“What the hell?” Rhynehart yelled as he ran toward her, coughing and choking on the dark-green smoke swirling around in the wind. “Goddamnit. Everybody move your asses!”
Another explosion made the rough flooring beneath them tremble. Cheyenne glanced up at the source of it on the second floor and watched with widening eyes as one magical bomb after another detonated in a chain every few feet around the room right above them.
“Shit!” Rhynehart waved everyone out of the room. “Get out—”
A final blast erupted one more floor up, and the top of the unfinished building crumbled. Plywood and nails, rebar, wiring—all of it came down from the top floor and dropped straight toward them.
Cheyenne skidded to a stop and shot both hands up toward the falling wreckage with a roar of effort. The shimmering black wall of her drow shield bloomed five feet above her and arced out over the open room. Splinters and metal shards rained down on the dome she’d created, followed by larger chunks of snapped two-by-fours and thick beams. They pounded onto her shield and scattered off, filling the site with one loud rush like golf-ball-sized hail hitting a metal roof.
“Holy shit…” Yurik stared up at the partially translucent underside of her spell, then launched back into action.
“Okay, everybody out!” Rhynehart waved his team back through the building, glancing up occasionally to double-check the shield.
The drow halfling’s arms shook with the force of holding up such a massive spell, watching the other side of the room as one FRoE operative in black after another raced back the way they’d come. One of them tried to dart through the side of the building but pulled up short when a huge beam crashed to the dirt outside the frame, more debris raining down.
“Move!” Cheyenne screamed, gritting her teeth against the force of her magic, battling a lot of gravity and a lot of weight.
Two agents stopped to slip their arms around Payton’s and Zynd’r’s chests before dragging their wounded back out through the building. It took three more to lift Jamal from the floor and hurry him out. The halfling caught sight of the ogre’s face, half of it bubbled and mutilated by the explosion of black magic.
Then the pressure forced her down. One knee slammed into the rough floor, and she let out another roar through her clenched teeth. Her shoulders burned. Everything burned. More green-black smoke filtered through the open room on the breeze and made her eyes water so much, she couldn’t see.
“Okay, we’re good.” Rhynehart doubled back and helped her to her feet. “On the count of three. One, two—”
More of the exterior framing of the third and second floors crashed down on her shield, and a straggling explosion shuddered through the site.
“Three!” Rhynehart grabbed her wrist and half-pulled, half-dragged her toward the other side of the room. The shield held long enough to protect them until they got to the framework of the hall. Then it dropped, and everything else rained down on them.
The building in front of them caved in, the upper levels dropping toward them with a splintering crunch. Cheyenne jerked her hand out of Rhynehart’s grip.
“What are you—”
She slipped into her drow speed and ran toward him. Crouching, she lifted the suspended FRoE agent up and over her shoulder like a sack of laundry and just kept moving. That’s gonna hurt. Sorry.
The halfling ran as fast as she could through the crumbling building falling in slow motion. The opening on the other end sank lower and lower by the second, like a giant, shattered mouth closing down on its next meal.
She reached the end and had to duck beneath the first beam dropping slowly to the ground. Then her drow speed failed her. The halfling stumbled over her own feet, and Rhynehart went flying off her shoulder across the dirt. The other agents shouted in surprise when their superior skidded toward them and a drow halfling appeared out of nowhere.
“How the hell did she do that?”
“Grab Rhynehart!”
“Keep moving!”
“Somebody get the—”
Another explosion erupted in the crumbling building, muted by all the debris. The blast of dust and compressed air hit Cheyenne in the back, and she staggered forward on her feet. She caught sight of someone helping Rhynehart up, the man doubled over with an arm wrapped around his ribs.
The drow halfling’s body wouldn’t do what she wanted anymore. She finally dropped to her knees in the dirt, catching herself with both hands. I pushed too hard. With a grunt, she tried to stand and only lurched forward about a foot before dropping again. Worth it.
“Hey.” A blue-green hand shot out toward her. “I thought I told you not to wear yourself out?”
Cheyenne looked up to see Yurik smirking at her. “You’re welcome. I’ll just let the building bury you next time.”
Her arm shook when she lifted it to grasp his hand. The muscular goblin with the ring through his nose pulled her to her feet with a chuckle. “Yeah, there’s always a price, huh?”
“You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that.” Her voice sounded muted and watery to her own ears. When she took her next step toward the black vehicles and the FRoE agents helping the wounded into the seats, her legs wobbled. Not now.
“Whoa. You got it?”
“Yeah.” She swallowed, trying to blink away the wave of dizziness and the line of way more than five black vehicles dancing back and forth in front of her. “You have any more of those gross energy bars?”
“Probably. In one of the Humvees.” Yurik dipped his head toward her with a concerned frown. “Maybe we should get you a portable IV instead. You
