Page 134 of Blood So Brutal

My boots crushed stone and gravel before finding dirt and grass, pushing further and further to where I knew the battle started, out in the forest, on the front lines.

I felt our bond strengthening as I got closer, but I also felt it slipping. Weakening, but not from distance—from lack ofhim. He was fading.

He was hurt, and the thing that terrified me the most—he was afraid.

“Wolf!” I called out. “Where are you?”

Chaos ripped through the trees. Fire blazed in the distance. Bodies littered the ground.

Huntress.

It wasn’t a word spoken aloud, but in my soul. In my bones. I stopped in my tracks and turned to the right.

Then I saw them.

Asmodeus—I looked twice to make sure it was really him—lay unmoving on the ground a few feet away, but that was the least of my worries.

Lord stood over Wolf, a sword piercing his torso.

Dread flooded my senses. “What did you do?” I breathed, rushing toward them. Wolf was still alive, still kneeling, but Lord did not release the weapon. He pushed it further into Wolf’s body as he looked at me.

“I’m doing what I have to do to protect you,” he spat.

I stopped for one beat, letting the truth of the situation fall around me. “You’ve takeneverythingfrom me!” I seethed. “I will not let you take this!”

Violence was not strong enough a word for what poured out of me then. Rage, betrayal, disbelief. Years and years of being hurt by him, all of it came to the surface as I charged, weapon raised.

I hesitated before, but now? After this?

Wolf fell forward, now struggling on his hands and knees as Lord stepped back.

I would kill him for this.

A warrior’s cry escaped me as I pounced, aiming my blade directly at Lord’s heart.

But he was no fool. He knew my fighting style better than anyone. He knew each move before I made it, each maneuver before I thought of it myself.

He blocked me with one hand, using the other to shove me back. “You don’t want to do this, Huntyr,” he warned. “You don’t want to fight me.”

“Yes,” I choked with emotion, “I do.”

I tried again and again, very aware of the fact that Wolf was barely holding on a few feet away. I attacked over and over, but Lord continued to block me.

Think, Huntyr. What moves does he not know? What have you learned that Lord knows nothing about?

It had to be magic. That would be the only maneuver Lord wouldn’t see coming.

He was an expert in combat, yes, but magic?

I did not need to bleed into the ground. I did not need to offer my own blood to the goddess to access my power.

It was mine. It had always been mine.

When the familiar rush of fire came from within me, I released it, aiming directly at Lord.

I did not falter as he screamed, did not falter as my entire life flashed before me; all those whippings, all that suffering, all that punishment. All he ever wanted for me was pain. I was a fool before, but I saw everything with clear eyes now.

My power pushed until it reached its limit. When I pulled back, I had no doubts that Lord was dead. His body—charred and unrecognizable—fell to the ground with a solid thud.

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