The back of South Hall crumbled in on itself, and the sounds of collapsing beams warned Rayne to get the hell out. The smoke acted as a black blanket, burning the eyes and searing the lungs. Sweat glistened on Rayne’s pale skin, mingling with blood from her open wounds.

Her left arm, though mobile, lay all but useless. Blood dripped from her ruined bicep, burns, and hair. Periodic waves of nausea reminded Rayne of the concussion. Gory injuries hindered her grip on the sword. She was such a mess.

And yet, Rayne stood before Nox with a perfectly balanced stance. She kept her eyes on him as she held the sword over flaming debris. It smoldered.

Nox stared down at her, sparing a glance at the sword as it caught fire. He asked, “Is that for me?”

Firelight flashed across Rayne’s face. She said, “I don’t see anyone else around here. Do you?”

They shared a moment in silence. There was no need for more words. Rayne’s eyes seethed brighter than the fire as Nox’s stare became an icy void. A loud crash signaled the end.

Nox charged for her, and Rayne blocked the attack with her sword. The sound of metal clashing against metal rang through her ears. The impasse proved only temporary.

Nox backhanded her with his ring hand. She wavered before recovering her balance and returned his assault with her fist. Nox faltered. He brushed the back of his hand across his mouth. Smiling over the blood from his lips, he gave one long stroke of his tongue. He lapped up his own blood like some kind of feral beast.

Rayne’s eyes narrowed at the intimacy in his stare. “How can you get off on that?”

“When you lose this fight, I’ll teach you.” He sounded absolutely certain.

She lunged, and he rose to the challenge. Their swords crossed, and their faces met way too close.

Nox asked, “Did anyone try to teach you the finer points of intimacy? Aside from what we shared?”

Rayne answered with her best impression of a growl and leaned harder into her sword. “You know the answer.”

“Beautiful Progeny girl. Breaking hearts to save herself for a lover in her dreams. One of them will betray you for it. Perhaps, even your guardian isn’t trustworthy.” He said this as if it were a secret between friends. Not as if he’d just dropped a nuclear bomb on her entire world.

Rayne let her reaction show on her face before she thought to stop it. Wide-eyed and terrified. Traitor?

Nox took advantage of her momentary hysteria and pushed her back. She didn’t resist. Although Rayne moaned when he pinned her up against the lockers, her mind wasn’t with them.

What he said made so much sense. A traitor in their midst. The dream with Celindria. She told Xelan about it right before he disappeared.

Misinformed. Under-prepared. No help. No one to save the day. Was Xelan a traitor all along?

Distantly, Nox’s fangs pierced the skin of Rayne’s neck, but she couldn’t bother to pay attention.

Was this the reason Xelan disappeared after she told him about the dream? No one had heard from him in the last four months. Not even her.

Reflexively, Rayne sighed when Nox’s tongue pressed to her throat at the open wound and tasted her blood there.

What would she do if Xelan betrayed them after all this time?

Nox punched her hard enough that Rayne understood the metaphor about seeing stars. “Am I so little a threat to you now that you can just disengage in the middle of battle?!”

Rayne spat blood on some cindered rubble. She confessed, “I want to call you a liar.”

He stepped away from her. Walked away from her. His back was to her and everything.

Nox kept dropping bombs. “You know I tell the truth. Xelan trained your brood all along to fight an enemy that proved more powerful and more difficult to kill than you’d ever imagined. You should pick your friends more wisely, my sweet killer. Why would an Icarus betray the rest? Unless he never intended to betray us at all.”

God damn him. Rayne cried, “You’re wrong! Xelan trained me to kill you, and that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

Rayne charged to strike him. Nox stepped aside and retaliated by backhanding her with his ring hand across her eye. She took the blow. Spinning away, she sliced his ribs. He tried to hit her again, only this time she expected it.

She obstructed the blow with her bad arm. Agonizing and jarring, Rayne recovered quickly. She kneed the pommel of his sword, sending it into the air. Reaching up, she caught it with her bad hand and thrust both blades straight into the center of his chest.

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Nox swayed, lowering his onyx eyes to the blades crossed inside his flesh. Rayne pushed with everything in her. She swallowed with exertion and gasped for air. Rich cobalt blood seeped from his brain. As thick as tree sap or molasses.

Rayne unclenched her jaw and apprehensively released both weapons. Her hands shook. She let her battered arm fall to its side. Her good hand tentatively touched her throat, and she winced at the bruises.

Needing more air, she gazed as the monster of her nightmares fell roaring to his knees. The shout seemed to shake the earth, itself. She forced herself back and covered one ear.

Crackling and groaning alerted her once more to the blazing structures surrounding them. Her reflexes acted faster than her body. Rayne jumped away from Nox. Beams, paneling, and a set of scorched lockers crashed down around her. Her ankle refused to move. Heart pounding, breathing rapidly, she glanced down the line of her body, and sucked air through her teeth.

A flaming beam pinned Rayne’s ankle to the floor. She barely lifted the heavy thing with her other foot to get free. She spared a moment to examine the newest burn wound.

The massive pile of debris had crushed Nox beneath it. The entire building fell, and the smoke rose so thick she couldn’t see. She tried standing, applying as little pressure on her right leg as possible. Her bad arm went limp. Slick with sweat and dripping blood from everywhere, she sought the newly expanded band room. Her only way out.

As soon as Rayne cleared the door, the ceiling fell out behind her. The burning insulation and panel tiles melted away. She rushed through the rows of desks, ignored the body chained to the podium, nearly got entangled by the music stands, and busted onto the stage.

That exit sign was the most beautiful thing Rayne had ever seen.

Emerging from the burning school, she heaved in great lungfuls of relieving, fresh air. This led to coughing. Then to limping further into the cleaner air. The coolness of it was worth enduring the sting on her back.

Was everyone else all right? Had they defeated Korac and survived? Was Sagan alive? Rayne would feel something if she’d died, wouldn’t she?

Rayne expected someone to rush to her side and help her, but the figures in her hazy vision stayed back. Her knees buckled, and her legs fell out from under her. Something in her pocket jabbed her until she pulled it out. Small and hard, she instantly recognized it. The mark she now carried on her face.

The Earth shook.

Rayne clutched the ring in her hand as she put her feet back under her. “Run! Get the hell out of here!” Why weren’t they moving? Were they too shaken up? She didn’t have time for this.

Rayne ran back to the building, prepared for another fight.

Time slowed down. Debris flew everywhere. Two winged beings erupted from the burning structure. Her sprained ankle gave way, and she slid across the pavement.

Nox and Korac glared down at her from the sky with matching sets of beautiful, black wings. Their wings were fashioned with feathers like angels. The King of Cinder recovered his sword and sheathed it at his hip. The two gaping wounds in his chest had healed. In their place was perfect, unmarred skin.

Rayne cried out in frustration.

Korac cradled Colita in his arms, alive and hanging on. Rayne knew Tameka regretted not taking Colita’s head. The King and the General waited patiently. But for what?

Screaming students scattered for the wooded hillside behind the school. In the distance came a bizarre, keening howl. The likes of which Rayne had never heard before. Goosebumps pricked along her skin. The students’ screams intensified. Other awful, garbled sounds followed. What the hell was happening in the tree line? She dared not take her eyes off the two Icari to check.

Between one beat of Rayne’s heart and the next, Nox dove for her. She watched from where she lay on the ground, unable to move, and remained calm. He wouldn’t kill her. He needed her.

The alien King stopped within a few inches of her face, his body aligned along the length of hers. His dark, remorseless eyes shifted into chrome. Alien. Terrifying.

Above her, the dark angel hovered with fluttering wings. With every beat, gravel blew back, and her hair mingled with his, sweeping across her face. Rayne was at the mercy of someone who had none to spare.

Nox reached for her by the throat and lifted her bodily ten feet from the asphalt. She tried to scream. No sound came. His wings beat the surrounding air. He swept an arm beneath her, relieving her throat. Maybe he would kill her? Maybe he’d found another way to his salvation?

Nox brought Rayne closer until their eyes were level. He sought something in hers, and she in his.

Invade Earth. Destroy a school. Fight all five of the Progeny. Sow the seeds of doubt. Fake their deaths. But don’t love her. Don’t ask her to go with him because that’s what he wanted. No.

“Why, Nox?!”

Quietly—So quietly she almost didn’t hear his voice layered in three pitches.

“My brother trained you well.”

Nox released his grip on her. Rayne fell to the ground, the air rushing around her. She couldn’t help herself. She reached out to him to save her from the fall.

Her breath rushed from her lungs when she landed on the rough pavement. Sagan knelt at her side, her face horror-stricken.

The three Icari soared away to an unknown destination.

There was no relief. No joy. Just pure, icy fear. Fresh tears streamed down Rayne’s cheeks. She couldn’t breathe, and not only from the fall.

Sagan checked Rayne over, asking, “What did he say to you?”

Several pairs of feet came into Rayne’s line of sight.

Andrew shouted, “Xelan!”

Rayne turned to look over the roof of the auxiliary gym. Five men stood there draped in all black. She recognized only one familiar face. She hadn’t seen him for months, but she would never mistake him.

Xelan’s shoulder-length black hair caught the breeze perfectly over his kind features. How had Rayne never made the connection before? They looked so similar. Sure, she never saw Nox’s face completely in her dreams, but—

“Rayne, what’s going on?” Sagan asked, again.

Xelan stood taller than the other four, almost as tall as his brother. This was The Brethren he never allowed her to meet before today. They were undoubtedly Icarean, but not entirely evil. Or were they?

Anger incensed Rayne’s entire being. After everything Nox had told her, after disappearing for four months, Xelan was here in time for his brother to end the world.

Confusion and anguish muddied her thoughts. Did they watch the entire time? Would they have even bothered helping?

Rayne wanted to shout and cry all at once. Her body screamed at her. Aching, stinging, burning, bleeding, sweating, and numbing. It took everything in her to keep breathing.

Cold traveled up from her fingertips and toes. Her legs became unyielding. Both arms went immobile. Nothing would move. The painful sensation reached her eyes and a blood-curdling, heart-wrenching scream tore from her throat before Rayne fell back on Sagan’s lap.

And the world went black.