Chapter 18 · The Ring Bites Back

The first red-armored hunter came through the arena wall feetfirst.

Stone burst inward. Dust rolled across the maintenance gallery, turning the blue witchlight into a drowned, trembling haze. Nora Vey tasted grit and blood. Her left side screamed every time she breathed, and her fingers had gone numb around the copper wrench she was using as a weapon.

Kane stood three paces away, one hand braced against a cracked pillar. Black arcs crawled beneath the skin of his throat. The thunder inside him had become visible again, bright veins of white-blue light pulsing beneath his collar and along his jaw.

The hunter raised a shock rifle.

Nora moved before she thought.

She slammed her shoulder into Kane and drove them both behind a bank of broken conduit. The rifle discharged. A bolt split the air where Kane's head had been, struck the pillar, and turned stone into a spray of molten sparks.

Kane hit the floor hard beneath her. For one stunned second, his body was warm against hers, his breath sharp against her cheek.

Then the ring bit.

Pain flashed through Nora's hand.