I had. I’d saved my family.
It was a beautiful thought. A huge relief.
Which was why it surprised me to fall asleep with such happiness, and wind up sucked into such a nightmare.
I was walking through that alleyway in Hell, and all of the demons were surrounding Sera. But Sera wasn’t a cactus. She was a small child, and that old lady was there again, screaming. Everyone slowly turned to look at me, smiling and welcoming me like I was home. I was sweating profusely, looking for a portal or a way home.
Then Lucifer showed up and he started to train me, just like James said. We worked on my dark magic, and I was a willing student. It was awful. In the dream, I would do as he told me, but in my head, I knew it was wrong.
I wanted out.
But I was stuck in Hell.
“Brielle!” Lincoln’s voice jarred me from my sleep and my eyelids snapped open. It was the fourth time he’d woken me that night.
I looked over to the clock, and saw it was seven in the morning. I didn’t want to fall back asleep, although I was exhausted, I couldn’t risk being sucked back into the nightmares.
“You’re soaking wet.” He touched my back gingerly.
“Nightmares,” I croaked.
Lincoln’s dark eyebrows were drawn together with concern. “What about?”
I didn’t want to make a habit of lying to Lincoln, and I had yet to tell him about what James had said. Sitting up, I hugged my knees. “Hell. Lucifer. General bad things.”
Lincoln sighed. “Okay. Well, you used a lot of your dark magic. You took off the necklace. All of that was probably too much for you.”
Remembering the necklace still in my jeans pocket, I nodded. Reaching down, I pulled it out, heavy in my hand. “Will you?” I asked him and lifted my long blonde hair.
He took the necklace from me. As he was coming over my head with it, it laid against my chest and… cracked.
The sound was unmistakable. I gasped, looking down to see the crystal split right down the middle.
“What does that mean?” I turned to my boyfriend.
Lincoln looked scared for the tiniest second before it vanished. “Nothing. We’ll just have Mr. Claymore make a new one.”
Nodding, I reached for his hand. “I have to tell you something, but I need you to not freak out.”
His hand tensed, eyes widened. “Okay.”
He was totally going to freak out.
‘As he should,’ Sera piped up from her place on the floor.
‘Not helping.’
“So… my old friend from Demon City is Sighted.” I let that sentence linger. The Sighted were so freaking rare that knowing one was akin to being besties with one of the fallen archangels.
“And?” His hand was starting to sweat in mine.
I gave a nervous laugh. “And I saw him at the fight. He told me he sees a different prophecy for me.”
Lincoln breathed in and out deeply. “Which is?”
I chewed my lip and decided to just blurt it out. “I go to the underworld and train with Lucifer to use my dark magic.”
Lincoln’s eyes widened so far, I thought they might fall out of the sockets. “What! That’s ridiculous!”
“I know!” I told him. “It’s just as ridiculous as Raphael’s prophecy that I’ll go down there, and kill Lucifer.”
Lincoln was silent.
I shifted uncomfortably. “You don’t think I’m going to actually do that, right?”
He did. I could see it in his face. “I don’t want you to. It’s too dangerous. But…”
I swallowed hard, my heart rate starting to pick up speed. “But?”
Lincoln stroked my thigh with his thumb. “But you have these incredible powers, and black wings, you even went into Hell to get Sera and it didn’t seem to affect you. If anyone could do it, and end this war… it’s you.”
Oh my God, he drank the Kool-Aid. “Lincoln, I’m not doing that.” I stood. “I want to be normal. I just got my family all together, and now I want to focus on my healing studies, and help out with the war in that way,” I declared.
He nodded, dropping the subject. “Okay.” But his words, his curt nod, and stiff body language didn’t match up.
He actually expected me to kill Lucifer?
The smell hit us both at the same time.
“What’s that?” Lincoln’s brows knit together in confusion.
I grinned. “That is my mom’s cinnamon-banana walnut waffles.”
Lincoln wiped his mouth. “I just drooled a little.”