“It needs to be rebuilt,” I say, my mind racing lap after lap. “With better teachers and leaders.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” Saint is suddenly next to me, staring up at the academy that’s been our home for years. It feels like a goodbye, and even though I hated it here, it still breaks my heart.
It was meant to help people just like me. It really was.
My thoughts are interrupted by the sudden pulsing sensation in my pocket. I look down with a bit of surprise to find it bulging, and then I remember.
“Azazel’s gift!”
I’d forgotten all about it in the aftermath.
Slowly, I reach my hand in. Perhaps he left me some form of communication to his hell domain. He did promise we’d see each other again—
“Ow!”
Pain shoots up my fingers.
“What the—?”
I yank it out of my pocket and dangle it in front of me by the waistband of its pants.
“The fucker bit me.”
“That’swhat he left you with?” Syko wrinkles his nose at the chattering creature.
“How the fuck did it not get blasted back in?”
“Maybe because it was being held by an angel?” His brows lift, and he smiles at me.
A sort of warmth spreads through me at the thought of being able to protect something from the deadly flames of hell.
The creature swings its fist out at me like it’s ready to take me down with gnashing teeth and glittering, golden dust.
This is all that remains of Lucian’s war. This is a memento of what we suffered and what we overcame.
This little fucker right here.
I glare into its inky eyes and can imagine Azazel in hell right now, laughing his fucking ass off as I face off against a fucking jeans-wearing pixie.
Epilogue
EpilogueFive Years Later
Izara
“What do you mean I can’t take them on a field trip to hell?” Azazel lifts his hands from his sides, and even I have to admit he looks weird in a button-down shirt and tie when all I’ve ever seen him in is leather and boots.
“I’m telling you that you have textbooks for this kind of lesson, Az. Just teach the lesson plan,” I say with a heavy sigh.
It’s the third fucking time he’s been in my office this week, and it’s only the third fucking day of school.
Maybe Malek was right; he’s not professor material.
But how could I ever say no to him when he burst through so many rings of hell the moment I suggested we rebuild the academy last summer? I still have no idea how he did it.
But I’m happy he’s here.
“Izara!” He gives me his very best pout, but his boyish charms do nothing for me. Nothing.
