Page 12 of The Darkest Night

The globe smashedthe window at the end of the passage and sent a spiderweb of cracks blooming on the wall around it. Plaster dust and glass rained down on Mae on a wave of heat as she hit the ground and rolled. She landed on her front, her pulse racing.

That was magic!

She lifted her hand. Her gaze found the dark-cloaked men and women who’d emerged from the elevators next to the nurses’ station. There were five of them in all. Surprise jolted her.

They had animals with them in the form of two cats, a parakeet, a chihuahua, and a hawk.

Mae rose shakily to her feet.

Who the hell are they? And why do they have—pets?!

“Hey!” the man with the chihuahua snapped at the woman with the hawk. “Remember, we need her alive!”

“Relax, Silvius,” the woman drawled. “This is the Witch Queen we’re dealing with. She won’t die from a spell like that.” A sneer twisted the brunette’s mouth as she raked Mae from her head to her feet, her gaze mocking. “Although, why anyone would take this woman for our queen is beyond me. She looks like a drowned lab rat.”

The robed figures next to her looked at one another uneasily.

Mae stared.

Witch Queen? Wait. Are they talking about me?!

Her mind raced as she studied the strangers and the creatures with them. Though they weren’t mired in the black mist she’d seen around the monsters with the ochre pupils, she could sense something from them. Something…sinister. She narrowed her eyes.

They must be the ones behind the attack on Grandview!

“Who are you people?” Mae asked coldly.

The woman smirked. “That’s for us to know and for you to find out in the comfort of our king’s dungeons, myqueen.”

Her hawk screeched and flapped his wings.

“Agatha, wait,” one of her companions muttered in a strained voice.

The woman raised her hands. The air wavered around her fingers. Her hawk’s eyes flashed black.

A barrage of spinning, inky spheres erupted in front of them.

Mae’s mouth went dry.

That’s not good!

“No!” the first man yelled.

He lunged toward the woman. She laughed and released her magic.

The emergency lights exploded as the corrupt orbs arrowed toward Mae, the force of their passage ripping tiles from the ceiling and the linoleum floor.

Fear rooted her feet to the ground. It was replaced by outrage.

Heat erupted inside Mae in response to her fury, a wave of wrath that filled her with glorious power. She recalled what she’d done in the autopsy lab, bared her teeth, and raised her left hand.

A globe of crimson light detonated into existence in front of her palm, the explosion sending her clothes and hair fluttering wildly around her body. Mae planted her feet wide and scowled as the black orbs drew close. A word danced through her mind, unbidden.

“Devour!”

The red sphere she’d manifested crackled and sparked as it swelled. It swallowed the dark balls of magic in a spiraling storm, expanding with each one it guzzled. It took but seconds for it to consume the dark orbs. A breathless silence descended inside the corridor once the last one vanished inside it with a gluttonous gulp.

Mae’s heart slammed erratically against her ribs. She looked past the giant, writhing, scarlet globe floating in front of her to the pale faces of the group beyond it. She wasn’t sure who was the most shocked, her or them.

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