Page 14 of First Offense

This was fucked up.

Was Sayir aware?

King Sefid?

No.He wouldneverendanger his only daughter in this manner. And Sayir was meant to reform these Fallen, notkillthem.

My hackles rose as fire billowed rhythmically across the yard in an indistinguishable pattern. This wasn’t some malfunction or shock of fate. This was organized, methodical, twisted, and cruel.

An extermination.

No. Novak had called it agame.Survival of the fittest.

Some Noir deserved to die for their sins.

But some were meant to be reformed.

Like Layla.

My gut twisted.We’re not meant to be here.No way had she done something worthy of this fate. I looked for the guards, wanting to issue a demand to stop this. But they were all in their towers, shooting at any Noir attempting to fly.

This was madness.

Insanity.

Utter—

Another spurt of fire drew my attention back to Layla. She had fallen into a ball of feathers, her black wings wrapped around her in a useless shield.

She was going to die if I didn’t reach her in time.

I tried to take another step, but Novak’s grip tightened. “Easy,” he said as I growled. Then he rotated me away from Layla just as another burst of heat sprouted from the ground.

“This is insane!” I shouted.

Novak smirked. “Welcome to Noir life.”

Then he took my dagger and drove it into the chest of an approaching angel. The male went down with a curse. Novak yanked the blade from his heart and wiped the blood on his pants before returning the knife to my sheath.

“Touch my weapon again, and I’ll end you,” I threatened.

His lips twitched. “Try.”

He wanted to dance? Here? In the middle of this chaos?

Oh, but of course he did.

It was fucking Novak. He lived for the dangerous shit. And it seemed a hundred-plus years of reform hadn’t changed that one bit.

If only I had my swo—

Layla’s shriek ripped through the air, snapping my focus back to her as the tornadoes of flames danced around her block. My heart froze, my lips parting. Only, the fire didn’t touch her. Instead, it formed a blazing wallaroundher.

Well, I’ll be…By some happenstance of fate, she’d found what appeared to be a safe zone.

I scanned the yard to see several other areas where Noir were clustering into small groups of two or three, their base seeming to be one of the few that didn’t go up in flames.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who seemed to have noticed these little fireproof havens.