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Too late. He backhanded her across the face, his rings ripping the skin of her cheek open.

Shay fell so hard, she felt the impact in her teeth. Saw stars. Tasted dirt. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’tthinkas a boot kicked out, slamming into her face. Paxton screamed her name. Blood gushed from her brow, her nose, down the back of her throat.

Another kick to the jaw, and she fell back on the ground. Hard.

Roman tore out of the motel room soaked in fresh blood, his face a mask of veritable rage.

Pax was almost in the car. They were going to take him?—

Shay rolled onto her hands and knees, her eyes locking with Paxton’s as he was dragged toward that open door?—

They were solid black, his eyes. Gleaming like inky pits.

And there were dark lines spreading through the pale skin around them, like the roots of a blighted tree.

Hands seized her shoulders, startling her?—

But it was only Roman. He was screaming, but Shay couldn’t hear what he was saying, couldn’t hear anything at all, as he pulled her to her feet and shoved her into motion.

Not toward Pax, butaway.

Shay couldn’t make sense of why they were running.

Until Paxton opened his mouth?—

Andscreamed, the sound so deafening, it was as if a pipe bomb went off in each ear.

Dark power blasted them off their feet. Shockwaves cracked the pavement apart, like glass shattering under the mighty blow of a fist.

They hit the exterior wall of the Wanderer so hard the impact nearly fractured their bones.

With a cry of agony, Shay crumpled to the ground, landing hard on Roman, her every muscle screaming in pain.

She couldn’t breathe.

She. Could. Not.Breathe.Couldn’tthink. Could barely see or hear beyond the pain searing through every bone, every muscle, every vein.

By the mercy of the gods, she managed to suck in a shallow stream of sweet, sweet air.

Another…

One more, her lungs stretching to full capacity this time.

Ears shrieking, she lifted her pounding head off Roman’s hip?—

What she beheld made her ill.

“Good gods,” she whispered. Bile burned her throat. Gagging, she clenched her roiling gut.

Paxton’s magic had laid waste to everything. Brutally massacred every single one of Donovan’s men. Gods, what she was looking at…it was so grisly, she could barely make sense of what anything was.

The bodies of their assailants had popped like balloons. The pavement, the cars, the motel, all of it was sprayed with blood, brain matter, and wet bone that had been shattered so finely it was practically dust.

Paxton had killed them. Every last one.

“Shay,” Roman choked out. He shifted his leg out from beneath hers, grunting as he sat up.

He gaped at his little brother, who was staggering to his feet by the side of the road. Paxton blinked, baffled, as if waking from a nightmare.