Novalight went down hard on his back. Piers followed, pinning him in the cold grass beside the sidewalk. He got in three skin-splitting punches before Novalight’s men yanked him backward and threw him down. Their mistake was letting go. Piers surged to his feet and charged the guards, yelling at Sophie to run.

He smashed two heads together. The men crumpled. Someone hit him in the back of the skull with something hard. Piers dropped to one knee, his vision darkening. He spun on instinct with one leg out and knocked over the person behind him. He blinked hard, his head ringing. Lurching up, he punched the blond he recognized from the day before. The blond staggered. Novalight started to stand. Piers grabbed a midsized female before she could free her gun from its holster and tossed her into Novalight, toppling him again.

“Piers!”

He whirled. They had Sophie. Fear tore through his chest.

One man gripped her from behind while another tried to rip the shard from her wrist. Sophie twisted, kicking out, and a third darted in and punched her in the face. She blanched.

“Soph!” Dread gripped his throat.

She sagged, but her eyes lifted, meeting his. Then she lit up like a torch. Lightning cracked from her body and sent the three men flying off. She reeled in shock. The last two ruffians charged, including the blond. She held up her hands to ward them off and twin thunderbolts shot from her palms.

She gasped. So did Piers. She’d laid out five men. They smoldered on the sidewalk.

Sophie looked at her hands in horror. “Oh my God.”

Novalight shoved the female soldier aside and crouched. The woman scrambled to her feet and ran. With his power-fevered eyes avidly trained on Sophie, the scientist didn’t even see Piers’s boot coming for his head. Piers knocked him unconscious and raced to Sophie’s side.

He grabbed her still-hot hand and pulled her from the scene of the fight. A family out for a walk had just stumbled upon their secluded pathway, and the mother lifted her phone just as he and Sophie ducked into the woods.

They ran until their lungs burned. They ran until they left the park. They ran all the way back to their hotel room. They ran until Sophie collapsed on their bed.

“I killed people. I killed people. I’m going to jail.” She turned and sobbed into his chest. The lightning in her blood—the most incredible and rare of all magic—had long since sunk back inward, leaving her cold to the touch.

Piers gathered her close, trying to warm away her shock. He rocked her as she cried, telling her again and again that she hadn’t killed anyone. He’d looked, and he was sure. Novalight and his henchmen were all alive—which meant they weren’t done yet.

CHAPTER 8