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CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

FRANKIE

It was chaos in here.

“ Where the hell are we? ” I heard myself shout.

“School of Magical Arts,” Lennox said beside me. Her yellow-green eyes were wide as she spun in a slow circle. “This isn’t right.”

This was the new magic school, the one The Coven had set up in the fall for all witches and shifters who didn’t want to move to Eden for school. This was our Hogwarts smack in the middle of New York City. For a moment, all of my Coven-mates were frozen in shock. These students were trying to kill each other. There didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason, or anyone teaming up. It was every man for himself. Screams ricocheted off the walls and the high ceilings. Magic flashed left and right. The sound of metal crashing into metal echoed. A snow leopard jumped, clearing half the room with ease. A big brown bear was roaring up at the front.

Deacon appeared in front of us. His eyes were wide. Red mist shot across the room. “ Drop your weapons. Drop your wands. No magic. No shifting.”

Weapons dropped to the ground with a clang. Wands bounced across the hardwood floor. Animals turned back into humans. The magic stopped. Yet the fight did not. The students just turned the cafeteria into a wrestling ring like this was WWE. That bear might as well have been John Cena. It was madness. We glanced around to each other, yet none of us knew what to do. It was that shocking.

“Tegan, what is this?” When she didn’t answer, I turned. I saw my Coven-mates searching for her too. Yet she wasn’t there. Neither was Tenn. “ Wait. Everest? EVEREST?”

I spun in a circle, but he was nowhere in sight.

Cooper threw his hands out and his dark-orange magic hit the big bear guy along with a handful of others. They instantly dropped to the ground, already asleep. “They didn’t come with us . . . Tegan, Tenn, and Everest . . . They’re still back with Asmodeus, I guess.”

My stomach rolled. NO.

“DEACON!” I turned toward that woman’s voice, the same one from the phone call, just as a blonde woman in a pencil skirt raced over to him. She reached for him, but her hands passed right through his. Her face fell. “ Deacon? ”

“I’m only here via astral projection, Mom?—”

“ WHY? ” Deacon’s mother shrieked, her face pale. I suspected she knew the answer already.

“Heather?” Hunter jumped forward and put his hand on her shoulder. “What’s going on? They’re just so angry. Why? Heather, what happened?”

Angry. They’re angry. I took another look with that word bouncing around in my head. The answer was on the tip of my tongue. This felt like magic, like something had triggered this violence. There was no other logical explanation for why two hundred kids would just be beating the shit out of each other.

She shook her head but didn’t take her eyes off her son, even while he was focused on sending his magic into the students. “Nothing. They were eating lunch all happy and then–”

“Soneillon.” Her name flew out of my mouth the second I thought it. “The fallen angel named Soneillon. Everest said making eye contact triggered anger and violence. One look could make a person do heinous things. He said to treat her like Medusa.”

The others gasped as it clicked in their minds. All at once we started scanning the room for her. She had to be here somewhere. But how could a fallen angel blend so easily? Hunter ran around the fight, pushing his magic into the students, yet it seemed to just bounce right off of them like whatever we were up against was stronger , which made sense if she was a fallen angel. Tim, Jackson, Warner, and Cooper went classic muscle strategy and just started dragging people apart. Royce was hog-tying people with vines, then Thiago blinded them. I scanned the room for Savannah and Lennox to see if they had any wicked ideas when I spotted a red bird with glowing red eyes flying through the fighting students.

Soneillon.

I sprinted forward, watching that bird as it flew to try and time it right. I even snuck around a cluster of brawling teenage boys so it wouldn’t see me coming. The world seemed to slip into slow motion. My vision zeroed in on this one red bird. I felt like a jungle cat crouching through the bushes to ambush its prey. The bird landed on the lunch table, its red eyes glowing bright, and then it spun around to see the fight happening over by the wall. I dove with my hands stretched out in front of me. I gasped when my fingers wrapped around the bird’s body. The red feathers tried to flap but I squeezed the bird tight. It squawked in panic. For a split second I worried I’d just captured a regular red bird and then its eyes focused on me.

Glowing red eyes.

A little red rune flashed on the top of its head.

Soneillon.

I grinned even as rage like I’d never felt exploded within me. How dare you turn innocent children on each other. How dare you hide like a coward in bird form. How dare you not stand here and fight them. No, you hide so no one can turn your rage back on you. But she picked the wrong girl to lay eyes on. I was born angry. I was Bruce Banner, always angry and ready to fight. And her magic just made me stronger. It gave me an outlet for everything I was furious about. Sweyn. Lilith. Sam and Pierce being turned against their will. The Unseelie. Esther. Everest’s long life of suffering. My parents’ death.

I screamed out a battle cry and squeezed the bird tighter with both hands. This wasn’t a bird. it was a fallen angel trying to use her power to get out of my grip. I pushed my magic out of me, the runes on my bracelet glowing bright pink. It wrapped around the bird—and then a wave of heat erupted beneath my fingers. I barely kept my grip as the bird changed into a woman. Not that she was a woman at all, there was no humanity in this one. She had red horns that protruded from long black hair and perfectly matched the color of her red eyes and the glowing red orbs hanging from her pointed ears.

My hands were squeezing pale arms that were covered in glowing red runes. Everest’s words replayed in my mind. The runes were black unless she was using her magic, then they glowed red. The runes burned the palms of my hands. She snarled and big black angel wings emerged from her back. OH I DON’T THINK SO. There was no way I was letting go of her, so I slammed my head right into her nose. My uncle had taught me how to headbutt someone without hurting yourself. He’d insisted a girl had to have every attack method possible in her arsenal. As Soneillon shrieked and her blood splashed onto my face, we flew backwards, her wings carrying us halfway across the cafeteria.

The fight still raged around us, but I couldn’t look to them. The anger pulsing through my veins drowned all of my other thoughts and feelings out. All I felt was rage. And she was the cause. She grabbed my arms and tried to rip me off of her, so I wrapped my legs around her hips and locked my ankles behind her back. We rolled like tumbleweeds, crashing into other students as we fought for control.

My throat burned and cracked, so I knew I was screaming, but it felt good. I hated keeping all this rage inside. My mind just kept screaming, HOW DARE YOU. HOW DARE YOU. HOW DARE YOU. She was shrieking back at me with words that stung my ears, but I never heard them over my own. With her pinned between me and the ground, she reached up and gripped my face, so I bit her thumb as hard as I could. She bellowed and snarled. I pushed all of my strength into my teeth. HOW DARE YOU. HOW DARE YOU. HOW DARE YOU. In my peripheral vision I saw innocent children covered in bloodied wounds and bruises as they fought their own friends. The screams and wails echoed between these walls.

Blood filled my mouth. She yanked her hand back. Blood gushed from where her thumb should have been. Yet it still sat clenched in my teeth. The evil chuckle that ripped through me should have unnerved me, but it filled me with strength.

I spit her thumb into her face. “ You’re a coward who hides behind her magic.”

Soneillon flipped me over, pressing me into the hardwood floor as she thrashed to break my hold, but my legs were my strongest muscles. She wasn’t getting out of that grip. I reached up and fisted her long black hair, using them like reins on a horse. Over her shoulder, the glass ceiling exploded, sending glass falling onto the fight like rain. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head to the side to protect myself. The glass shards sliced into the skin on the side of my face and neck. I looked back up and spotted two male angels flying with white wings through the now open ceiling and landing in the middle of the chaos. One of them had dark strawberry-blond hair, matching freckles, and blue eyes. The other had short blond hair and black eyes—-and snakes coiled around his wrists and ankles.

Snakes. Everest mentioned Astaroth handled snakes. Which means the pretty one is Mammon.

Soneillon arched her back and bellowed. Astaroth and Mammon looked right to us, their eyes widening. They charged for us when Jackson and Timothy leapt out in front of them, blocking their path. I squeezed my thighs tighter. Soneillon gasped. She tried to peel my legs apart but there was too much blood on her hands to give her traction. I yanked her hair, pulling her closer. I wanted to bite one of her horns off and shove it through her eyeball.

She lunged to the side but my grip was solid, so we just rolled again. When we stopped, she was back on top and that was fine by me. My grip was better down here. I needed to break her magical grip on these students, but I didn’t know how. I just had to hang on to her until I figured it out or help came. I glanced around, looking for someone to help me, but everyone was thick in it. Jackson and Timothy expertly handled a sword fight with Astaroth and Mammon. Snakes slithered over the floor and dropped from the broken ceiling. The others were all trying to peel students off each other, but none of them were using magic, and I knew my Coven-mates would feel sick using it against these innocent kids. Where’s Tegan? She wouldn’t hesitate.

Soneillon’s hands wrapped around my throat.

I gasped for that last breath as my eyes widened. I dropped her hair and gripped her wrists, but I was a mortal and she was an angel. Fallen or not, she had physical strength I couldn’t match.

EVEREST! I screamed with my mind. He’d always been hyper aware of when I needed him, so I prayed he was paying attention now. EVEREST!

My vision was tunneling already, my lungs burning in protest. That breath I’d sucked in desperately was gone now. Everest wasn’t here. No one was coming to my rescue. So, I did the only thing I could think of, I summoned every ounce of magic in my body and pushed it out of me with a soundless scream. Neon-blue and pink rushed out of me in a wave, then everything went white.

Air rushed into my lungs. I gasped and then choked on the oxygen. Everything was still white. There was no sound, no smells. It was like the world was suspended. All I saw was Soneillon still wrapped between my legs like I was a boa constrictor.

And then we crashed into stone. My body screamed and cracked as we were airborne again, rolling across rough stone. Fresh air swept over my face. We were outside now. As we rolled, I noticed we’d busted through a wall into the outdoor courtyard. When we stopped moving, I saw the night sky above her head with stars twinkling down at me as if they were mocking— wait. NIGHT SKY. Oh no. It’s night. The sun set.

I barely had time to put the pieces together in my mind before I saw dozens of them flying right for us. Unseelie. The school was now unprotected. There was nothing stopping them from flying through the shattered ceiling and into the fight.

Soneillon stopped thrashing and braced her hands on the stone floor by my head and grinned, her red eyes blazing, but I couldn’t get any angrier than I already was. “Used all your little witchling strength on that, didn’t you?” Then her hands covered my mouth and nose.

It wasn’t enough to cut off all my oxygen but definitely most of it. Yet I didn’t let her know I could still breathe, not while I needed a moment to think. With hands I pretended were spent of energy, I gripped her wrists. I widened my eyes and thrashed, then made a show out of craning my neck around her to look for help.

“No one is coming to save you, witchling. They’re all a little busy.” She cackled and turned her head to make eye contact with more students, her runes flashing like red strobe lights. “Feel my rage, little ones.”

The Unseelie dropped onto the fight. I watched in horror as they snatched students right off the ground. Rainbow magic glittered in the air and then hurricane-force winds covered the open ceiling. The Unseelies crashed into it and bounced back toward the floor. TEGAN. Black smoke slammed into the Unseelies, forcing them to drop their victims.

“ Everest, ” Soneillon growled his name.

My heart soared. That’s IT. With her snarling in my soulmate’s direction, I reached down and pulled one of my sais from my thigh. Then I wiggled my jaw until I got the right angle and sank my teeth into the palm of her hand. She hissed. Those glowing red eyes turned back to me. Pure, white-hot rage pumped through my body. I swung my arm, slicing the long blade of my sais right across her eyes. Blood rained down on me.

She wailed and released my face, pressing her hands to her eyes. Her black wings flapped once, then she was shooting into the sky, flying right through Tegan’s hurricane. Soneillon was gone.

All at once, the students stopped fighting. Instantly. In perfect unison, they all dropped to their knees. They stared at their hands and their peers in horror and shock. But the Unseelies were still there, still attacking the now motionless students who were ripe for the picking. There was a flash of white light, then Tegan’s hurricane-ceiling vanished. I scanned the room for her, but she wasn’t anywhere. Yet neither was Tenn. That made my stomach turn. I hadn’t seen Tenn since fighting Asmodeus.

I tried to get up, I needed to get into that fight and help, but my body was spent. Soneillon hadn’t been wrong. I’d used all my strength. It would come back, just not fast enough. It was taking everything I had just to breathe. After a few moments, I managed to roll onto my side, yet even that made the world spin. I squeezed my eyes shut and just breathed. Come on, lungs. Stay with me. When I opened my eyes, I wanted to cry. Everest was as far away from me as possible, and he was surrounded by at least a dozen Unseelie knights. Against him. Alone. My stomach tightened into knots. My heart pounded against my chest. I gripped the stone floor of the courtyard and pulled myself up onto all fours, then I had to stop because I was choking on the air I breathed in.

Everest’s blue and white gaze snapped to me, widening just a fraction.

I smiled and nodded. It was the most I could manage. I was okay though. I just needed a minute. Fighting a fallen angel was harder than I realized. It wasn’t until she was gone that it registered just how much strength I’d been using. I was still trying to breathe normally when Azazel stepped out of the shadows. My Coven-mates looked toward him, but they were all fighting Unseelie.

Azazel grinned as he sauntered down the middle of the cafeteria. The horrified haze in the students’ eyes vanished, instantly replaced by lust in his presence. They dove for him, desperate to get their hands on him. My stomach rolled. Some of them were children. Azazel laughed and wiggled his fingers over their heads—and the students turned on each other again.

NO.

“Stop,” Tennessee’s voice thundered through the hall. “Azazel.”

Azazel’s smile turned absolutely wicked. “My, my, Little Michael . . . Just what I wanted.”

“Come and get me then.” Tenn held his arms out to the side.

The second Azazel took a step toward Tenn, I spotted Tegan creeping in the shadows behind the Angel of Sin. She flicked her wrists left and right. With each one a dozen students vanished. She crept across the room in Azazel’s wake. I had no idea where she was sending the students, but I was relieved they were gone. Our Coven-mates were fighting the Unseelie. Swords and daggers clanged as they parried. Magic sparkled but it was all too much to see at once.

And I was too far away.

They needed me.

Two firm hands gripped my arms, yanking them back behind my body. I had no strength to fight it. A cool breeze swept over my back, sending long navy-blue strands of hair into my line of view. I gasped.

A deep chuckle rumbled in my ear as his hot breath swept across my cheek. “ Recognize me by my hair, do you? I must have made an impression on you, witchling. ”

My pulse quickened. The Unseelie Prince had me in his grip, and I had nothing left inside me to fight him. Stupid, Frankie. STUPID. Even still, I thrashed in his hold to try and break free. Tears stung my eyes.

“Don’t worry, witchling. I’m not going to kill you,” he all but purred in my ear. “After all, it’s not fun if he can’t watch.”

A strangled cry left my lips.

“What is he to you, anyways?” He wrapped one arm around my body and gripped my throat in one hand. His long fingers dug into my jaw, forcing me to look right at Everest. “Or perhaps it’s what are you to him? Which one of you will suffer more if the other dies? Hmm? Sweyn wants dear Everest to watch her kill you, but I wonder . . . perhaps it would be more fun to make you watch him die?”

Tears pooled on my lashes. I thrashed but it was no use. I was too weak and he was too strong.

“ Go ahead, call for him ,” the Prince whispered against my ear. “Let him hear you beg for him.”

I slammed my mouth shut and shook my head.

His fingers dug into my throat. “Scream for him, witchling,” he growled.

“ No, ” I whispered. I knew what I had to say even if the words hurt coming out. “ He means nothing to me. He is merely a weapon. ”

“Is that so?” He shouted something in the Unseelie language. “Let’s see how good of a weapon he really is then, shall we?”

Another dozen or so Unseelie knights appeared out of nowhere, descending on Everest in the blink of an eye. There was a whole war happening around us, the rest of my Coven-mates thick in battle with Unseelies and fallen angels, yet my eyes only saw him. No one was going to his aid. No one could. We were all fighting for our lives out here. I watched in horror as Everest fought one on like twenty. No one was that good. Within seconds they were overpowering him, moving in too close.

Sharp, hot pain pierced through my spine. My back arched and my feet left the ground. The pain grew stronger, like he’d gripped my bones in his hand. A scream ripped up my throat, but I clenched my teeth to keep it in. Pressure wrapped around my body, squeezing me tight. I inhaled through my nose as my body felt like it was going to break apart. My legs gave out and I crashed to the stone on my knees, yet my body was too numb to feel the pain.

The Prince looked down at me with narrowed yellow cat eyes. He pressed his palm to my chest. My back arched like my body was being sucked into his hand. OH GODS. He’s a siphon! I realized too late what he was doing. My hands and feet were cold and tingly. A soft red glow lit up his palm and fingers. His eyes widened. He reached down and grabbed my hands, lifting them up to get a better look at the black lines that covered both of my arms all the way down to my fingers. The backs of my hands had the crystal heart of the soulmate glyph that shimmered a deep red.

He narrowed his eyes and turned to look at Everest. My gaze followed, praying I hadn’t just betrayed us. Praying his siphoning only brought my glyph out. But no. Everest’s soulmate glyph was on bold display in the short sleeve black V-neck T-shirt he wore. His arms and hands looked exactly like mine. The black lines stretched up his neck to his jaw and I knew without needing a mirror mine did too. He turned to slam a few of the knights with magic and we both spotted the red crystal heart in the middle of his chest.

“ Ah, soulmates. This is getting better and better.” He gripped my throat again and lifted me to my feet, using his fingers in my jaw to force me to watch my soulmate. “Good little, witchling. Now watch him die. Kill the Seelie scum!”

“NO!” I screamed.

Everest’s gaze snapped in my direction instantly. His eyes widened. His face paled.

That one milli-second distraction was all they needed. Three of the Unseelie knights threw their hands together. Time slowed. I held my breath. Magic sparkled like a firework and then one of those dragons made of black smoke flew straight for Everest.

Saber screamed and leapt over a table to get to him, but she was never going to make it.

The Prince held me tight in his grip. Tears spilled down my cheeks. Those smoke-dragons were lethal. They’d taken out half the people in the infirmary. It was happening in mere seconds yet time stretched on. Everest frowned and turned toward the smoke-dragon and cursed. He dove out of the way, but the smoke-dragon followed him.

Light flashed in my peripheral vision as something flew down and leapt in front of Everest—the smoke-dragon slammed into the chest of a giant eagle.

Saber screamed again, sliding in to catch her father and the giant eagle just as they were about to hit the ground. The Unseelie knights gasped and flinched. They leapt backwards and looked up to the sky. Their black soulless eyes widened.

Dragons dove head-first for us, swallowing the sky with their massive bodies.

Koth was larger than the others by far, yet he was nearly impossible to see, his black scales blending seamlessly into the night sky. Only the violet sparkle of his eyes and the stream of fire from his mouth made him visible. I spotted Silas, Tyce, and Dace behind him. The others I hadn’t learned the names of, but I counted ten of them in total, including a brown one with a vicious tail, a pretty green one, then four smaller ones.

They flew with blinding speed, swooping in without mercy.

Koth landed right in front of Everest and the eagle, drenching those two dozen knights in flames faster than my eyes could even track. The other dragons dove for the other Unseelie. Most of them ripped heads off or threw them into walls. Silas was smashing them under his feet. One of the smaller dragons ate one.

The rest of the Unseelie fled.

The Prince lifted me off my feet.

“EVEREST!” I screamed as we headed for the sky.

From beneath the giant eagle, Everest threw his hand out and thick black smoke slammed into the Prince’s face. At the same time, rainbow magic swirled around my body where he held me. He cursed and dropped me. Rainbow lightning streaked across what was left of the cafeteria.

Tennessee lunged from the chaos and caught me mid-air in the cradle of his tan arms. “I’ve got you. Breathe .”

I sucked in a deep breath and the fire in my lungs cooled.

We landed next to Koth just as he shifted into his human form. And then it was panic as everyone raced toward the giant eagle still lying on top of Everest and Saber. The dragons shifted without slowing down, sprinting for him with fear in their eyes. They were all shouting in a language I didn’t know.

“ELAN!” Koth shouted so loud the ground trembled.