Ennio’s jaw twitches.
"None of my men can help him, for a very simple reason. They are not only my men, but also Rocco’s, the current capo, as I am sure you know." His tone grows sour. "At least officially they are. They simply can’t confront the others."
I go pale.
"So Anzo lost his position for good? Is it Rocco who kidnapped Summer and Bay’s dad? Why? I do not understand any of this, for fuck’s sake."
"Summer is not an ordinary human. Rocco wants to use his power and on top of that he wants revenge. Bay’s dad is nothing more than his leverage. That’s it."
I am starting to hyperventilate.
"That is even worse! Fuck. And Summer is dangerous. Moon warned Bay about him, said he could destroy all of us, said—"
"He also said that only Bay can save us," Ennio cuts in abruptly, his face stern and pale. "That’s why he’s the only one going in. And you need to calm down, because you’re having a panic attack. If you don’t want me to smack you, shut your mouth."
"The fuck," I hiss. "I don’t want to calm down! I don’t want to calm down!" I jerk away from him, "I love Bay!" And before Ennio can stop me, I jump out of the car.
The next moment something unbelievable happens.
Warehouse C34… explodes in front of my eyes.
But it isn’t an explosion like anything I’ve ever seen.
In a split second the perimeter of destruction expands at impossible speed, wiping everything off the surface of the earth, including the second hangar, C35, and then a wave of debris races straight toward me…
Screaming, I cover my eyes, even though I know it won’t help, because the shockwave is at least as strong as if a massive bomb had gone off.
I drop to my knees with my hands over my face, but to my shock, instead of feeling shards tearing into my body, nothing happens to me at all…
Not a single speck of dust, not a single piece of rubble or glass or metal touches my skin. Nothing slams into me, nothing cuts me, nothing crushes me.
What the hell?
Slowly, I open my eyes.
In shock, I see the ground around me flattened completely. The shockwave has pushed outward at least three hundred yards already, probably farther, leveling the earth, leveling buildings, leveling trees, leveling the entire city infrastructure into a flat wasteland.
Ennio’s car is gone, everything is gone, all of it disintegrated by that horrific, impossible force that somehow… doesn’t touch me at all.
In the center of the eye of the storm, through the swirling dust, I see two figures standing unaffected by all the mayhem.
It’s Bay.
Oh Fate! Thank you… he’s alive.
I think he’s holding his dad in his arms or something, then he lays him on the ground and straightens up.
But then… I blink. Something else is there too, something monstrous, black, with enormous wings spreading wide on both sides.
And those wings are massive, stretching left and right, probably dozens of yards long, ragged like torn black veils, seemingly belonging to some kind of demon.
How are Bay and I still alive?
Why didn’t anything touch us? It doesn’t make sense. I try desperately to piece together some plausible explanation, but nothing fits. What the fuck is this? A dream?
Shaking with terror, I press myself to the ground. I don’t even know why, but I’m terrified that the black creature in the center will notice me and decide to destroy me, decide to focus on me.
But I see Bay walking boldly toward it.
