Page 14 of The Darkest Night

Mae’s roar scorched the rooftop in a red wave of magic.

The people Rose had been protecting collapsed, unconscious.

Her best friend blinked sluggishly. “M—Mae?!”

An oppressive pressure blanketed the rooftop. Mae gasped, her legs buckling beneath the heavy mantle until her knees struck the ground. The air grew thick, so much so she found herself struggling to breathe.

What the hell is this?!

A sound reached her through the buzzing in her ears.

Mae looked up. She froze.

The world faded around her, the alarms blaring through the city and the streets below dimming to nothingness.

Blood burst from Rose’s lips and dripped down her chin. She looked blindly at Mae, her body rigid with shock.

Evil talons had pierced her chest from the back.

The creature who held her in his grip had morphed into an eight-foot-tall devil with dark skin, curved horns, and black wings. Smoke curled from the fiend’s nostrils and mouth as he studied Mae, crimson pupils bright in the night. His lips curled in a cruel smile.

“Do as I say and the girl lives,” he growled.

Tears blurred Mae’s vision. She wiped at them angrily with one hand.

“What—what do you want?!”

“Don’t!” Rose gasped. “Don’t give them what they want, Mae!”

The devil observed Rose with a calculating look. “I’m surprised you can still talk, little girl.”

Rose looked over her shoulder. She swallowed when she saw the fiend’s horns and eyes. A scowl darkened her face despite her fear.

“Screw you, asshole!”

The devil’s smile widened. “How amusing.” His gaze switched to Mae. “Give us your power, witch, and I will let her go.”

Never.

Mae’s eyes rounded as the denial left her lips without her volition. It had come from the voice inside her.

The devil’s pupils flared. “So be it.”

Rose grunted.

Mae’s pulse stuttered. A cry of denial left her throat.

The fiend had ripped her best friend’s heart out of her body.

Rose looked blankly at Mae. A gentle smile curved her mouth.

Her lips parted on a whisper. “I love you…Mae.”

Rose’s eyelids fluttered closed. She sagged in the devil’s grip.

Fury filled Mae’s world, so potent she felt it would swallow her whole. She raised her face to the sky and screamed.

A crimson storm erupted around her. It blasted across the rooftop and rolled across the city, ripping the clouds to shreds and startling the devil who stood facing her, her best friend’s corpse in his hand.

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