Free Everlost (The Night Watchmen Series Book 3) by Candace Knoebel Page B

Witches cast counter spells meant to drop any kind of camouflage.
    Jaxen’s terror bleeds into me, sending a sickening chill down my back. The earth could swallow me whole right here and now. It should, because that would probably be an easier death than what Clara could invent for me.
    “Turn back!” Jaxen orders, but his words falter. His command is empty.
    He already knows. He knows, because he knows what he’d do. I’m not coming back. Not until I’ve done what I came to do.
    My heart’s pounding harder than it ever has before as I focus on my breathing, pushing the oxygen to my muscles so I can keep up with Weldon. He’s dodging and weaving through the passing Primevals. I try to keep his pace, shutting everything out except for the mission.
    “There they are!” I hear someone shout behind us.
    “It’s the Everlasting!” another person shouts.
    Screams erupt and spread like wildfire as the Elites nearby try to close in on us. Red dots flash across Weldon’s back in a deadly dance.
    A sniper, trying to secure a shot.
    Horror and fear grasp a hold of my limbs like sticky fingers trying to slow me down, but I shove it away. I can already feel the red ghosts sliding across my back, whispering words of an untimely death. Saying a quick spell to shield myself, I extend it out towards Weldon, praying that it’s enough to get us into the building.
    Keep going, I tell myself, shutting out the fear and the screams, and all the thoughts scattering like crazed maniacs inside my brain.
    I start zigzagging, yelling at Weldon to do the same as we approach the Military Compound. Citizens scatter under the orders of the Elites moving in on us. Some drop to the ground, covering their heads.
    We aren’t going to make it. Not without a fight.
    A gunshot goes off, and Weldon stumbles forward, trying to catch himself. Blood sprays out from his calf. Another goes off, and searing pain ignites the back of my arm.
    “Faye!” Jaxen shouts in my mind. “Their bullets are spelled!”
    There’s no time to think. No time to respond. Another and another and another sound off, coming from all angles, and like an instinct ingrained in me, I tug on all the energy around me, and then throw it back out as far and as wide as I can, knocking back the Elites closest to us.
    Just enough to get us to the door.
    Weldon throws his flux toward the Elite on the right. I’m a second behind him, aiming mine toward the Elite on the left. Both fluxes land in the center of their foreheads, leaving their bodies sliding down the glass of the entrance. We don’t stop to retrieve our weapons.
    I don’t stop to mourn the fact that I just killed one of my own. Without blinking.
    Once inside, the lady behind the desk scrambles backward, screaming as we move toward her and take station behind the steel desk. Eleven Elites storm down the stairs to the right. Another handful fill the hallway toward the elevator. I manifest two semi-automatic pistols from my backpack, handing one to Weldon when he looks over at me.
    We’re on the same wavelength now, fighting like we’ve done countless times before in simulation after simulation. Words are spoken through our exchanged glances. He winces when he crawls over to the next desk and shoves it toward the one I’m behind, building our barricade.
    “You have to get the bullets out, Faye,” Jaxen says as calmly as he can. Worry and fear are embedded in his tone.
    “I know. I’ve got this. Don’t worry,” I say, willing him to believe me.
    “Let me fix it,” I say to Weldon when he crawls back over to me. I hold my hand over his calf and say a quick healing spell, but it doesn’t work. He was shot with the very same bullet that’s on my necklace back with Jezi. It’s cursed, created to harm any and every foe that one of our own might stumble upon. Even demons.
    “We have to get them out,” I say, pulling on his leg. I don’t waste any time waiting for his okay. I dig into the wound and, a second later,