Molly cocked her head, resisting the urge to lick her lips. Shafts of sunlight gleamed against the mahogany furniture in the room. attention you’ve garnered of late is detrimental to the firm.” “So you understand, of course, that this. Her magick sparked from her body, even as Lark ran a hand up and down her sister’s back. “I don’t know if there’s a peaceful way out of this now.” Helena’s hands, fisted, hung at her side.

Right next to the memory of how Edwina Owen, his former boss, had looked after she’d been shot just weeks before. The stench of these young men’s death would live in his system for days, though he believed the memory of it would live far longer. Impotent fury tightened Gage’s muscles so hard he had a headache. Two had been hurt when part of a landing collapsed as they’d valiantly attempted to get to the second story where the bedrooms were. At the exits so the witches inside couldn’t escape. Three of whom had been home in bed when the place had been set on fire. Five of them who shared the house and attended nearby UCLA. But she had her own sort of strength and Gage believed the Hunter in charge of Gennessee’s security would indeed take out the murderous asshole humans who’d set a house on fire while the people living there had been locked inside. “They best goddamn back off in my town or there’ll be hell to pay.” Helena wasn’t scrappy and scary like Lark. And now they’d have to attend yet more funerals. This was supposed to be a visit to share information and new spells. “They had to have used an accelerant of some type.” Lark, who still favored the side she hadn’t been shot on, looked on, standing next to him. But it didn’t hide the resolution that there was nothing else they could do to save those three who’d been caught inside and unable to escape. Grime coated the faces of the firefighters who’d been working to put the fire out. But the fire made that shiny cheery red into something more sinister. The red of the fire truck would delight children any other time. Over the cars parked by people who’d simply wanted to slump inside their homes and relax until they had to return to work the following day. The house burned, casting orangey yellow all across the street. It was a stench he’d hoped to never come across and yet, over the last months, he’d gagged on it more than once. Sickeningly sweet while at the same time sticky with death and pain. Burning flesh created a smell unlike any other he’d ever experienced.

Going Under by Lauren Dane