More magic splintered across the sky, colors flashing, billowing out from the baby with an electrical charge.
My head followed the streak of lightning, knowing somewhere across this field, another me was hearing the baby cry while bringing someone else back to life.
The baby I had heard wailing while I saved Warwick, saved Scorpion, was me. Deep down, I always knew.
Another thing I instinctively understood—the nectar so many were searching for? Killing for...
It was me.
My afterbirth. Magic soaked through the placenta, which absorbed it like a sponge.
I turned back and saw life was not only given to me, but life was also taken away.
Both my mother and my aunt were dead.
Now a cry bellowed from my lungs. I jerked out of the nectar’s hold, the images of the past breaking as I yanked and tore my hand away, gasping for air. I collapsed on my ass, staring up at the bright stars overhead.
The cool night brushed at my skin, the remains of the high castle around me. Warwick was next to me on the ground, his hand on my lower back, keeping me steady.
“What happened?” he asked, his eyes still jumping to the necromancers, keeping his guard up.
I huffed, no words finding their way out of my mouth. I had learned so much but had even more questions than before.
BOOM!
Before I could even center any of my thoughts, I was ripped away again. This time it wasn’t the nectar or book that took me.
It was Scorpion.
Debris from a building billowed in the air, huge chunks of stone, plaster, and wood crushing everything around us. Shouts of panic and terror clogged the thick air.
“Scorpion!” I yelled at him, but he didn’t stop, running toward the devastation, not away.
It took me a moment to realize where we were through the cloudy smoke.
Vomit pooled in my stomach.
The explosion was Sarkis’s base.
“No!” I screamed, my legs tearing after Scorpion, our link keeping us close. Birdie, Wesley, Zuz, and Maddox were right on his heels.
“Fuck! Fuck!” He searched for any way to get inside, heading for the secret entrance.
The one under the rubble.
“Andris!” I screamed, though I knew he couldn’t hear me. Oh gods, what if he were dead? Caden? Hanna? Ling? They were all down there.
Tears rolled down my face as I watched as Maddox, Wesley, and Scorpion dug, pushed, and rolled large pieces out of the way until they made a hole, Birdie slipping through first, Scorpion after.
I was next to him, horror filling me, the dust crawling into my lungs as if I was actually there. Most of the top floor had caved in, blocking some areas. Debris and dead bodies were everywhere.
“Scorpion,” a man yelled, turning our heads. He was cut up and caked in dust. I’d seen him in passing but didn’t know him.
A relieved cry broke from my gut when I saw Hanna and Caden were behind him. Bleeding and wounded, but alive.
Scorpion darted to them, his eyes rolling over Hanna. “You all right?”
“Yeah,” the man answered, though I was pretty sure Scorpion was talking to her. “Busted up a little, but fine.”
