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Twelve voices screaony as the raw fury of the sun itself flooded the rooround lair Those sarave silence as the blinding light receded I removed my hand from my eyes Where the vampires of the coven once stood were only piles of dust Diaz fell to his knees, his e with disbelief

I ran to Diaz’s side, pulling Asher with me “Stay close,” I said “Don’t move”

I reached for the shards of broken gees to carve a fresh line in my palm I scanned the roo their places in my mind’s eye

Everywhere but here, I thought, looking atto the ethers, to the corners of the cha terror to this world, just, everywhere but here

Spears of blackest night erupted fro a homunculus from spine to skull Even froainstdown their razor edges I felt, too, the tide of war down my palm, the sticky, slick red of my own blood as the Dark Room drank its share of my life force

I snapped the door shut The blades vanished, and twelve, thirteen bodies slumped to the floor, lifeless

“Holy shit,” Asher muttered “You killed them all”

He caught round Through bleary eyes I surveyed the roo as once the coven’s home, what used to be Nirvana

But one of the corpses was

We ned death, co into the piles of fallen hu his ar him in the face to stop his wordsinto its shirt to pull out another opal amulet

Asher broke into a sprint “No,” I shouted, too winded, too exhausted to chase him, or to even summon another blade from the Dark Diaz and the hoht before Asher could even reach theainst the radiance, cursing under his breath

“I could have gotten theot them”

“Don’t,” I said “Not your fault We’ll find him”

“How?”

A pillar of fla ht I could , Carver, and Gil