Page 53 of Blue Arrow Island
I track her movements, evading her spear as she tries to put it in my stomach, and then my chest.
Instinct makes me toss my own spear aside. The knife is a better weapon for me, and I can use it with either hand if needed.
“You’re not special.” Virginia tries to circle me and I back away, crouching. “I’ve seen a thousand women like you, and I’ll see a thousand more after you.”
Kill her. Do it now. Strike her down.
I ignore the unbidden urges, remembering my training. Dad would tell me to play on her emotions. Make her sloppy.
“Will Pax want all thousand of them instead of you, too?”
A dark cloud of rage passes over her face. She reaches for my shirt with her free hand and I move back.
“Where the hell did you get that knife?”
I smile. “Prefer your opponents weak and unarmed, Virginia?”
She lunges at me and I evade, but she turns at the last second and changes course, sinking the tip of her spear into my thigh.
Pain blossoms in my left leg as I bring my right foot up, landing a hard kick to her chest to get her away from me.
She flies back ten feet and lands on her back. I shouldn’t have been able to kick her that hard. Whatever is making the Tiders so strong and fast, it’s in me, too. And right now, I need it.
Blood rolls down my thigh, Virginia’s spear still in her hand. It hurts like hell, but I have to channel all my concentration on this fight. I can’t outrun her. And even if I manage to escape somehow, she’ll come after me again.
She’s on her feet again, coming at me. “Maybe I’ll just keep poking holes in you until you bleed out. I’ve got all day.”
“I bet you do. You don’t care that your people are starving. I’ve heard you make sure you get enough food, so fuck them, right?”
“Who said that?” Rage pours off her.
I use the lapse in her focus, racing at her and making it look like I’m going to try to stab my knife into her stomach. At the last possible second, I lower myself to the ground and swipe my blade over the side of one of her calves. Her spear makes a whooshing sound as it barely misses my head.
Leaping back to my feet in an instant, I can feel my strength surging. I’m not just stronger, though. Every reflex is sharper. My mind has tunneled down to a singular focus: killing Virginia.
Destroy her. Make her pay. She deserves to die painfully.
I stay in a crouching position, anticipating her next move. She rushes at me as fast and hard as she can, which I didn’t see coming.
Shit. We’re both on the ground, and she knocked my knife from my hand. I start to scramble up, but she shoves me back down and climbs on top of me, punching me in the face.
She hits me again, and again, and again. Terror and pain race through every nerve ending.
All she has to do is grab my knife and I’m dead. I raise a forearm to block her next punch, planting my feet in the ground.
She’s strong, but wiry. I’m able to drive my hips up and force her off me.
I can’t see. One eye is swollen almost shut and the other one has blood in it.
Run.
That knife is the difference between life and death for me. I can’t run.
Furiously, I swipe my fingers over the eye with blood in it, trying to clear it. Virginia could be standing over me right now, knife poised to plunge into my back.
I’m not ready. I want to keep fighting. A cry of anguish rips from my throat as I crawl, my hands scrabbling for my weapon.
Please, please, please. Not here. Not like this. Not all alone. Not her.
