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“Why?” she asked but she quickly moved to the table and the legs scraped loudly across the stone. “What’s wrong?”

“I think there’s someone outside.”

“It’s the city. There are people everywhere.” She shoved it against the door then brushed her palms together wiping away dust.

Pounding on the door startled her and she missed the sword, cracking the hammer into the anvil.

They went silent.

Valeen tried to see who was there from the window, but it was the wrong angle.

Fists slammed into the door again. Katana and Valeen exchanged a glance.

“Yes?” Valeen finally said. Maybe it was just someone looking for a blacksmith.

“Where are my two favorite goddesses?” cooed an eerily familiar voice.

Katana backed further into the room but didn’t take her eyes off the door. “Val… it’s… it’s…” With a whimper she took out a dagger and moved closer to her sister.

Valeen stilled for only a moment then turned the sword over and started hammering on the other side. “I know,” was all she said.

“How did he get out?”

The door handle jiggled then a moment later nails scraped on the wood. “Goddess of night, goddess of day, please open the door. I want to play,” Synick said in a sing-song voice.

“Heat this again. Hurry.” It was still too thick and cooling too fast. With a glowing orange blade once again, she swung. Sweat slid down the back of her neck with the effort, but it was finally taking the form she needed.I need you, Lightbringer. This city and the elves need you.

Pounding started on the door again, this time harder, like a boot slamming against it rather than a fist.

“Valeen,” Katana yelped. She almost tripped on the lip of a stone slab in retreat.

“Don’t give him the satisfaction of being afraid. You’re the goddess of day. Act like it.” Now wasn’t the time to be soft on Katana. She couldn’t be the scared little lamb when there were wolves at the door. That was what got her killed before. Katana snapped her head toward Valeen as if she’d struck her. “Your problem isn’t that you’re incapable of being a terrifying threat, it's that you don’t believe you are one. Be something to fear, Katana, and you won’t be preyed upon. There is a time to be the soft petals of a rose and a time to be its thorns.”

Katana’s mouth hung open and she blinked in surprise, but she needed to hear it.

“It’s almost ready.” Valeen plunged the blade into the bucket of cold water. It sizzled and steamed. Pulling it free, she inspected it in the window’s light. It was far from perfect, and she’d never want to show it off for craftsmanship, but it would have to do. “Now, mark it with your magic. Give it a piece of you.”

With a firm nod, Katana’s glowing fingertip etched a sun into the metal then she blew her breath over it. A tingle of her power fluttered across Valeen’s skin like a summer breeze.

She didn’t have a touch that could etch metal, so she pricked her finger on the point of the blade and wiped her blood across the already existing elvish runes that read “Lightbringer”. “With this I give you a piece of me to connect with the moons’ power and mine.”

The door burst open, sending the table crashing into the wall, and a shadowy figure stepped into the frame.

Someone must have let him out. Someone must be with him to give him the confidence to come here and not run away. She swore under her breath, the guard tasked with dosing him every few hours must be dead too.

Valeen half stepped in front of Katana and pointed Lightbringer at Synick. The decayed half of his face was covered in a black mask. His sandy-blond hair was tied back into a sleek ponytail. She dropped her gaze to his hand and the weapon he held. A rose-gold sword with an amber stone in the pommel. Her stomach plummeted to her toes; that was the Sword of Truth. The very weapon he’d used to kill Katana…

“Well, well, we meet again.” His voice made the hairs all over her body rise, a warning of the danger.

Valeen scanned behind him, looking for his accomplice. There was no way he was alone. She quickly passed Lightbringerto Katana. “Go out the back and find Night. Take the sword to the top of the ridge. I’ll meet you there.”

“I can’t leave you.”

“Go.”

She slowly backed up, eyes darting from Valeen to Synick. “Val,” she choked.

“Don’t leave,” Synick purred. “The party is only beginning. I always had a fantasy about having you both writhing under me at the same time.”