Whatever my attack had done to Lucifer wore off at that moment. The Devil popped up onto his feet, wings outstretched, and grabbed me by the upper arms. My attention had been on Lincoln, to make sure he didn’t get killed, and now I was being pulled upward into the air. My wings flapped like crazy to pull against Lucy, but he was too strong, his wings pumped as we went higher and higher.

I built up that mixed silvery gray magic between my palms, as he kept my arms in a viselike grip, face bearing down on me.

“I hate you!” I screamed over the wind, directly into his face. “I’ve always hated you. You’re a foul monster, and I can’t wait until you’re dead.”

The magic burst from my hands with a sharp snapping noise, and wrapped it around his lower legs, binding them together. He growled in frustration, releasing one of my arms, and grabbing my wing in a grip so tight, I yelped in surprise.

“And I’ve seen nothing but wasted potential in you, Brielle.”

A tightening pinch wrapped around the wing he held. Then he let go of me, and I dropped like a stone in water.

What the hell? Looking back over my shoulder, I saw a black inky band on the wing he’d touched. I couldn’t fly, and I was plummeting to the ground.

Shit!

I flapped my one good wing like crazy, to try and slow my fall, but I was going to hit the ground any moment and break a shit ton of bones no doubt. All my one-wing flapping was doing was throwing off my balance, making my descent more wobbly.

“Brielle!” Lincoln boomed, and then he zoomed into the air before me. I barely had time to register his blur of motion before he reached out, grabbing my arm. The force of my weight falling, and Lincoln’s sudden grip on my arm sent a flare of pain slicing through my shoulder blade, making me certain that it had just popped out of its socket.

A wail of agony ripped from my throat as the stinging sensation crawled up my entire arm. Lincoln’s face contorted in misery as he quickly flew me down to the ground and let me go, so I could cradle my arm to my chest. My entire right arm was on fire, but I was alive with no broken back, so that was a plus.

Where the hell is Lucy?

I looked around me, stunned at the realization that I was sitting in the middle of a war zone. One of the archangels had conjured a Celestial orb, which was floating in midair. The Fallen Army soldiers were dipping their blades into it, and slaying Lucifer’s demon horde, all while the other angels beyond the gates of Heaven waited and watched.

My eyes flitted around the space, searching for Shea and Raksha. I spotted my bestie fighting back to back with Noah, and relief crashed through me knowing she was okay.

But when I finally found Raksha, my stomach sank. Lucifer had a knife to her throat, and she was conjuring another portal.

No.

I stood upright, still cradling my injured arm, which was slowly losing all feeling. “Lucifer!” I roared, and I could have sworn my voice had amplified with some untold power. “Let. Her. Go!” I stalked toward them as the rage built inside of me.

He was a coward. He was going to escape, and let his people be slaughtered. Fine. But he would not take her.

Lucy looked over at me and grinned, holding the blade tighter across Raksha’s throat. I snapped my good hand out, and flicked my silver energy whip to life.

“Let’s kill him!” Lincoln growled beside me, his sword glowing a bright blue.

Maybe this was what it would take, the two of us together. I simply nodded. I was 90 percent sure Lucifer wouldn’t kill Raksha; he clearly needed her to open his portals, or he would have done it himself.

Raksha was trying her best to open the portal, but with Lucifer’s knife so tight on her throat, she couldn’t move much. When she met my gaze, my heart broke for her. There was so much fear and desperation there; it reminded me of my first days down in Hell.

“They’re safe and happy,” I told her, hoping she knew that I meant her wife and child.

At my words, she wept with relief. In that moment, Lucifer pulled the blade from her throat and chucked it at Lincoln. My husband jerked to the side and dodged it, but it was enough of a distraction for Lucy to grab Raksha and start backing her into the open portal with him.

No!

With a flick of my wrist, I reached out and wrapped my whip around his left thigh. It coiled and tightened around the Prince of Darkness like a snake, stopping him. Lincoln ran forward, intending to jump into the portal like a crazed maniac no doubt, when Lucifer thrust his hands at him. A shock wave of energy slammed into Lincoln and me so fast and hard, that everything went black as I felt myself falling to the ground.

When I came to, the first thing I noticed was that everything hurt. My shoulder the most, but everything hurt, like I’d been hit by a car.

‘Have you ever wondered if Michael styles his hair, or if it’s just naturally that… bouncy,’ Sera’s voice came into my mind.

I moaned, peeling open my eyelids to find all four archangels standing over me.

“Lincoln,” I croaked, trying to sit up, but a wave of dizziness slammed into me.

“I’m here,” my husband groaned. I followed the sound of his voice to see that he was laid out next to me, while Shea, Chloe, Luke and Noah hovered over him.

My attention briefly shifted to the battlefield. Once so beautiful, it was now riddled with dead bodies. Some of them our own.

“Is it over?” I asked, trying to sit up again.

Raphael bent on one knee, his eyes watery with unshed tears. “It is, and you… you prevented a catastrophic war. You changed history, Brielle.”

Holy shit. Did I? I drove Lucifer off, and didn’t open the gate. I didn’t let him control me.

I laughed nervously, unsure of what to say.

Reaching out, Raphael pulled me up slowly, so I was standing. As he did, golden light shot from his hand and into my body, chasing the pain away. He was healing me. Against the rules, against his orders. I knew he’d already healed Lincoln and broken the rules but I just wasn’t use to this Raph.

He clicked his tongue. “You ripped the tendons and ligaments in your shoulder. That will take some time to heal.”

I tried to pull my arm back. “You don’t have to.”

His hands clamped down to hold me still. “I want to. I have free will too, and I will use it to the fullest from now on.”

Michael nodded. “We all will. We’re with you, Brielle. Until the end.”

‘I love him,’ Sera sighed.

I tried not to laugh at my infinity weapon’s comment, since no one else could hear her. What the archangels said was so overwhelming, I felt emotional and had to rein it in to keep from crying.

When Shea broke through the archangels’ barrier to deposit Sera at my feet, Raphael released me so I could go to her. I felt much better, still sore, but it was manageable. On the other hand, my weapon was still covered in the sickly dark magic.

“I’m going to need Mr. Claymore’s help. Sorry,” Shea confessed.

Waving her off, I shrugged. “It’s fine. Thanks for keeping her safe.” I realized then that once Lucifer had seen I wasn’t going to help him, he’d put that blanket of dark magic around Sera to make her powerless, so I couldn’t use her against him.

A loud gong sounded from behind us, and we all spun around surprised. The gates were opening. One of the angels—Lucifer had called him Metatron, I believed—walked toward us. He was the extremely tall one, with dark hair and green eyes, and in his hands was a giant wooden treasure chest with a golden latch.

“Metatron,” Michael said his name with what seemed to be a hint of admiration in his voice.

The man set the trunk down, and embraced Michael tightly. “I’ve missed you, Brother. We all have.” He pointed to the gathering of angels standing just inside of the open gate.

“Hello, old friend,” Raphael greeted him. They all took turns embracing, including Gabriel and Uriel.

I stood there, dumbfounded that I was casually chilling with archangels after just saving Heaven from going to war. How was this my life?

“What’s that?” Michael asked.

Metatron gestured to the wooden box resting at his feet. “This is a gift for your wife, from the Creator.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “For Grace?”

Metatron nodded. “In it she will find the technology needed to arm the humans with equal power to fight Lucifer’s demons.”

Equal power.

A low whistle slipped through Raphael’s lips . “Normally, the Creator doesn’t like to get involved like this. He would wait for the humans to create the technology themselves.”

Metatron smiled, and shrugged. “You know the Creator is especially fond of the mortals.”

Raphael nodded. “As are we.”

‘This is crazy,’ I told Sera. How was I just listening in on this conversation?

‘Play it cool,’ she admonished.

The angel’s green-eyed gaze fell on me. “Brielle, it’s an honor to meet you in person.” He bowed his head.

In person? Had we met before or something?

I wasn’t sure what protocol was or why he was bowing to me, so I just bowed back.

Metatron smiled. “To thank you for your service today, the Creator has a gift for you as well, but first, I’ve been instructed to give you all these.”

Pulling some disc-shaped metal pieces from his pocket, he began handing them out to each archangel, before peering over the group to where Lincoln and my friends stood. “You too.” He beckoned them forward.

Lincoln, Noah, Shea, Chloe and Luke seemed stunned, but they came forward anyway. He handed a disc to Lincoln and Noah, but not the others.

“You won’t need them,” he told the rest of my friends. “These discs allow the wearer to withstand the dark energies of the underworld, so long as it’s touching their skin.”

Lincoln’s mouth dropped open in shock. “This would’ve been nice to have last year, when Brielle was taken.”

Metatron nodded. “Yes, it would have, but it wasn’t permitted at that time. Brielle learned a valuable lesson in her time with Lucifer, one that will aid her in fulfilling her destiny.”