The highway lay quiet under the returning stars, cracked and gouged where the Black Witch had stood.Jack pressed on alone, hands in his pockets. Behind him the crater still smoked.That claw had hit with the strength of a hundred men, maybe more. In all his years in the underworld, nothing had ever pushed him back a single step. The Black Witch had driven him a good distance down the highway.That alone made her worth remembering and being cautious of. How did Morgana become so strong? Was she even human? Why did his father never warn him about her powers?On Jack's wrist, the second hand of his watch jerked and began to tick again. In his pocket, his phone buzzed. He pulled it out. The screen was cracked and flickering, but it was alive.Whatever Morgana was, her power had choked every machine around her temporarily.He thumbed the cracked screen and dialed Vandrake.The King of Clubs' voice was tight with relief. "Sir! The line went dead. Our people lost your signal. Are you hurt?"

Ryker's voice boomed out of the captain's phone, loud enough for the whole gate to hear."Captain, do you want to be thrown out of the National Guard tonight? Because I'll do it myself. Not only will I fire you, I'll make sure you can't get a job hauling lumber anywhere in Garrison State!"The captain went pale as paper. His shoulders folded in."Mr. Governor, it was my mistake, sir! I'm so sorry! I'll fix it immediately!"The line went dead.The captain spun around, snapped his heels together and threw Jack a rigid salute.Down the line, rifles swung back to shoulders. One after another, the soldiers at the gate sprang to attention and saluted.The order of the National Guard rippled outward along the walls, and dozens of Guardsmen turned to face the man in the dusty boots and raised their hands to their brows.Under the blazing lights, it looked like an army paying tribute to a single man.Dean and David stood frozen in the flowerbed. Their mouths hung open. Whatever they were tryin

The Obsidian Palace was quiet at this hour.The Mayoress was out hunting cartel men through the alleys again, and the guards on Jill's floor dozed at their posts.Jack slipped through the dark corridor and eased open the door to his sister's bedroom. Ryker's morbid offer still rang in his ears, but there was one person he had to see before anything else.Jill lay asleep under a thin white blanket. Her black hair was spread across the pillow, and her face was paler than the sheets. Sweat glistened on her forehead. Her whole body trembled with fever.Jack's chest tightened at the sight."I'm sorry you had to suffer for me."His little sister had spent her whole life in this city without knowing she had a family who never stopped looking for her. The last time he had tried to abduct her and drive home, she had nearly died in his arms at the city border.Jack crossed the room carefully, as if one creaking floorboard could shatter her. Then he bent down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

The barricade in the old heart of Sparta City still blazed under the floodlights.Brakus clutched his bleeding hand to his chest and sneered at the young man in the oversized jacket."Your precious lord ran off and left you behind, clown. We'll deal with him later.""Jack Hardy won't be back to save you though. When I'm done with you, I'll tie you to my truck by your ankles and drag you through every street in Sparta.""Yeah, yeah, yeah," Vexler retorted, waving his arms as if trying to silence a class full of school children. "But my lesson comes first.""A lesson? From a clown on a scooter? What lesson would that be?"Vexler didn't answer immediately. He strolled back to his dead scooter, humming to himself. A long bundle wrapped in a gray cloth was strapped along its side."Captain, let me put a bullet in him!" a sergeant growled.Brakus raised his good hand to hold his men back. The clown had made a fool of him in front of the whole army, and he wanted to watch him beg first.Vexl

Blue light blazed across the ruined lot in front of Morgana's dome.The beam held Jack by the chest. Crackling electricity crawled under his skin and clamped his jaw shut. A second beam lanced out of the dark and seared his shoulder. A third struck his thigh."Target struck. Increasing output."The turrets whirred down together and opened fire again. This time the bullets didn't bounce off. They sparked blue against his skin.Every round bit like a taser. Shocks jolted into him from every direction, and his muscles twitched uncontrollably across his arms and back.Jack gritted his teeth and kept walking. He had marched through gunfire his whole life."Target slowing. Full array engaged."Every emitter in the lot fired at once, and a cage of crisscrossing beams closed around him.His boots dragged through the dirt. Each step took more out of him than the last.Jack clenched his fist. In front of Brakus's army, that same fist had shaken the ground and split the asphalt.Now nothing happ