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Roman’s shadows squeezed, making the man gasp. “Willing,” Roman repeated in a razor-edged voice, “or unwilling?”
“Most of the subjects were not volunteers.”
“That’s a nice way to say you kidnapped them. What happened here? Why’s everything destroyed?”
“A few of the stronger subjects staged a breakout. I was told to come back and make sure we’d covered our tracks.”
“The subjects—name them.”
Silence. Shay held her breath.
“Names, Doctor Rowe,” Roman warned. The man flinched away from the volume of his voice.
“Gold, Violet, Sage, Magenta, Aurora, Blue, Blaze…” He paused, panting. Sweat dribbled down his jowls. “And Scarlet.” Shay’s brows knitted together.
Roman growled, “Do you think this is a joke?” He flexed his magic, the shadows digging into the doctor’s skin, nearly cutting to the bone. “Do I look like a joke to you?”
“No, no, I—”
Shay stepped out of the shadows. “Anna?”
The facility fell silent.
She moved closer; the man watched her with vigilance, his eyes flicking between her and Roman. “Was there an Anna here?”
He shook his head. “No one by that name. The people I just listed—they were all that was left. The others…” He swallowed. Grimaced. His chest heaved with noisy, labored breaths. “The others died.”
Shay’s stomach sank.
Not here. Anna wasn’t here.
“Let him down, Shadows,” she said softly.
Roman’s shadows pulled the man off the wall, setting him down on his feet so his back faced the front doors.
Shay glanced at Roman, nodding once. He immediately knew what she was trying to tell him—to erase the man’s memories of his encounter with them tonight.
Roman said, “I’m going to need you to hold very still, Doctor Rowe.” He breathed in, nostrils flaring, eyes swallowed up by a shining black. “This’ll take just a moment.”
The man waited, lifting his hands in a gesture that welcomed what Roman was about to do. “I’m not going anywhere—”
The doctor’s last word turned into a gurgle as claws burst through his stomach from behind. Blood sprayed through the air, the droplets misting Shay’s face.
Doctor Rowe gasped and dropped to his knees.
Shay’s eyes fell upon the monster looming behind him in a preternatural mist as it clinked its blood-coated claws.
56
The Facility
STATE OF WITHEREDGE
The monster moved with blinding speed.
It was massive—a breed Roman had never seen or heard of before. The body reminded him of bone, its physique beastly, the spine and tail lined with long, black-tipped spikes he’d bet were poisonous. Its head was smooth and dry, like a skull or sun-beaten stone, and it had a mouthful of serrated teeth black as onyx. But the strangest thing about it was the stone in its forehead—glowing right above the terrifying pair of narrow eyes.
The creature threw Roman into the wall with brutal, blood-soaked claws, the force behind the attack knocking the wind out of him. As he landed on his feet, its long, spiked tail lashed through the air.
