Page 13 of The Darkest Night

“Here, you can have this back.”

She lobbed the sphere at them. Magic roared as it left her grasp.

The black-robed figures turned to flee. They didn’t get far.

The globe blasted into them, lifting them off the ground. Their screams echoed against the walls as they were carried clear to the end of the passage. Mae sucked in air.

They smashed straight through the concrete and vanished into the empty ICU bay beyond.

Her pulse thrummed as she dashed up the corridor. She maneuvered her way into the gaping hole in the bloodstained masonry and through the mass of twisted, exposed steelwork framing it. Her steps slowed as she crossed the dark room to the jagged opening that was all that remained of the exterior wall of the building. She swallowed, gripped the edge of the concrete gingerly, and peered out into the void.

Alarms whistled and blared where the black-robed figures had dented the roofs of the vehicles they’d landed upon, twenty stories below. Mae didn’t need to see their faces to know they were dead.

No one could be twisted at that many angles and still be breathing.

Tightness filled her chest. She stepped back from the drop and studied her trembling hands.

I need to learn how to dial this shit down!

A scream came from the direction of the roof.

Mae’s breath caught.

Rose!

She turned, dashed out of the ICU, and bolted for the fire escape at the other end of the floor. Lights flickered in the gloomy stairwell beyond it. Mae started up the emergency stairs. Shouts reached her from below. She stopped, leaned over the banister, and scanned the shadows beneath, her heart thumping.

Magic of all colors flared on the lower levels of the building. A group of strangers in street clothes and their animal companions had engaged the ochre-eyed monsters and the black-robed individuals who’d attacked the hospital.

Mae hesitated before turning and taking the stairs to the roof two steps at a time, teeth clenched so tight her jaw ached.

I don’t have time to help them!

She smashed through the metal door at the top with her shoulder, staggered to a halt, and whirled around. Horror froze her limbs to the ground.

Rose stood flanked by three monsters near the south end of the building. Blood dripped from the steel pipe in her hands and the lacerations on her arms and thighs. Her gray eyes were full of resolve despite the fear that shook her body.

Four patients in hospital gowns and two nurses cowered on the asphalt behind Rose. Their getaway route to the fire escape down the side of the building had been cut off by the creatures who had surrounded them.

Mae’s gaze moved jerkily to the mutilated bodies of a man in scrubs and the two patients who hadn’t survived the assault. She flinched. It was Tom, the ob-gyn. He’d died protecting the man and woman next to him, the surgical blade he had used still lying in his slack grip.

Rage swept over Mae like a storm. She headed across the roof.

Chapter 8

Rose’s gaze found her.Her eyes widened. “No!Run!”

This time, magic poured through Mae of her own free will, the fire licking her veins in a controlled flow. It was getting easier to access the power churning deep inside her.

She blasted the first two monsters with crimson orbs.

Rose recoiled as the creatures flew past her and fell off the building. The third fiend jumped out of the way of Mae’s attack, dashed behind the blonde, and clasped her by the back of her neck, his wicked talons wrapping all the way around her throat.

“No!” Mae yelled.

Rose choked and kicked out as the monster dragged her to the edge of the roof and lifted her in the air. Her legs dangled feebly beneath her. The steel pipe dropped from her hands. She clawed at the creature’s talons, fury and horror lending her desperate strength.

“Let her go!”

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