“Yes, and cupcakes too.”

Shea was working her magic, arcs of purple spell work spinning through the air. I was hoping she’d gotten my meaning that I wanted her to create an illusion of a Monkshood demon, because Snakeroot demons were terrified of them.

Just when it looked like she was doing exactly that, all hell broke loose.

Loud sirens burst into the night, blaring deafeningly, and sent the Snakeroot demon into a spitting frenzy. He scurried up the wall, his sticky-pad feet holding him there as he continued to spit rapid-fire.

“Take cover!” I shouted, diving behind a huge practice mat. The sirens were so loud I had never noticed them before but sure enough, on the top of the far wall, there was a red blinking light and speaker.

“Students, the demon alarm has been activated. Please proceed to a safe place and wait for help,” Raphael’s booming voice came over the speaker.

Shit. Demon alarm?

“Shea, you tripped the school’s demon alarm!” I yelled. She was hiding behind a row of weightlifting medicine balls and probably didn’t hear me.

The alarm sound stopped then, but the light kept blaring. My cell phone was in my bag across the room with Sera, so I had no way of calling Lincoln or getting my dagger.

“Oh God!” Chloe shrieked.

My head snapped in the direction she was looking and my whole body went rigid. Out of the portal, another demon was climbing up and into the gym—a freaking Hellhound.

“Shea!” I roared, then heard the sound of spit hitting the mat I was trying to seek safety under. The smell of burning foam wasn’t pleasant, and I’d probably need to ditch the mat soon, or suffer the consequences.

“Shit! I’ll close it,” Shea said, stepping out from behind her medicine ball hideout. The Snakeroot demon saw and took his chance, sending an arc of spit right at her outstretched hand.

“Look out!” I screamed, tearing across the room with my mat as a shield.

It was no use. The acid connected with Shea’s arm just as she started her spell, and a wail of pain cut through the air.

“Screw this,” Chloe muttered. In a blur, she streaked across the room with something in her hands, and then the Snakeroot demon was flying to the other side of the gym.

Chloe was standing there grinning, holding a wooden bo staff. I’d barely even seen her punt the tiny demon from his perch on the wall.

I used the distraction to get to Sera, chucking the disintegrated mat, and picking up my dagger.

Shea was huddled on the ground, whimpering over her arm, and Chloe seemed to have the Snakeroot demon in check. She was faster than he could spit, so she was dodging his acid attacks, and knocking him across the room with the bo staff like he was a baseball. Luke padded over to my side, both of us staring at the Hellhound.

“Shea, how you doing?” I called out to her, keeping my eyes on the two-headed mutt before me. Hellhounds would rip your throat out in a millisecond, and eat your entire carcass in an hour. Bones included.

“I’ll be fine. You take care of the Hellhound, and I’ll close the portal.” Her voice was racked with pain, and I knew how bad she must’ve been hurting. I’d been there.

One of the Hellhound’s heads was glaring at me, the other at Luke. In that moment, both bared their teeth and growled at us simultaneously. I didn’t know much about them, except that they were rare, and rumored to be Lucifer’s favorite creature. Without a clue on how to kill them, I was at a huge disadvantage.

‘Behead them,’ Sera shared.

I winced. Nasty.

‘Are you sure?’ I asked. Beheading a wolf dog with red eyes wasn’t my idea of a good time.

No time to respond, as the Hellhound lunged for me, probably determining Luke was a greater threat. I dropped to one knee just like Lincoln had taught me, and readied myself for the blow, but the collision never came. As the hound arced through the air, Luke bent his head low and then snapped it up, goring the creature’s side. One of his horns pierced through the animal’s rib cage, and a shriek ripped out of both mouths.

With a toss of his head, Luke chucked the Hellhound across the room and it hit the wall, sliding down into a slump, and leaving a trail of black blood down the wall.

I did a quick assessment of the situation. Shea was closing the portal, hunched over as she flung magic, cradling her injured arm. A hurried look to the right revealed Chloe had the Snakeroot demon pinned under her boot, its jaw forced closed by the weight of her shoe on its face.

Luke and I needed to finish off the Hellhound.

Just then, the double doors to the gym opened and Lincoln stepped in with no less than twenty Fallen Army soldiers, including Raphael and Mr. Claymore.

Lincoln’s eyes widened to saucers. “What the hell is going on here?” he bellowed, striding inside, and pulling two swords—both glowing a ferocious blue.

The Hellhound snapped his heads in Lincoln’s direction and growled, trying to get up. There was a puddle of blood at its feet, but it still looked ready to party.

Lincoln advanced, and in two clean swishes through the air, he took the Hellhound’s heads right off. Easy-peasy.

“Over here, please,” Chloe said. The Snakeroot demon was squirming hard, probably sensing his impending doom. Blake came up behind Lincoln with a flamethrower in hand and lit it.

The Snakeroot demon wiggled harder, and Chloe started to lose balance. With one final pull, he slipped out from under her boot and scrambled up the wall. Lincoln slowly pulled a bag of Skittles from his pocket, opening them with his teeth and scattering them on the floor. The colored candies spread out across the ground, offering a distraction for Chloe to back away gradually, as Blake came around the other side of the demon, flamethrower in front of him.

My eyes flicked to the left, where Raphael was inspecting the now-closed portal with Shea, and Mr. Claymore. If we could get the Snakeroot demon under control, everything was going to be okay.

Just when I thought it, I heard the telltale spitting noise. I flicked my head back to see the demon spit in Blake’s direction, but he passed the flame in front of him and the acid hit it instead, sending a burst of fire up to the ceiling. Interesting. The acid’s combustible. Blake backed away, and Lincoln kicked some of the Skittles closer to the demon.

His little nostrils flared, a greedy look in his eyes. Lincoln took a few wide steps back and the demon started to crawl down from the wall. When he hit the ground, he snatched a Skittle and gobbled it up, a thin sliver of drool falling from his mouth.

Lincoln kicked more toward him, the demon feverishly reaching out with his rat-like paws to pick them up, and shove them in his mouth. He was kind of cute when he wasn’t trying to blind us with acid. Lincoln charged forward, sword raised with blue sparks shooting off the tip. Blake came down on the demon with the flamethrower, at the same time Lincoln’s sword took his head off.

Yikes.

The sight of his smoldering body hit me then, the severity of the situation setting in.

Lincoln spun on me. “Start talking!”

I winced. So much for possibly showing me preferential treatment. “Well….” I wasn’t going to rat Shea out in front of Raphael, and I wasn’t sure if Lincoln would protect her. I’d like to think he would, but I didn’t know. So it was hoes before bros and all of that. But I was also a really bad liar.

“I opened a portal to Hell by accident,” Shea confessed before I could speak.

I shot her an incredulous look. The last thing we needed was to get kicked out.

Mr. Claymore stepped forward, disbelief in his eyes. “You what? That’s very advanced Magery.”

Shea tucked a brown curl behind her ear. “Yeah… I might’ve read a book in your office I probably wasn’t supposed to… and obviously I wasn’t trying to open a portal to Hell. I was trying to open one to the library or something, to practice for the gauntlet.”

Raphael surveyed the scene and shared a curious look with Mr. Claymore. “It could’ve been a lot worse. Portal opening is a fourth-year skill,” he told Shea.

She winced, her cheeks reddening. “I didn’t even know opening portals to Hell was a thing, or I never would’ve tried it.”

He bobbed his head. “And you closed the portal all by yourself?” She nodded, and Raphael shared another look with Mr. Claymore, who nodded.

“Am I getting kicked out?” Shea was still holding her injured arm. She really needed to go to the healing clinic soon.

Raphael shook his head. “No, but I’m assigning you to an independent study with Mr. Claymore. One hour a week, on your own time.”

Shea looked confused. “Okay….”

I was unclear whether that was a punishment or not. It seemed Shea was too.

Raphael’s gaze roamed the room. “All right, let’s reset the demon alarm. Noah, please walk Shea to the healing clinic. And Lincoln, I’d appreciate it if you oversaw this cleanup.” He gestured to the room of dead demons.

“Yes, sir,” Lincoln replied, then shot me a glare. As if it were possible for me to control Shea. Like it was my fault.

The room cleared out quickly, leaving just Lincoln, Blake, and me.

Lincoln crossed the space quickly and ran his eyes over me. “What the hell, Bri? You’re supposed to be lying low. Now you’re inviting demons into the training room?”

“You think I hatched this master plan?” I asked, with a hand on my hip.

His face softened. “No, but when you walk in to see your girlfriend fighting off a Hellhound, and a Snakeroot demon, it doesn’t look good. You scared the shit out of me.” He cupped my face gently.

I grinned. “Girlfriend?”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

I leaned in to give him a quick kiss. When we separated, he sighed. “Seriously though, I was really worried. The alarm went off, you weren’t answering your phone, and you weren’t in your dorm. I freaked.”

It was that admission that showed me how much Lincoln really cared. At first, I thought we might be some fling, but with each event that brought us closer and closer, the relationship felt more and more serious. Like a longer-lasting thing.