The disconnection in my thinking and the speed of our immediate reality let me connect that dot too. Valefor hadn’t managed a secret command. He’d planted one on the group before Mama Mathers had laid them out flat.

Telling them to attack us when we were off guard, or when he gave some signal. Erin was coming after Rain. So was her little brother, who couldn’t have been older than nine.

The slow was wearing off. I had only a moment. I flew to the others, grabbing them, dragging them away. Sveta and Capricorn. Capricorn had a grip on Rain’s arm, so I brought Rain too, my fingers straining as I tried to hold onto three people for just a moment. I’d never tried or even thought about it, but in the instant, I pulsed my forcefield on and off, to try to keep the Wretch from getting enough of a presence to reach out and hurt anyone.

I just needed to carry them for a few seconds.

Capricorn disappeared from my grip, and for an instant, I thought I’d lost my grip on him, and my hand crackled as he did. I turned to look, and saw the man with the goggles and mustache pointing his finger at us.

End of Days, I thought, as I headed toward the ground.

He wasn’t even a time manipulator. I felt deeply offended at that fact, or I must have—it was a poignant enough feeling that I could feel it even as I took in the magnitude of just how the tides had turned, and how bad a thing that was. They’d hit each of our groups, and they’d hit us hard.

I heard an assault rifle fire, and others took up the call. It was more one-sided, this time, not two sides shooting at each other, but one side shooting at the rest.

I landed on the far side of a slope, with just Sveta. I took the moment to try to gather my senses. I hurt all over, and I had blood in my eyes. The slow-motion effect from Secondhand.

Sveta had a rip in the edge of her face, but she barely seemed to care. She was more focused on getting to her feet.

Capricorn had disappeared. Damsel wasn’t here. Chris and Looksee were on the fringes or not even in the area.

I could feel droplets of moisture on my bare skin.

Rain.

I flew close to the ground, using the hill as cover, Wretch out in case a stray bullet came my way or cut through the dirt. I peeked around the edge of the hill’s slope. My eyes took in the scene at a glance, and partway through that glance, the scene changed.

Darkness. No sun shining through overcast clouds. Only darkness. Light leeched in through some other way, giving just enough to outline the surroundings.