The Shadows fire debris at her so fast that I can’t keep up. Fiona stands among them, her cloak like a splash of blood against the darkness.
Natalie. Where’s Natalie?
I scan frantically, my breaths shallow and panicked.
Sophia blocks every hit, blowing each piece to dust before it can touch her. Copper spheres clatter to the floor—the same ones Natalie used as bullets when the Madsens infiltrated C.S.A.M.M.
There.Natalie’s kneeling, fighting hard, her face streaked with blood.
Alive.
Relief floods through me.
Neil crouches beside her, hands raised as he fights, face tense with concentration. Sky leads the charge, launching copper bullets and anything she can summon.
Need to get to Natalie.
Ducking low to avoid drawing attention, I inch closer. My pulse races so fast that a shudder runs through me. Ethel squirms, and I zip my jacket tighter before she gets any ideas.
Sky reaches into her utility belt and hurls something new. With a tinkling crash, a cloud of purple smoke erupts at Sophia’s feet.
Sophia roars and steps backward, coughing. Her heel meets empty air. She teeters on the edge, thirty stories above the street.
“Keep her alive, Skylar,” Fiona barks. “Let’s go, everyone! Surround her!”
“Trying,” Hayley grits out, ducking to avoid a flying toaster.
The counter explodes.
Without thinking, I throw myself in front of Natalie and raise my gauntlet. A hunk of marble ricochets with a clang, leaving my hand tingling but unharmed.
“Katie!” she shouts, her eyes widening when she realizes who I am. Her gaze darts to Ethel for the briefest moment. “What—I told you to stay in thevan!”
“Yeah, well, the plan changed when the window exploded.” I grab her arm and yank her down to the floor as more debris slams into my side. The pain barely registers. All that matters is the warmth of her skin beneath my fingers, and the strength of her racing pulse as it matches my own.
“You should’ve stayed down there,” she whispers fiercely, but her grip on me tightens, betraying how relieved she is that I’m with her.
A high sound rings out, and it takes me a moment to process it—it’s Sophia laughing. Wisps of violet lightning dance from her hands, feathery arcs reaching out. The way she moves her fingers is mesmerizing, like choreography she’s spent her whole life perfecting.
A shiver rolls down my spine as chunks of floor tile lift into the air, hovering like a swarm of deadly insects.
“Stay behind me.” Natalie forces me back, shielding me from danger as usual. She thrusts out her palms, and the air crackles as she deflects Sophia’s barrage, her muscles tensing with the effort.
I want to pull her back and be the one to protect her for once, but all I can do is press my hands to her strong shoulder blades and feel the way magic vibrates through her body, zapping my palm like a static shock.
The Shadows advance, trying to corner Sophia against the deadly drop. But she’s like a wild animal, lashing out in all directions. A chair leg impales the wall inches from Hayley’s head. Glass shards spray toward Sky, who dives behind an overturned couch and swears, clutching her already injured leg.
“Give up, Sophia!” Fiona shouts through the tumult. “You’re outnumbered.”
“Doesn’t put me at much of a disadvantage, does it?” Sophia’s lips curve into a wicked grin. She opens her arms, and I gasp as every loose object in the suite rises into the air—broken furniture, kitchen appliances, shattered glass, stray copper bullets, all of it suspended in a deadly tornado.
Natalie tackles me to the floor as the whirlwind explodes outward. Ethel yowls in protest, pulling her head in and batting her paws inside my jacket as if searching for an exit.
I do my best to shield us with the gauntlet, but my skin stings and burns as God-knows-how-many cuts split open. Impacts and cries of pain rise all around us.
When the attack fades and I dare to raise my head, several Shadows are down, coughing and spluttering.
And beside Natalie, slumped against the wall, is Neil. It takes my brain a moment to register what I’m seeing—the chunk of marble protruding from his sternum.
