Page 104 of Stars in Umbra
But she needn’t have.
In a blinding instant, everything changed.
Mo, still draped in hospital mesh and bandages, rose from his hover bed as though summoned by a force beyond mortal understanding.
Sigils ignited across his chest, arms, and throat in a brilliant web of gold and electric indigo.
Energy whipped around him like coiled lightning, cracking the air.
The bandages freakin’ burned away.
His feet touched the ground, bare against shattered glass, like he felt nothing, as if pain was beneath him.
The lead assassin lunged forward.
Mo caught the attacker mid-motion, disarming him with an almost lazy twist of bone and steel. The weapon turned in his hands, and then one shot.
Then another.
Three bodies collapsed before they hit the floor, felled with lethal precision.
Rina stared, winded and frozen.
His power was like nothing she’d seen.Divine. Terrifying. Beautiful.
Outside, the helo’s rail guns powered up with a rising, demonic whine.
Rina didn’t hesitate. She dropped to one knee, aimed her sidearm through the blown-out window, and fired twice, direct hits to the twin engine casings.
The helo buckled, smoke venting in long dark streams.
A second later, the craft exploded in midair, careening away in a bloom of flame and fractured steel.
Sirens shrieked down the corridor as hospital security thundered toward the chaos.
Mo twisted to her, sweat glistening on his skin, breath rough and uneven.
His eyes blazed, not just with adrenaline, but with a power unimaginable.
‘Lower your weapon!’ one of the guards barked.
Mo ignored the warning, turning to Rina.
Before she could move, he seized her wrist.
In a blur, he rummaged through her bag and, to her fury, snapped her military flex-cuffs over both their wrists.
Binding her to him with a hiss of pressure-lock.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ she snarled, trying to pull away to no avail.
He gazed down at her, fierce and urgent, the heat of his body almost overwhelming this close. ‘I’d never hurt you, baby, but I need you to trust me.’
She faltered. ‘Mo, I hope you know what theHadesyou’re playing at.’
His smile was tight, rueful. ‘I don’t. I’mfokkin’ making it up as I go, but I have good reason.’
Her instincts warred with her training. He hadn’t bruised her.
