Page 45 of The Queen’s Shadow

That had been close.

“Come on Kitten, you’ve gotta do better than that!” I bellowed over my shoulder as I tore through the common room and up the stairs that led to the long, railing-less bridge. I glanced over my shoulder again and cursed.

She was catching up.

I was halfway across the bridge when she finally hit me. I felt the burn of the quasar seconds before it crashed into my back. I tried to duck again but her shadows tangled in my legs, delaying me for a second too long.

I grunted as the energy tore through my shoulder. I could smell my flesh burn before I felt the muscle blow apart and my shoulder blade shatter. I immediately lost the use of my right arm and I glanced down at it as it hung uselessly down my side by a few thick, white tendons.

Godsdamnit. It wasn’t that long ago that she could barely keep track of me when we were sparring, let alone land a hit.

Happily, she hadn’t completely taken the arm off. Fully dismembered limbs were a pain in the ass, mostly because shifters healed so fast, the wound usually closes before you can re-attach the limb.

That being said, the wound wasn’t regenerating as quickly as I was used to. I was still not at a hundred percent after forcing multiple shifts the night before. I compelled myself to speed up while grabbing my useless right arm by the wrist with my left hand, shoving it back up into my shattered shoulder. Hopefully the proximity would stimulate the flesh to reconnect faster.

I had a feeling I was going to need both arms by the time I got to the training ring.

My arm had finally started to regenerate by the time I had made it to the ring. Raven shot straight into the air behind me, before aiming both palms at me and firing another dark beam in my direction, which I managed to evade.

Still clutching my useless arm to my side so it didn’t jerk around as I moved, I scanned the weapons rack to see if there was anything I could use against her that wouldn’t cause lasting damage. As my shoulder slowly regenerated, my gaze fell on a restructium shield.

That would do.

At least I could probably keep her from completely dismembering me until she ran out of steam. She was hovering between me and the shield. I would have to get past her to get to it, which would be a challenge. She lowered herself closer to the ground before heading directly for me; powering up another quasar.

I growled softly in frustration.

I was going to have to start wearing restructium in the house if this was going to become a regular occurrence.

Snarling, I ran towards her, full tilt, just as she brought her hands full of burning energy back behind her. I roundhoused her in the head on my way by and the energy sputtered in her palms before going out. As strange as it was to kick someone else in the head and feel it yourself, it was nothing compared to the pain in my shoulder. It had been worth it as it seemed to have worked. The blow to her head clearly had snapped her out of her frenzy, at least a little bit. I smirked. Maybe she just needed a good brawl.

I could get behind that.

She held a hand to her temple and shook her head as if trying to shake off what I’m sure was a splitting headache. I took the opportunity to bolt for the shield.

Just as I got there, I felt my arm finally snap back into place and my shoulder blade knit back together. I clenched and unclenched my fist, making sure I had all my motor skills back before ripping the shield off the rack, turning just in time to catch another burning quasar head on.

I grit my teeth against the powerful stream of energy and pushed forward, taking one step at a time, pushing closer and closer to her as she screamed.

“That’s it, Kitten, let it all out,” I grunted, my forearms singing against the now red hot restructium of the shield as it absorbed the relentless blast of her magick. She finally ceased fire and I nearly fell forward as the resistance I had been pushing against abruptly ceased to exist.

Before I knew what was happening, her shadows swarmed me, tearing at my limbs and forcing me to the ground. She was on me in seconds, her left hand braced against my chest, her right hand pulled back, a dark ball of magick forming in her palm. Her shadows tore the shield away from me and launched it into the distance. I groaned as I watched it spin away, throwing my head back onto the ground in defeat.

Well, fuck.

This was going to hurt.

I wondered for a moment if she hit me point blank in the chest if it would be enough to kill me. I had seen her literally melt people in this state before, and considering how much damage my shoulder had taken with that one blast from a couple hundred yards back… I actually felt a small twinge of concern.

She was going to feel so fucken guilty later if she killed me.

I glanced back up at her and I felt an ache in my chest. She was in pain. Excruciating pain. Her face was contorted in rage, but the tears that drenched her cheeks spoke volumes. Not to mention I could literally feel what she was feeling. Her head was just a raging storm of anger. There were no coherent thoughts to pick through. Just endless pain and sorrow.

I eyed her warily from where she had me pinned on my back as the ball of power in her hand continued to grow.

“Kitten,” I said, but she continued to build power, and her shadows pressed me further back into the ground. I grunted as I strained against them, but they just curled around me tighter. “Kitten, what happened?” I tried again, meeting her all black eyes as best I could. “I know you’re in there. Talk to me.”

The power building in her hand slowed slightly. It didn’t stop, but it slowed.