Page 46

Bria

T he world around me is sideways, an open expanse of bushes and shrubs stippling the patchy grass.

Sideways, because I’m in a heap on the ground.

A stinging sensation fills my shoulder and back, sending pain rippling down my arm.

I gently move my other hand toward that stinging and feel a sharp wooden shaft and a warm, sticky liquid that is most certainly blood.

I quickly flick my eyes open to confirm.

Fuck . Sure enough, there’s an arrow lodged in my left shoulder.

Voices filter through the dark and I try to focus on them, closing my eyes to ensure they think I’m still knocked out. The pounding in my head makes it difficult to discern what I’m hearing. Two different voices—no three I realize, as they trickle through the roaring in my ears.

Three . I swallow hard. Being skilled with a sword and dagger in training is one thing but fending off three men is another.

The fear that my skills won’t be enough is paralyzing.

On top of that, my energy is low. A small fire still burns within, but the arrow is draining me of other things. Like blood and life.

Keeping my eyes clamped shut, I breathe deeply. The voices are close but not right next to me, meaning they are unaware of the threat I pose to them. What are they doing? I listen to the sounds, the clinking metal, the whinnying of my horse.

Rifling through the saddle bags, that’s what they are doing.

Looking to see if I carried any money or anything that might tell them who I am.

I had unwittingly made myself an easy target.

Idiot , I think. I had let my mind wander from the task at hand, let my guard down and revealed myself as a young woman riding alone at night, for all to see.

And they saw. Now, they’re going to leave me here, alone and injured and far from any help.

The fuckers will probably take my gods damned horse too.

They won’t find a lot in those bags though.

I don’t have much on me aside from a small pouch of gold, and they can take it if they want.

I can make do without it if I need to. If I survive this.

I didn’t stop to think, let alone gather water and food or anything else of value before I took off, meaning their rummaging through my things won’t take them long.

And when they finish... My stomach roils when I think of what they might do to me, my thoughts receding to a dark place in my mind where I know just what a group of nefarious men are capable of.

Bile creeps its way up my throat, stinging and causing me to gag.

Concentrating on my magic is the best I can do right now, so I focus inward.

That tiny fire deep inside begins to grow just a little as I tune myself in to it.

The moon is nearly full and over the years I’ve found my gifts come easiest when there’s abundant moonlight, during the brightest stages of the moon.

Lilith was said to be the dark, the moon, the goddess of death.

And I was born in the dead of night when the sky was pitch black aside from the bright light of the moon.

Hearing footsteps approaching, I falter, my confidence wavering and concentration dropping as I overhear their conversation. The stinging sensation from my shoulder filters back in when I lose my focus and I have to stifle a gasp at the sharp pain.

“Even if she does have a bounty, doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun first, right?” The voice is deep and grating. It scrapes against my skin like the sharpening of metal, sending a chill down my spine.

Murmuring agreement from the others sets off every alarm in my body. I have to fight. Not just for myself, but for Nimai.I can’t save my sister if I die out here in this field.

Blocking out the sounds of the approaching men, I let my thoughts drift back to Nimai, the way I remember her, at least: young and happy, without a care in the world.

We were na?ve about what was happening in the world around us, unaware of what our parents hid from us about our future.

Even as we got older, she remained that na?ve girl and I took on the role of hiding my power from her, keeping secrets so she could retain that innocence as long as possible.

I remember how she would climb into my bed each night and ask me to read to her.

She had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and wanted to learn everything she could.

A little bookworm who kept to herself. Nimai had been able to read from a young age but still begged me to do it up until the attack in Elwyn.

I think about the way she would curl into me, laying her mass of blue-black hair in the crook of my arm.

I feel her now, the warmth and the weight from her body, pressing into me, the smell of her favorite soap, the scent of rose filling my nostrils. I let the warmth fill my veins and turn my attention from Nimai to the shadows around me.

Finally opening my eyes, I see one of the men standing close by. A towering man with a sneer that reveals a mouth of horrid yellow teeth, half of them broken to nubs. The smell wafting from him is acrid and makes bile rise to the back of my throat again.

Fuck. I swallow it back down, determined not to vomit right now.

Two other men come into view, one to either side of the giant sneering monster in front of me.

Both are huge, one with a menacing scar running down his face from the top of his head straight to his neck, the other with a gut that makes his width rival his height.

Three massive men cornering me in a field by myself.

“You’re awake. Good,” Yellow Teeth says, walking closer so that he stands over me with a wide stance, his feet on either side of my legs, trapping me. “I prefer my cunt conscious.”

An almost feral snarl escapes me, and I hear him call me a “feisty one” as I pull the shadows together in my mind, forming the darkness into one large, taloned beast twisting into place behind where the men stand.

Fangs take shape, lengthening to pointed tips that drip an inky black.

I look directly into the man’s eyes, noting they are a grotesque yellow-brown.

When I rear back, the pain from the arrow stabs so hard I worry I may go unconscious again. But I push through, lifting my knee to my chest and slamming my heel between his legs. Before he can grab me, I roll to the side, snap the shaft of the arrow, and snatch a dagger from beneath my cloak.

“Bitch!” Before the curse hit my ears, I’m on my feet, Yellow Teeth doubled over in front of me.

A dagger in one hand, I thrust out the other arm and the shadow beast lunges, taking the scarred man off guard.

It slices through his abdomen with one sweep of the razor talons, locking its jaw around his neck.

Cracking bones and ripping flesh echo in my ears.

The other two hear the sickening crunching and the wet tear of flesh, turning to see what’s happening.

That’s when I seize my chance, leaping toward Yellow Teeth’s back, my feet leaving the ground as I latch on to him, clinging to his body even as he thrashes backward in an attempt to shake me off.

My fingers grip tight but slide in his sweat, clawing at the dirt and grime caked on his clothes as I grapple for purchase.

The stench of him makes my stomach flip over.

By the cries that ring out… I’m certain the shadow beast made contact with the other man as I intended, envisioning it ripping him to shreds. My energy is wavering though, the fire flickering and sputtering, threatening my ability to keep the shadows woven together.

I slash with the dagger, all of my training lost to the fear I feel in this moment.

Terror takes the reins, steering my body to fumble and become careless, turning my movements from precise and calculated to reckless and inefficient.

His constant movements make it hard for me to hold on and each time he thrashes, my shoulder wrenches, blood pooling around the shaft of the arrow, leaving the fabric of my tunic warm and wet.

Yellow Teeth bucks and I fly off his back, slamming into the ground.

The impact rocks my shoulder and sends my breath out in a whoosh, my dagger bouncing from my hand and skittering away into the grass.

It lands too far out of reach and before I can grab another from the bandolier, his foot meets my right wrist. His boot pinches, pinning my arm and biting into the sensitive skin.

He’s covered in slashes, blood seeping from where some of my dagger swipes made contact and marred his dirty flesh.

But most bounced off his leathers, leaving the giant monster standing over me, dripping blood.

Yellow Teeth stares down at me as he grinds that boot into the fine bones of my wrist and a sickening crunch vibrates through me.

The fire inside me sputters and an otherworldly scream tears from my lips.

This is how I die.

Not in the capital saving my sister, or in the battle that will save the world. Not as the prophecy, but as a foolish girl who thought she knew better than the people who protected her. Thought she knew better than those she loved.

Agony floods my senses, making it impossible to focus on anything else but blinding, searing, all-consuming pain.

His pock-marked face glares down at me, that menacing sneer pulling on one of his lips to show those nubby yellow teeth and making those gruesome brown eyes narrow into slits.

I thrash as much as I can, but his boot just presses further into my wrist, making each and every bone shatter beneath it.

Fighting back feels hopeless when I see the blade in his hand, and it’s apparent the plans he has for me have turned more sinister after my assault. He’s going to kill me.

That boot moves further down my hand, twisting and turning, grinding down as I scream. More bones crack beneath his enormous weight. My vision falters, blurring on the edges and darkening. My body is shutting down to ward off the torturous pain overtaking it.

There’s noise around me and his mouth is moving.

Speaking or yelling, I can’t tell. I can’t hear any of it or make out the words flowing from him.

Stars twinkle in and out of my peripherals, the darkness creeping further in until it takes over completely.

At least I won’t be awake for whatever he has planned.

I blink, then let my eyes remain closed, feeling more than hearing the loud thump on the ground beside me before I black out completely.