Colt stared at Jeff’s body, at the blood already pooling in the dirt. Something in his chest went hollow. He’d never seen a man die before. Not standing there talking one second, gone the next.

  He looked at Clay. Clay was still holding his gun, knuckles white around the grip.

  Earl stood frozen, mouth hanging open.

  Colt’s eyes snapped around. The horses were gone. They’d bolted with rope ends dragging behind them. The mules lay in the dirt. One had a leg broke. The other wasn’t moving.

  “We gotta move,” Colt said, fast. “We gotta get back to Pa.”

  Something hit the ground right in front of their boots with a thunk.

  Colt’s eyes dropped.

  An arrow. Not one of theirs, not a hunting arrow, not anything he’d seen from the tribes or the trade posts. A dark shaft with black fletching.

  Clay pulled it from the dirt. The head was narrow, built to punch deep. He turned it over in his hand and his face went tight.

  It had come through the shimmer.

  Clay’s fingers opened. The arrow dropped.

  He took a half step back.

  Three shapes flipped out of the shimmer. Black from head to toe, tight cloth, faces covered. Only their eyes showed. Glowing the same violet as the shimmer.

  They landed light with their knees bent, hands already moving.

  The three didn’t rush Earl. They didn’t rush Clay.

  They moved toward Colt.

  Colt froze. His boots wouldn’t lift.

  Nobody moved.

  The three said something to each other, words that came out short. It wasn’t English. Sure as hell wasn’t Spanish. Colt didn’t know the words or the sound.

  Earl’s voice came out hoarse. “What the fuck?”

  A gunshot cracked.

  Earl had fired.

  One of the black figures snapped back. The round hit it right in the side of its head. It dropped hard, hit the dirt, and shook. Then violet energy burst out of the body and shot straight up into the sky before it vanished.

  Colt just stared. His mouth had gone dry.

  The other two didn’t wait.

  They turned to Clay and Earl. Blades flashed dark in the light. Clay fired. Earl fired again. Colt fell back into the dirt.

  He saw it from down there, how those two moved. They didn’t rush like men. They slipped past shots. One blade swiped and Colt heard a hard metal smack as it caught a bullet mid-air.

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  The bullet hit the ground near Colt’s boot. Still spinning.

  Clay shouted something, but Colt couldn’t make it out over the shots.

  Then it was just clicks. Clay’s gun clicked empty. Earl’s clicked too.

  The two black figures didn’t slow.

  They were on them in a breath. Steel flashed. Earl made a sound Colt didn’t want to hear again. His body hit the ground and didn’t move.

  The two turned toward Clay.

  Clay dropped his gun. His hands came up, both of them empty. He stood there breathing hard with his eyes wide. “What do y’all want from us.”

  Colt’s rifle was in the dirt near him.

  He fumbled for it with shaking hands, fingers slipping in the dust. He got the stock, yanked it up, and brought it to his shoulder. The wood was slick with sweat against his cheek. He aimed at the nearest black head, sucked in a breath.

  He fired.

  The kick drove into his shoulder. The shot took it in the back of the head. The body jerked and hit the ground. Violet light shot to the sky in a thin beam.

  The last one snapped its head toward Colt. Violet eyes locked on him.

  Clay moved. He stepped in close and drove a knife up into its skull. The black figure went still, then fell. Violet lanced up in the air.

  The rifle slipped from Colt’s grip and thudded into the dirt.

  Colt saw the shimmer fold up and disappear.

  Clay stared at the bodies with his chest heaving, then looked past them.

  Colt followed his gaze. Over other craters, more shimmers hung in the air. More black shapes were dropping through them, flipping out and landing. A dozen. Two dozen. More.

  Clay grabbed Colt’s sleeve. “Run.”

  They took off. Colt’s boots slipped in loose dirt and his lungs burned.

  “Who are those guys?” Colt said, voice cracking.

  Clay didn’t look back. “I don’t know. But we gotta get outta the open.”

  More arrows started landing near them. One grazed Colt’s shoulder and tore his shirt.

  Clay jerked his head toward the dark line of trees. “Get to the tree line!”

  Colt followed.

  They hit the woods and kept running, branches slapping their arms, dead leaves sliding under their boots. Colt’s shirt caught on something and ripped. He didn’t slow down.

  Colt heard a sick squelch behind him.

  He snapped his head around.

  Clay stumbled. An arrow stuck out of his chest, the black shaft jutting from just below his collarbone.

  Colt’s whole body went cold. His feet stopped moving before his brain told them to. His stomach dropped.

  “Clay!”

  Clay’s face went pale. He reached for the arrow shaft, fingers closing around it, then his hand dropped. He tried to keep moving, but his legs started to crumple under him.

  “Go, Colt,” Clay rasped. “Run.”

  He fell to the ground.

  Colt ran back to him and dropped to his knees. “No, no, no.”

  Black shapes moved through the trees. Coming fast.

  Clay grabbed Colt’s shirt. “Go.”

  “I ain’t leavin’ you.”

  “Colt—”

  Footsteps surrounded them. Colt looked up.

  Six of them stood there a few feet away.

  His chest pounded. His breath came out fast.

  Colt’s hands went to Clay’s wound. Blood soaked through his shirt, hot against Colt’s palms. Clay’s eyes were half-closed now. His breathing shallow.

  “Clay, stay with me.”

  Clay didn’t answer. His hand slipped from Colt’s shirt. His head rolled to the side.

  “Clay!”

  The ninjas said something to each other. Fast words.

  Colt looked up at them. Six violet eyes staring down. He had no gun. No knife. Nothing.

  A searing pain shot up through the back of his head.

  More words flashed across his vision.

  CRITICAL THREAT DETECTED

  ASSET IN DANGER

  The ninjas stepped closer.

  One of them drew a blade.

  EVACUATION COMMENCING

  The ninja jumped. Launched into the air with the blade raised.

  It stopped.

  Mid-air. Frozen. The blade still up, body twisted in the jump. It hung there like a painting.

  Everything stopped.

  The other ninjas didn’t move. The leaves didn’t fall. The wind didn’t blow.

  Violet energy shot up from the ground beneath Colt.

  Colt gasped. His knee buckled, but he didn’t fall. The light crawled up him, twisting around his waist, his chest, his throat. It was cold. Then hot. Then cold again.

  He tried to move and couldn’t. His arms locked. His boots wouldn’t lift. His jaw clenched shut.

  The violet energy pulled tighter around him. It climbed up his face. Pushed into his nose. Into his ears. His eyes burned and he blinked hard, but the light filled everything until he couldn’t see anything but violet.

  His lungs couldn’t pull air.

  He looked down at Clay one last time.

  Then black.

  A small line of words appeared in the middle of his vision.

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