Page 105 of Curse of Darkness
He lunges forward.
Suddenly, I’m in the fight of my life. I dance aside, cutting in close with the razor-sharp foot of sword still in my hand. Slashing across his ribs, I roll away.
He touches the blood there, his teeth baring in rage. I won’t be allowed to get that close again.
A flurry of blows comes my way. I dodge each and every one, on the back foot. One blow swipes the stub of steel from my hand. It flips end over end, vanishing into the wind. The tower’s behind me. Running out of room. A swift glance shows the town below, but there’s no time to—
I grab his hand, stepping into him and forcing his next blow to strike the solid stone of the tower. The darkyn sword wedges into the thick stone, and I shove against him, body-to-body. Rank breath exhales into my face as I slam my forehead against his.
“Fuck you,” I gasp as he reels back.
He won’t let go of the sword, but this is the only way I even have a chance to win it.
“Your mother was ever so sweet,” he gasps. “Do you know how many times I made her scream?”
Rage ignites.
A chill of pure fury shivers through me. Grabbing him by the throat, I slam his head against the tower, but all he does is laugh. And the angle finally sees the sword slip free of the stone. My fingers touch the hilt, and suddenly Ifeelit. Feel that black blade calling to me, sipping from the dark magic inside me, drinking of it—
A knee drives into my ribs, forcing me away as Malakhai draws it free of the stone, but as I reel away I can feel the residue of the sword between my fingers, feel the call of it….
“We can do that too,” whispers the voice in my head. The one that’s haunted me every day since I was born. “Let me show you how.”
The second I give in to it, I’m gone.
I know that.
But there’s also a hint of desperation in its voice.
“I die too,” it says to me. “If he kills you, then the part of me that’s you dies too, and I become nothing more than a piece of him.”
A foot slams into my chest, lifting me off my feet.
Slamming against the stone, I roll, baring my teeth as his enormous sword cuts into the stone right where my head was. It slices right through the cobbles, cracks spearing out as if decay creeps through the stone. The wings are hampering me. I’ve spent so long hiding my true form from the world, that I can barely adjust to the weight and mass of them.
Kicking up, I slam the heel of my boot into his elbow, and as Malakhai staggers back, I whip my feet low, taking his out from under him. The second I come up, I vanish the wings, sliding my glamor over me like a second skin.
“Fine. Show me!”
Darkness consumes me, the world becoming crystalline clear. My hand moves of its own accord, summoning shadows, plucking them from all around us and forging a blade so dark, I swear it’s dredged from the well of my soul.
It’s a part of me, drawing upon the rage and the anger inside me, drawing upon all those little fears…. It wants blood. It hungers for… more.
Malakhai’s eyes glitter as we face each other again. “That’s it,” he croons. “Let yourself surface.”
I am not Death; I am not.
But I can feel the difference as we circle each other.
This time, the world is silenced around me.
Everything is a little darker, a little more insulated.
Quiet.
“Yes,” says the voice inside me. “Let us become one.”
A rose vine hurtles over the ramparts like a grappling hook, sinking into the stone. It captures my attention for half a second before Malakhai lunges toward me.
