Page 48 of Fated Angel

“Demon! They’re demolishing the school itself!” Gabriel roars from above.

Colt steps closer to the boulder that almost took him out and sees the gargoyle that once stood sentinel on the tallest tower of the academy. Colt’s blood boils, his fists clenching. The Grigori don’t care about this world, because if they have it their way, none of this will have ever existed. He wouldn’t exist. Gabby…

Hellfire sparks in Colt’s eyes as he looks up toward the roof.

“I will not allow you to destroy my world!” he roars up at them as if screaming at the Grigori themselves. His wings spread wide, his hands rising towards the roof as his eyes blaze with hellfire.

“Witches, protect us!” he orders, and a shield of magic blooms and spreads over their forces, propelling the boulders away from their people or disintegrating them all together.

“We need to end this!” Gabriel warns as he throws a spear and impales a target on the roof. The man he struck clutches the spear in his chest and then topples forward, landing on the witch’s shield and exploding into a mist of blood and bones.

“I will end this,” Colt whispers. His fingers splay towards the roof, his eyes glowing so brightly now that his face is hidden by the green glow. He mutters a spell under his breath, each word gaining volume as his fists slowly begin to clench. All around him the ground behind to shake, to split, and his forces warily back away from him.

“I call upon the kings of Hell, the infernal power of the deep.” Colt’s eyes flick toward the ground as it cracks, and an ominous green glow seeps from deep inside. “Aid me, fight this self-righteous good, or cease to exist with the rest of us.”

Keening wails of the tortured and damned peel from inside the cracks as green fire licks the ground all around him. Spirits of the damned crawl out of the earth, moaning and screaming in pain, and shoot into the air towards the roof. Colt grins as the dead and damned begin ripping the cultists from the roof. Tearing them limb from limb, and in some cases devouring the enemy whole.

“Never again,” disembodied voices say into Colt’s mind. “Never summon the powers of Hell again, this is your one chance. Kill the Grigori, or we shall return as one and drag you back to the cells you never should have left.”

The kings of Hell speak in unison, a combined force of fury. What they don’t realize is that if Colt and Gabby fail today, none of them will exist to take his soul back for retribution.

A hole explodes in the wall of the academy and opens a passage for Colt’s forces. With a dark grin, he steps forward. The human hostages in the gym are about to be freed. Every other soul who sided with the Grigori is about to pay the price for their error.

He steps over the rubble, his shoes landing on the marble floors of the Academy. He’s flanked by his hellish minions, the guild members, and the angels who have come to aid them.

“Let’s finish this,” Colt snarls.

He leaps into the air with a deadly spinning motion, then spears through a line of cultists who are waiting for them inside.

19

Gabby

One Spear. Seven Grigori.

As much as Gabby likes a challenge, the math isn’t adding up. She needs to stab each Grigori in the heart, at the center of their twisted angelic essence, to kill them.

How is she going to do that when there are seven of them?

She pushes away the uneasy question, focusing on the current one she has yet to answer—where in the heck is the secret entrance to the academy?

Below her, the battle rages. Screams of fury and pain puncture the air. The scent of blood and flames clings to every molecule. Magic crackles over Gabby’s skin. She scans as she flies overhead, her stomach twisting as black figures stream from the academy. Swords clang and flesh thuds as they clash with the angels and witches and Order members. Colt’s among them, no doubt razing every shred of evil to ashes. It feels wrong not to be beside him.

But innocent lives are inside the academy.

Gabby can’t let them down.

Which brings her back to the unanswered question—where the heck is the secret entrance?

It was her father who mentioned it. And if her father knew about it but no one else, then it’s an angel secret entrance. Which means it’s likely on the roof. Gabby angles down, tucking her wings in close as she spears for the nearest turret. A sharp twist and she twists around it, soaring close to the angled roof. Any gargoyles or cultists who were up here have disappeared, no doubt to bolster the fight on the ground. A quick lap of the expanse reveals nothing but the architecture she expected to see—flat, tiled areas over the residential wings, pointed spires, sharp gables with small, dome-shaped structures straddling the middle of each. Cupolas, as she’d learned they’re named.

But now isn’t the time to discover she’d actually remembered something from her architecture class on Mercy Academy. She needs a way in.

Except one cupola captures her attention.

It’s in the center of the academy, perched on the highest gable. With metal angel wings acting like a weathervane at the top.

It’s just the pretentious thing her father would do.

---