Page 5 of The Darkest Night

A contemptuous expression distorted Oscar’s face. “I’m going to enjoy watching you die, little brother. Just like your whore of a mother.”

The scar on Nikolai’s back flared hotly. Rage flooded his veins, ridding him of his fatigue. He straightened, his knuckles whitening on his spear.

Alastair’s fury swirled inside him in a dark wave. The bird had been there the day Oscar had killed Nikolai’s mother.

“Our father didn’t marry any of the women he bedded and had children with, Oscar.” Nikolai arched an eyebrow and smiled thinly. “Technically, that makes Ivanya the biggest whore of them all, don’t you think?”

Oscar’s pupils flared at the mention of his mother’s name. His lips pulled back, baring his teeth. “Let’s dance, little brother!”

He charged across the rooftop. Nikolai widened his stance and reached for his magic, his jaw set in a hard line.

A golden sphere streamed down from the sky and exploded on the ground next to Oscar’s left foot. He cursed and staggered to a stop.

Nikolai looked up in time to see a powerful purple spell drop on his brother. He shielded his eyes, the light of the explosion dazzling him for an instant. The heat from the blast washed over him and ruffled his hair.

Who—?!

“Incoming!” someone shouted jovially above them.

“We were supposed to blast him together, you ass!” someone else snapped.

Before Nikolai could seek out his unknown allies, a beam of crimson light detonated silently half a mile southeast of the high-rise, close to the river. It shot up into the sky and lit the gibbous moon, turning it a glorious vermilion.

Magic rolled across New York in a blood-red wave that made the very air tremble. It was wild and free and so formidable Nikolai had to grind his teeth and lean his body into it to stop from falling over. He shuddered when he sensed its echo deep inside his body and within his soul, the magic seeping into his flesh to seek out the core of power that dwelled in his very bones. He didn’t doubt that everyone on that rooftop was experiencing the same overwhelming feeling of dread at what they could sense.

They all stared at the column of red light as it slowly fizzled out. Even Oscar looked pale where he stood wiping a trickle of blood from his temple, fear a heavy weight in the depths of his dark eyes.

The moon slowly shifted back to its pale radiance. The clouds surged back in. Lights winked back on across the dark metropolis. A breathless stillness fell across the city, the silence broken by a cacophony of alarms and the muted roar of traffic from the avenue below.

Their queen had just awoken.

Chapter 4

Mae grabbedthe steel table and blinked sweat out of her eyes. Her stomach clenched on a violent spasm of nausea. She yanked off her splash shield and vomited in the sink next to where she’d been examining Antonovich’s brain.

It took nearly a minute for the heaving to die down.

Mae rinsed her mouth, splashed water on her face, and clung weakly to the edge of the basin. The room spun sickeningly around her as she gazed blindly at the water swirling down the drain, her heart thumping in her chest.

What the hell is happening?!

She’d been studying the dead man’s pineal gland when a tremor had shaken the lab and sent the lights flickering above her head. Earthquakes were not unheard of in New York, but she’d never felt one that strong before. She’d stripped off her gloves and had been about to take cover under the table when she’d been overwhelmed by dizziness.

Was it something I ate?!

She’d had a bacon and egg sandwich for lunch. Though she would have loved to blame it for her current state, her instincts told her this was more than just a simple case of food poisoning. She could feel something. A heaviness deep inside her body that was sucking all her energy. The room shook again before she could make sense of what it was. The lights went out. Mae startled.

Fear wrapped her heart in an icy grip. It wasn’t a tremor that was making everything shudder around her.

The air around her body was shimmering violently, as if in the grip of a heat wave. A red glow accompanied it, the unholy radiance growing stronger by the second.

Wait! Am I the one doing this?! But—how?!

The lab door clattered open. Hodge dashed in, face pale and eyes bright with panic in the half-gloom.

“Mae! Are you okay?!” The lab director staggered to a comical stop at the sight of her. He froze before backing away a step, terror and incomprehension widening his pupils. “What—?!”

“Help me!” Mae mumbled.

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