them.”

Hannya pops a strawberry into her mouth before jumping up and strolling off. Everyone, demons included, stares after her. The professors shuffle forward.

“Don’t do it,” Chano warns. Alairik and Raff step to his side, forming a thin barrier.

“Sensible little demon,” the largest of the men booms, his voice like rolling thunder .

Chano’s horns explode from his head again, but against the massive, curving horns of the demons lounging on the blanket, his look like an afterthought. Their tails flick lazily, the sharp tips dragging patterns through the blood-soaked grass, their hulking frames at ease despite the carnage around them. Farrell shifts closer to Chano, so casually I don’t think anyone else noticed.

A shrill whistle pierces the air, and the shifters among us clap their hands over their ears. The human strides around the corner, dog whistle still between her teeth. Her gaze snags on the four demons sprawled across a bloodstained picnic blanket—horns, tails, claws, utterly at ease in the carnage.

Her eyes narrow.

“I can’t be seeing this,” she mutters, half to herself, half to me.

She doesn’t see the stray hellion lunging from behind. Chano does. He surges forward, but before he can reach her, a black blur moves faster still.

One of the demons—all horns and snarls—tears into the hellion with brutal efficiency, ripping it apart like paper. The girl staggers back, panting, blood splattered across her tweed.

Grumpy Demon. That’s what I’m calling him.

The other demons watch with interest. One flicks his tail, adjusting his sleeves, too polished for this blood-soaked battlefield. He blows the human a kiss. Flirty Demon. Another tilts his head, pushing his glasses up his nose, already looking like he’s analyzing whatever the hell just happened. Broody Demon.

But it’s Grumpy who steps forward, towering over the human, eyes dark and unreadable. Then he inhales deeply, nostrils flaring.

“I claim this one,” he growls.

Flirty chokes on a laugh. Broody studies them like they’re a puzzle. And beside me Chano tenses.

Deliberately slowly, the human wipes blood off her sleeve, glares up at Grumpy, and then jabs a finger into his chest .

“First of all, I just got attacked, and you think now’s the time for some caveman bullshit?” She shoves him again. “Second, I don’t belong to anyone. And third? If I did, it sure as hell wouldn’t be you. You don’t even know my name!”

Grumpy blinks, thrown. His tail flicks once, twice.

“It’s Isla, by the way.” She exhales hard, turning to me. “Now, who do I talk to about a dry-cleaning bill?”

The demons still seated laugh so hard they lie flat on the checkered blanket, and steam, actual steam, rises from Grumpy’s skin.

“Here comes the cavalry,” Kai says, his voice drifting down from the top of the lamppost. I crane my neck. Up a lamppost? What is wrong with that fae? “Council incoming.”

“The cavalry is no longer needed,” Chano says with a growl. “Lorelei did most of their work for them. And the rest of us mopped up the hellions.”

The professors melt back toward the approaching Council as they stride across the destroyed campus from the portal. They huddle together, muttering and gesturing toward the rest of us. At the sight of the angels’ royal blue robes, my stomach drops. These are the king’s personal Council. The High Council. Of course the High Council would come for the king’s sister.

Faltering, I step back. Chano and Farrell move to block the Council’s direct view, and even Kai shimmies down the lamppost quickly to move in front of me.

“Pull, now,” I command.

Kai eyes me. “Are you sure? You’re pretty drained.”

I nod. Together they tug the dregs of my aether away down the slave bond; the loss is acute and I’m so close to the end of my strength that my wings fold themselves up, and I double over.

“Why is she hiding her power?” Grumpy asks, his question ending in a yelp as Isla steps on his toe .

Isla folds her arms. “She just saved our asses from those…zoo animals. I’m sure she has a good reason, so stop drawing attention.” Her face crumples. “Oh, god. I’m delusional. I’m arguing with hallucinations. I must find some water.”

Ignoring the hyperventilating human, I eye the Council warily over Chano’s shoulder. My gut churns.

The Council arrives in a flurry of royal blue robes, professors trailing behind them like nervous ducklings. They hesitate at the edge of the battlefield, wary eyes darting to the demons.

From the bloodstained checkered picnic blanket, Flirty stretches like a cat and rises to his feet. “So, gentlemen,” he drawls, dusting off his sleeves. “What exactly happens to us?”

The Council halts. Sleeves flap. No one answers.

The last demon, the silent mysterious one, cricks his neck. Mysterious stands, moving like shadow and silk. “Father won’t accept us being gone,” he murmurs. “We shouldn’t be here. Not now.”

Flirty snorts. “Oh, don’t be such a brown-nose. He won’t like you more just because you suck up to him.”

The Council flinches—one step back, then two. They shove the academic staff forward like shields. Cowards . I peer again at the demons. Who the hell are they?

“We can’t fight them,” one of the councilmen mutters, fists bunching in his pockets.

I blink. The king’s High Council are visibly shaken.

Broody sighs, shutting his book with a decisive snap. Without bothering to stand, he snags a strawberry from the basket and tosses it into his mouth, swallowing it whole.

“No one needs to fight.” He licks juice off his thumb. “The ass-licker’s right. We need to go back. ”

The Council whispers, mutters, stalls. Professors shuffle between them, messengers sent scurrying back and forth to the portal. The demons watch it all like it’s entertainment.

Then—a shift. A ripple through the portal. Reinforcements. Angels pour through, row after row, three battalions deep. Each one heavily armed—tasers, magic-nullifying cuffs, guns.

The Council leader straightens, finally emboldened. He shoves back his hood, chin high. “You’ll wear these cuffs until tomorrow. By then, we’ll have the supplies to create a portal to the hellish dimension and send you back.” His gaze snaps to Isla. “Clap some on their human, too.”

Isla, who’s been strangely quiet, scoffs loudly. “Oh, absolutely not. I am not with them.”

“Wait,” Grumpy interrupts. “We’re staying? All night?”

“Party!” Flirty whoops, high-fiving Mysterious.

I arch a brow at Broody, who massages his temples, staring between his whooping friends like he deeply regrets his life choices.

“There are so few females back home.” Flirty sighs, blowing Isla a kiss, then waving at me.

Grumpy shoulders him hard enough to stagger him. “Stay away from the human.”

Isla drags her gaze up and down Grumpy, slow and unimpressed. “Thanks, big guy. Too kind.”

“I’m not kind,” he mutters, rubbing the back of his neck like the words itch.

The Council leader clears his throat. “No party. You’ll wear the cuffs and go to supejail for the night. You portal out in the morning.”

The demons erupt into laughter; deep belly roars that shake the ground. Tears stream down Flirty’s face. Beside me, Chano groans into his hand.

“Oh, this’ll be fun,” Kai mutters .

Mysterious leans in close to the Council leader’s face and just…breathes on him. A slow exhale, like he’s savoring the moment. Then he bares his teeth. “Make me.”

Chano sighs, stepping forward. I grab his arm, because this is very much a them problem, but he pats my hand and keeps walking.

“I’ll take responsibility for them,” he tells the Council. “Seal the Academy’s portal and come back in the morning. Even if you could imprison them, they wouldn’t stay there. Remember why the full demons got locked in another dimension to begin with? No lockup will keep them…locked up.”

The Council stares at him, silent. Then, chaos. Instant, glorious panic. Council members mutter and flail, clearly they had not, in fact, remembered. Some edge toward the portal.

Isla’s grabbed by a blue robe, but she digs her heels into the soft ground. “My dog ran off. I’m not leaving without him.”

“No, if she’s not with them then the human goes back now—”

“My dog! We haven’t been apart since he was a pup.”

The shifters growl. Something in Isla’s expression tugs at me—grief, fierce and desperate. I know that feeling too well. At least her mutt might still be alive.

I tip my head back, sighing. “She’s not going back without the dog. She stays with me.”

Raff and Alairik immediately flank her. Raff plucks her whistle from her pocket and pats her head like she’s a particularly loud puppy. Then he turns and growls—full-on growls—at the Council.

The leader exhales sharply. “Fine. Everyone at the portal tomorrow. Nine a.m. Repatriation.”

“I belonged in this dimension until you changed the rules, asshole,” Grumpy snaps.

The angels bristle, feathers ruffling in that hideous, papery way. The demons bristle right back—tails whipping, wings flaring .

Chano rubs his face. “Why did I take responsibility for you boneheads?” Then, as if resigned to his fate, he sighs. “Right. Who wants cake?”

Everyone turns to him.

I mouth, What?

Chano shrugs. “It works when you’re irrationally pissed.”

“I am never irrational.”

Isla opens her mouth, closes it, then finally forces out, “I-I’d like some cake. And water. I need water.”

Grumpy pivots away from the angels. “Then we’re having cake.”