Prophecy Girl (Angel Academy) by Cecily White Read Free Book Online Page B

to the middle school guards at the rear of the hall and the back rows started emptying out, elementary first. At the same time, a handful of trainers broke from their posts at the front, taking up a defensive formation along the exits.
    Katie and Lisa looked clueless, so I prodded Veronica in the back. “What’s happening?”
    “Like I’d tell you if I knew.” She flicked a haughty glare over her shoulder.
    “Maybe it’s a training exercise,” Skye suggested, ignoring her friend’s rudeness. “I wouldn’t mind a little training with him. The personal kind, know what I mean?”
    It would be hard not to know what she meant.
    After a few more hand gestures, Jack strode to the edge of the stage and leaped off. He ambled down the aisle to a spot not twenty feet away and waited, his gaze fixed on the air.
    The younger grades had already evacuated. The only Guardians left were our class, the faculty, and a smattering of trainers and staff who’d formed a loose perimeter around the outside of the room.
    “Eyes front,” Smalley called from the podium. “If everyone could please proceed as calmly as possible to the rear of the assembly hall, we have trainers posted at each door—”
    A rough sound, like cardboard tearing, interrupted Smalley as spits of black fire sparked overhead. Despite the thickness in the air, I kept my eyes glued to Jack. He had extracted something from under his robes, and I could just make out the silver glint of a short sword clenched behind his back.
    “There’s no need to panic,” Smalley insisted from the stage. “If you’ll find the nearest exit, your trainers will be happy to—”
    That’s when the chandelier began to vibrate.
    Without understanding why, I stood and edged down the row toward Jack. If something big was going down, I wanted to be next to him. I needed to be next to him. As the space between us closed, his eyes locked with mine.
    “Go,” he mouthed silently.
    I shook my head in refusal. As if I could just… go . The thought of leaving him here alone paralyzed me.
    “Amelie, what are you doing?” Lisa snapped. “Smalley told us to evacuate.”
    “I know. Just give me a sec—”
    “Hey, y’all,” Katie’s voice trembled behind us. “I think something’s coming.”
    All at once, a sharp scraping of wings and claws tore through the air, clouds of black smoke billowing out of the narrow rift. It poured like blood across the floor, stung my skin, and made my eyes water. As the terrified screams of my classmates rose up around me, realization crystallized in my head.
    Katie had it wrong. Something wasn’t coming.
    Something was here.

Chapter Four:
    Hellgate
    “We’ve got to get out of here!” Lisa gripped my arm in a panic and pulled me toward the back of the hall.
    Above us, misshapen creatures squirreled to get through the rift, their hooked claws and talons gleaming in the smoky haze. Obsidian holes glared from the sockets where their eyes should have been, dark and hollow like inky wells with no bottom. Something inside me froze as I watched them, and my blood chilled to ice water.
    Then all hell broke loose.
    Literally.
    Bolts of lightning shot out of nowhere. More demons flooded from the rift. A jolt of horror seized me as flames blanched the ceiling, with singed demon hair leaving odd puffs of smoke around the light fixtures as if the air itself had been set on fire.
    Frantic, I scanned the room. The smoke hung so thick I could barely make out Jack’s outline. His body blurred in the half darkness as he twisted and lunged at the demon onslaught.
    Matt had snapped the leg off his chair and swung it at the air, Alec Charbonnet’s head seemed to be bent in prayer, and Lyle, in an unlikely show of heroism, held up his Theories textbook to shield a whimpering Channeler behind him. In the distance, I could hear Marcus shouting evacuation orders, but, for the most part, it was just screams. High-pitched, horrible screams.
    “Lisa!” I yelled. “Get