Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,24

The truck exploded in a ball of fire.

“I’ll help Judgement,” Piper shouted, waving everyone else on.

Layla and Chloe sprinted toward the building where the rocket had originated, but Tarron reached the door before them. He pushed through and took the steps two at a time—Layla and Chloe right behind him—as they sprinted up four flights of stairs to the roof, where Chloe simply kicked the door open, ripping it from its hinges and sending it bouncing across the rooftop.

Chloe and Layla moved around Tarron as several people on the roof opened fire. Their bullets slammed into the three-foot brick wall near a giant air-conditioning unit that Layla’s team dropped behind.

“Your hat got hit,” Chloe said to Tarron as another round of bullets slammed into the wall. He still wore his long black coat and the black cowboy hat he had started to wear.

Tarron removed his hat and looked at the hole just above where his scalp would have been. “Damn,” he said softly.

Layla reached out with her power and took hold of the metal in the guns, tearing them apart. She would have thrown the metal back at the attackers, but they really needed one alive, and as she couldn’t see them, she couldn’t be sure of not killing them all.

Layla stepped out from behind the wall as Chloe sprinted toward the closest of the five. He saw her and raised his hands to defend against the incoming punch, but Chloe absorbed kinetic energy, turning it into blasts of pure power or enhancing a part of her. Namely her strength. The crunch of the man’s arm as it shattered from the blow was nothing compared to the scream of pain that left his mouth a second later. She kicked him in the chest, and he flew off the side of the roof.

Chloe had already taken out the second attacker when Layla threw the metal she’d gathered at two more. One tried to escape, but he ran straight into Judgement, who picked him up by his throat and tossed him across the roof as if he were a tennis ball. His head bounced off the ground before he lay still and didn’t move.

A few seconds later, the three who remained alive were tied up using the metal from the guns.

Layla peered over the roof ledge and saw Tego and Piper waiting below.

“Tarron, can you take two of these down to the ground, please?” Layla asked.

Tarron picked one up in each hand and walked off the edge of the roof, the prisoners screaming the whole way down. The sound ended with a crunch as Tarron landed on the sidewalk below.

Layla smiled as she looked over the edge of the roof. Tarron had placed multiple elven runes inside his clothes, and while he couldn’t keep jumping off roofs forever, they did allow him to absorb such energy and redirect it, presumably into the now-totaled car that he’d landed on.

The final prisoner maintained his resolute glare at Layla and Chloe.

“I guess this one is the tough guy,” Chloe said, crouching beside him. “So you murdered a bunch of firefighters; you must feel like a big man.”

“If you are not with us, you are against us,” the man said without turning to look at Chloe.

“You all KOA?” Layla asked.

The man continued to stare ahead.

“Chloe, can you go help Tarron?” Layla said. “Between the two of you, I’m sure you can get someone to talk about any other reinforcements.”

When Layla was alone with the final KOA member, she sat down in front of him. “We know that you’re coming in from the north,” she said. “We know that you’ve sent small groups into the city to cause problems. We know that you’re here to kill and maim and cause terror. You are not a hero; you are not the good guys. You are thugs and bullies, and I was born in this country, and I will die before I let you take it from the people who get up every single day and fight and struggle and love being here.”

“That’s the plan,” the man said with a smirk.

Layla tore metal from the roof all around her and snaked it around his body. “No,” she said softly. “The plan is that I’m going to kill any of you that I find. I’m done playing. I’m done trying to find a way through this mess where we can heal the wounds that you’ve all caused. You want to know how we heal the wounds? We cut out the