Reaching for her belt, Grace pulled out a long glistening sword. The blade ripped from its sheath with a menacing sound, and a few of the captains gasped, clearly unsure of her intentions.

“Raphael, I challenge you to a sparring match. If I can hold my own against you, then you give me my school.” She was dead serious.

Amusement danced behind the other archangels’ eyes.

“That sounds fair, Brother. I’ve trained her myself. If anyone can show us what the humans are capable of, it’s Grace,” Michael added in support of his wife.

Raphael stared at her a long moment, then finally nodded. “Okay, Grace. If you show me that I won’t be sending humans out to be slaughtered, I will give you Fallen Academy to be turned into a school for humans to learn demon hunting.”

My heart was racing in my ears. Seeing Grace’s passionate plight for the humans brought tears to my eyes. Since the Fallen War, we’d always seen humans as weak, but that needed to change, and Grace was proof.

Raphael looked to one of the captains who sat in the front row. “Please fetch my sword, and meet us on the field. “

Holy shit. Archangel Michael’s wife is going to fight Raphael.

Lincoln gave me a look of shock, and then we all stood and filed out of the meeting room in eager anticipation. If Grace won, this could change the face of the war. Maybe not this year, or the next, but as students graduated from the Demon Hunter Academy, it would bolster our numbers against the Hellspawn.

I hoped like hell that she won.

We all stood on the field. It was midday, and the sun shining brightly in the sky, reflected on the swords readying for a fight, making them almost glow. Raphael held his sword tightly, decked out in full plate armor with a shield, as was Grace. I’d fetched Emberly—sure she wouldn’t want to miss this—and now we stood with rapt attention, along with the captains of the army, and the other fallen angels in a semicircle.

“Kick his ass, Mom!” Emberly shouted, causing a grin to pull at the corner of Grace’s lips.

Raphael just stood like a sentinel, no emotion on his face. “I have a healer standing by in case you’re seriously injured,” he told Grace, then nodded to Noah, who was waiting off to the side.

“No. If I’m injured, I’ll heal naturally. Let’s do this, Raph. No more postponing the inevitable. You know this Demon Hunter Academy is the future.”

Raphael sighed and then waved her forward. “I’ll be the judge of that. Show me your best.”

Grinning, Grace began to stalk forward, waving her sword in a figure eight motion before her. While she was making a spectacle with her sword hand, I saw her free hand dip into a thigh holster at her side and pluck out a silver throwing knife. Before I could even register what she was doing, she threw it at the half-inch gap in Raphael’s armor, right near his collarbone. It sank into the meat of his shoulder, causing the angel to gasp in shock. That’s when Grace sprang from her spot, hurtling at him, sword raised.

Raphael yanked the throwing knife out of his shoulder, and tossed it to the ground, throwing up his shield just as Grace’s sword crashed into it. He blocked her blows, lashing out with his own sword, which she seemed ready for each time. It was like watching a dance—Raphael would push her back, cutting out her advance with his sword, and she would block before pushing him back once more.

“Don’t go easy on her!” Michael yelled. Not something you would expect a man to say to another man who was attacking his wife.

At his words, Raphael reached out with his giant foot and planted a boot into Grace’s chest, sending her flying ten feet up into the air with his superhuman kick. Grace must have practiced this, because she seemed ready for the fall and rolled into it as she landed, before springing up quickly into a crouch.

Charging forward, Raphael lifted himself into the air with his wings, and she tracked the motion across the space until he started to descend, fast and hard. She held her crouched position, sword out before her, until he was right on top of her. In that moment, she sprang from her spot on the ground and threw a handful of dirt into his face.

It was like watching a ninja.

Raphael coughed and sputtered as he landed, caught completely off guard, while Emberly cheered. Grace collided with the angel, sending her sword right through one of his wings, slicing into the meat. Raphael roared in pain or anger—I couldn’t tell—and lashed out with his sword, catching a piece of Grace’s exposed arm and drawing blood.

I held my breath, totally forgetting that breathing was essential to life. I was riveted to the spot.

Still, Grace barely winced at the large gash he’d made in her arm—blood now flowing freely down to her elbow. She just stood there, strong and steadfast, holding her sword up before her.

Raphael had stopped his advance, brow creasing. “Doesn’t it hurt?” he asked, his concerned gaze on the cut he’d made on her arm.

She shrugged. “Not as bad as childbirth, and humans have been doing that for thousands of years. I’m not going to forfeit at the first sight of blood, Raphael. I’m stronger than that.”

The healer angel sighed. “Yes, I suppose you are.” With that, he lowered his sword to the side, before letting it fall to the ground. “I guess I’ve misjudged what the human spirit is capable of.”

His wing was bleeding, and there was dirt on his face, but he looked… relieved, like maybe he’d wanted this demon hunter school all along, but didn’t want to put a bunch of weak humans in harm’s way.

“Does this mean…?” Grace eyed his sword on the ground, probably unsure if it was a trick, or if Raphael had given up the fight.

“It means you get your school, Grace. You can be headmaster, and I’ll advise you when you need it. I think it’s high time we empowered the humans to protect themselves.”

A triumphant grin lit up Grace’s face as she dropped her sword, and threw herself into Raphael’s arms, to embrace him. His hands came around her, squeezing her back, and you could clearly see there was no love lost between these old friends.

When she pulled back, Raphael rubbed his eyes. “You threw dirt in my face.”

Grace shrugged as if to say, ‘I had to do what I had to do.’

Michael stepped toward them with a slight grin. “I taught her that.” He winked at Raph.

Raphael chuckled, clapping Michael on the back. “Of course, you did.”

At that moment, Emberly crossed the space to give her mom a hug, and the two were quickly smiling, and talking in hushed tones.

“A Demon Hunting Academy for humans. Crazy, but it just might work,” Lincoln whispered, slipping his hand into mine.

Glancing at my husband, I nodded. “Damn right it will, and I want to teach there when it’s ready. Grace has already asked me.”

Lincoln reached out, tucking a lock of stray hair behind my ear. “I think that would be wonderful.”

What he didn’t say was, ‘if we can survive until then.’ We only had a few months to bolster Angel City, or no future academies would exist at all.

Six

Michael had approved my need for a couple Snakeroot demons, and today was the day I was going to train my small summer crew how to fight them. We were just two weeks from the date of the second gauntlet, so it was now or never. Tonight, the other soldiers from our sister academies would start showing up, and the cat would be out of the bag. Everyone would finally know there were other schools, but the risk was worth the reward. Saving Angel City had become a top priority. Catia, Lincoln’s friend from his time in San Francisco, was also slated to arrive tonight, and I was super excited to meet her.

“All right, listen up!” I called to my class. “Captain Grey will be here shortly, to bring a couple of Snakeroot demons for us to train with. If you cannot trap, or kill, a miniscule Snakeroot demon, you do not belong in the Fallen Army.”

Silence descended among my eleven students. People started to come out from their apartment buildings, to watch the spectacle; I’d put notices on their doors last night, that the parking lot would be used for training purposes today. Looking up, I saw my mom and Mikey, and both gave me a little wave.

“Now, what do you know about Snakeroots?” Shea asked the group.

Shea and I had fallen into an easy form of co-teaching. I was the sane one who did things by the book, and she was the psycho, breaking the rules to try and toughen up the students. Together, we made a pretty good team.

The smallest girl, nicknamed Tiny, raised her hand. “They spit acid and they like candy.”

I nodded. “So, who came prepared?”

One by one, my students pulled packets of gum and candy out of their pockets.

Good. The little shits were listening when I spoke.

They just might pass this test after all.

Lincoln pulled up in his Fallen Army-issued SUV at that moment, and I nodded to my students. “Showtime. Split into your groups, pick a team leader, and prove to me that I should recommend you to Raphael to be in the second gauntlet test.”

A grim determination settled on each and every one of their faces, as they started to split up into their assigned groups.

Lincoln stepped out of the car, Noah opening the passenger door at the same time, and both boys came to greet us.

“Think they’re ready? I could only find one Snakeroot, so I grabbed a Yew demon as well. Little shit nearly set the car on fire,” my husband confessed.

Good. Switching it up on them would be perfect training for real life. “That’s fine. They better be ready, because if they don’t pass today, then they have no hope of passing the gauntlet a second time.”

Lincoln nodded. “It’s hard when you want them to succeed so badly, but you can’t do the work for them.”

He was right. I’d forgotten that he had been my mentor—still was, technically—for so much of my journey at Fallen Academy. He knew exactly how I felt, and how invested I was in this group.

I’d set up three little areas in the parking lot with stacked boxes and crates, broken pieces of wood and hay bales, so each group could try to contain their demon within the allotted space.