Page 21 of Ravaged By the Reaper
His hand closes, and the Grolgath’s head lolls, neck broken like dry twigs.
Another guard charges. Foolish.
Haktron’s scythe catches the man in the gut, yanks, and hurls him into the wall with a wetcrack. Blood spatters in a sunburst behind him.
I’m frozen.
Heart in my throat. Breath locked behind clenched teeth.
I know this isn’t real.It can’t be.
He moved unlike any mortal, his laughter echoed with a savage joy, and he fought with the ferocity of a resurrected deity. Yet, I saw him clearly.
And something deep inside me—a place no Companion training ever touched—recognizeshim.
I should be afraid. Terrified. I should run.
But I can’t move.
My knees are trembling, not from fear—but something else. Something like awe. Like some ancient part of me understands that whatever I’m looking at… was never meant to be seen.
He hasn’t seen me yet.
I hope he doesn’t.
I hope he does.
Whatisthis feeling?
Is he a hallucination? A side effect of the creature? A last cruel trick of a mind unraveling?
Is this myrescuer?
Or a new nightmare just beginning?
His eyes find mine.
It’s not a glance.
It’s a collision.
Everything around me—screaming alarms, flickering lights, the acrid bite of plasma residue in the air—falls away like ash in a firestorm. I forget I’m bleeding. Forget the weight of the blade in my hand. Forget I’ve been tortured, violated, broken down.
Heseesme.
And for a second, he stops.
His shoulders stiffen. His mouth curls into something I don’t understand. There’s recognition in his eyes, but I’ve never seen this beast before in my life. Not with my eyes.
But inside me? Deep down? Somethingknows.
I don’t hesitate.
Irun.
Blood squelches beneath my boots as I throw myself down the corridor, angling hard left. There’s a Grolgath stumbling out of an auxiliary doorway—gun raised, eyes wild. I don’t stop to think. I don’t offer warning.
I snatch the power blade from a corpse at my feet, whirl with the momentum of my sprint—and carve a jagged line across the soldier’s midsection.
