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Again.

Until the arm around his throat loosened and Gaven’s body went slack on top of him.

His vision shimmered. His ears rang. “Fuck.” With a guttural cry of pain, he dragged himself out from under Gaven, took the keys out of the asshole’s pocket, and crawled across the floor, blood streaming out of his mouth. He reached for Morty’s cage, missing twice. Somewhere, deep in the back of his blurry mind, he became aware of a sharp, rhythmic beeping.

Sirens. Someone had sounded the emergency alarm. Red lights were flashing, bathing every room and corridor in the color of fresh blood.

“Mortifer,” he choked out. His fingers were shaking so hard, he could barely slide the key into the lock. It was only the sight of Mortifer’s frightened face, the anguish in his eyes, that gave him the strength to turn that key and open the door.

Mortifer backed up and covered his face with trembling hands.

“Morty,” Darien rasped. He blinked away the fog. Swallowed blood. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. You’re safe. It’s me—it’s Darien.”

Mortifer, still quivering with fear, peeked between his fingers.

“Don’t be afraid.” He dropped the keys and opened his arms. “It’s just me. It’s just Darien. Youknowme—I won’t hurt you, I swear.”

Finally, Mortifer lowered his hands. His eyes were sad.

Darien broke. “I’m sorry,” he choked out. A wobbling sob ripped out of him. “I’m so sorry, buddy.” Blood dribbled down his chin and dripped onto the knees of his jumpsuit. “Come on.” He beckoned with fingers he could hardly control. “I’m going to get you home.”

Mortifer scampered out of the cage. Hesitated by his knee.

“There you go,” Darien encouraged as Mortifer ventured closer, his webbed feet making sticking sounds on the concrete floor. “There you go—I got you. I got you. Get on.” He lowered his shaking hand, and Mortifer got on, climbing up the length of his arm. “Max and Travis need our help. We’re gonna help them, okay? We’ll do it together.”

He pushed to his feet and crossed the room. Stepped over dead bodies and splashed through puddles of blood. He braced his hands against the walls, leaving bloody fingerprintseverywhere he went. With Mortifer on his shoulder, hanging onto the back of his neckline, he staggered down the hallway.

Toward the control room.

110

Lucent Enterprises

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

It was by sheer,dumb luck that Max and the others made it through the black shroud that had swallowed Lucent Enterprises and up the steps to the front entrance.

Everyone was holding hands. Max had taken the lead and was blindly feeling around for the doors.

In the days since the explosion, the darkness had grown thicker. For what good their Sight was doing them, they might as well be blind. The spells Tanner could see on his computer were completely invisible to them. The darkness was so suffocating, it made Max feel claustrophobic.

Someway, somehow, they made it into the building and up to the nineteenth floor. After crawling blindly up the stairwell and into the wing where Roark—who was now at the house with Tanner—claimed the staff kept a small store of the syringes. The stairwell they’d taken to get here had no monsters, but this nineteenth floor?—

It was crawling with them.

Sweat trickled down Max’s back as he led the way, one careful step at a time, through the pressing darkness. Malakai was using his magic to mask any sounds they made, talking included, while Aspen used hers to disguise their scents.Everyone would have to pitch in. Take turns. It was the only way to survive this—to stop one person from burning out more than the others.

As they followed Tanner’s instructions, Max concentrated as best as he could on the here and now. But knowing Darien had been arrested and locked up in Blackwater, on death fucking row…

How they were ever going to get out of this… Fix everything that was broken…

It was endless. All this shit was endless, and he couldn’t see a way out.

“The door you’re looking for is coming up on your left,” Tanner said, his words punctuated by bursts of static. Max hoped—prayed, for possibly the first time in his life—communications would hold. “Keep going,” Tanner murmured as they moved forward. “Keep going… There—left. Go left.”

Max turned, and everyone followed into the laboratory.

“There are three monsters in there,” Tanner said. Great. “Just stick to the path you’re on and head straight for the far wall.”