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Chapter One Hundred Fourteen

LUNA

Carmine’s power is stunning. Whatever magic I’ve learned to use is nothing compared to this.

He plays every object and person in the corridor like a conductor with an orchestra.

This is what Nunzio described after I woke up from blood loss. Carmine throwing people. Catching bullets. His feet are a foot off the floor when his hands blast a fire that doesn’t burn anything, but freaks out the men, stalling them and sending them running.

He chases them down the hall, throwing up havoc in front of him.

“Dad!” Laro cries over the bang and whoosh of battle. He looks at me with alarm, taking a step in the other direction.

“Where are you going?” I ask.

“Not that way.” He shakes his head and backs up. The sound cuts in half. Carmine’s turned a corner. “I have to do something first.”

He runs away from Carmine, and I run toward him, turning the corner to find a short hall that ends in a set of open double doors. I’m too focused on Carmine’s back and Charles standing in the doorway before him. I don’t feel the men coming behind me until their hands are on me.

Five self-defense classes prepared me to throw the first over my shoulder. My mysterious witch warrior genetics puts my fist in the throat of the second.

But the other two blurs make four, and I’m down on my face.

“You brought me an unlocked Strega,” Charles says with cruel delight. “A lovely gift. Come on in.”