wooden floor beneath my feet looks like clouds. But when I move my foot, I feel the steady boards of the gym floor beneath them instead of the buoyancy I always feel in my dreams.
Hesitantly, I feel my shirt for blood. But it feels dry.
Is it real? I don’t know.
Molten glass blocks the doors, both the one the angel came in and the emergency exit I’d hoped to sneak out of. It rises up in deadly bubbles, and a scent like beeswax drifts over to me from the molten glass droplets.
That certainly smells real.
My eyes dart around, wondering how this is possible. I have no idea what’s happening right now or where this magic comes from, but I do see all of my demons and they’re all upright. It doesn’t look like they were the ones who screamed.
Raz, with his sandy brown hair, has black ram’s horns protruding from his head and his wings fanned out, the back of his shirt falling in tatters down his spine as he extends one hand towards the angel. But I don’t see magic emanating from his hands, so I’m unsure what he’s doing.
Next to him, the tornado is whipping Akor’s once-tame mohawk up so that it floats eerily. His white suit is wrinkled, the jacket unbuttoned and flapping in the wind from the blood tornado, streaked here and there with little lines of red as a random droplet or two hit him, which makes him look a little more wild and unhinged than normal. Both of his hands are extended, and a strange, orange-colored lightning flickers between them before shooting out and hitting the angel in the leg.
Immediately, I hear the unnatural scream from before, and bile shoots up my throat when I see the angel’s kneecap dislocate.
My eyes try to close, but I force my lashes apart. I’m no help to anyone if I’m cowering and unaware of the dangers around us. I’m no help anyway in a battle between Heaven and Hell, but I figure it’s like dodgeball—you don’t have to be any good to survive, you just have to be alert and aware.
Damn my clit for stealing so much blood from my brain. I’m making stupid dodgeball references when I should be doing something. But what?
I look towards the emergency exit and see Zolroth to my left, his short cropped hair and dark skin lit eerily by the light shining from the foyer and refracting off the molten glass. His hand is raised, and I hear glass shattering somewhere. A ripping sound starts, and one of the wall pads underneath the basketball goal shreds to bits before an axe with a bright red handle flies through it. The axe zings through the air and lands in Zolroth’s hand. I realize with a start that he’s holding the emergency fire axe, the one that our school should have gotten rid of ages ago, but hid behind some wall pads instead.
It takes another second for my shocked brain to process the fact that he literally just lifted his hand and something flew to him.
What the fuck?
The angel isn’t as slow on the uptake as I am. None of this shit is brand new to him. His damn mates didn’t keep their magical powers a secret like mine did, so he’s not in shock and he doesn’t hesitate. The white-winged fury swings his scythe in a deadly arc toward Zolroth, who turns the axe sideways and throws it with a flick of his wrist, like it’s a frisbee.
Watching that scythe swing down makes my stomach roil in agony, and I lurch towards Zolroth on instinct.
Kastros yanks me back, and Van hits me with a bolt of lust that dazes me enough to stop my feet, but not enough to stop my eyes from watching that scythe slice through the front of Zolroth’s abdomen like it’s butter.
1
Van
I linger in the halls of Lakewood Prep like a pervert, my eyes searching the sea of short blue uniform skirts for a girl with pink curls and a smile so lush, it makes my fiery heart freeze up. Underage girls bat their eyes, but I look right past them, searching for my mate, my beautiful Center, Katrina.
When she first summoned us, I thought that her summons would be like any other human spell—a selfish wish cast by some lazy human too entitled to work for what they actually want in life. But when we popped into this realm at the address we were given for the soul