Page 1 of Shadow Master
One
“Hyde!” I clawed through the rubble of the wreckage that had once been the fortress. “Hyde, please!”
Blood caked my fingertips as I dug, looking for something, anything, that would give us hope, but tears kept blurring my vision.
He had to be here. He had to be alive. Part of me knew this was impossible. The gore, the shards of bone, and the mist of blood that hovered in the air told me there was no life here any longer. But if I stopped digging, if I stopped looking, it would mean admission. It would mean giving up.
Brady was gone, taken by the fomorian with the violet eyes. Carlo was dead, killed by the green fog. I was done with loss. No more.
Not Hyde.
Not him too.
“Justice?” A hand on my shoulder halted my scrambling search.
“No!” I shrugged it off and continued, climbing over the rubble, digging, searching.
There was no smoke. No curling black residue in the air and no fumes. Nothing. The explosion had been unlike anything we’d ever seen. It had been fomorian. The enemy had entered the mist, slaughtered cadets, taken my mate, killed my friend, and blown up the fortress.
Nothing left but death.
“Hyde!”
“Dammit, Justice!” An arm snagged me around the waist and hauled me to my feet. “Pull it together!”
Lloyd’s icy blue eyes were filled with pain and determination. His words were like a slap, like a cold bucket of water dousing the raging inferno in my mind. What was I doing? Shit, what was I becoming?
I caught sight of Devon and Aidan over his shoulder. They stood with their arms loose at their sides, expressions dazed.
Too much… This was too much.
I took a shuddering breath and wiped at my leaking eyes. “No survivors?”
“No one,” Lloyd confirmed.
I nodded, my neck stiff, teeth aching from clenching so hard. My chest ached—a byproduct of my heart shredding. Pain would have to wait. We were under attack. With the fortress down, with the knights gone, it was only a matter of time before the fomorians succeeded in breaking through our final defense.
The mist.
How had they known? How could they have known the knights would all be here, all in one place? Because they had to have known to attack now, on this day, at this moment.
They’d taken out an army in one hit.
What was left?
The answer stumbled toward me across the barren plain. Cadets making their way toward the carnage, mere dots on the horizon. Not enough. Not nearly enough. How long before we were attacked again? Were the fomorians still here?
“Justice?” Lloyd’s grip on my shoulders tightened.
When had he taken hold of me? A shadow darted low across the ground to my left. A figure, three feet tall, bald, and naked, ran across the ruined earth.
“Hey!” I broke free of Lloyd and sprinted toward it.
My boots slipped on the rubble, and I almost lost my footing. Up ahead, Devon was in motion. He cut off the creature and brought it down. He held it there with a hand around its throat.
“Meee, meee freee,” the creature screeched.
Its eyes were huge, taking up most of its face, and its mouth was thin-lipped and small. It thrashed, trying to get loose.
