Page 101 of Starchaser
“You’re free to try to stop me,” I say, my voice steady even as my blood pounds a fierce rhythm in my ears.
“That’s the spirit.”
Calantha emerges from the smoke, her eyes like two wells of black ink.We.Of course, not only has the king sided with the Underlings, but the queen herself is a Shifter. I knew she was evil, but I would never have guessed she was a member of Morana’s Guild of Shadows.
“Aster Oberon, the Shadowslayer,” she says with mock reverence. The queen’s atroxis wends between her legs, its eight insectoid eyes smoldering red. She laughs, melodic and sickly sweet. “Yet, you hardly seem dangerous. I’ve often wondered if the rumors about your fierce skill in battle were even true. Youarea pirate, aren’t you?”
I twirl my daggers. “Would you like to find out?”
Calantha’s bloodred lips twist, her smile eager. She holds out her arms, as if to bow, but as she pulls her hands back together, thin streams of blood converge from out of the cloud of red smoke surrounding us. She twists her fingers in the air, forming the blood into a scarlet sword. Beside her, the atroxis grows to the size of a hog, its tusks like four wicked knives.
Calantha swings the blade in a smooth arc, cocks her head. “Shall we?”
The atroxis leaps, its claw-tipped paws outstretched, surprisingly fast.
But I’m faster.
I dodge, using the momentum I gain to lunge for Calantha.
She narrowly avoids my strike, lashing out with her own weapon. I twist, sidestepping the blade, but the blood transforms midair into a whip, thrashing my arm.
I hiss, my teeth gritting against the sting as Calantha draws my blood from the fresh wound, using it to transform her scarlet weapon into a longer whip. I’m quick to regain my footing, pushing through the pain, but the atroxis barrels into me, sending me careening backward, knocking my daggers from my grasp.
Pinning me on my back, the creature swipes at my face, claws ripping through my flesh. Its mouth opens, putrid breath roiling my stomach as it gnashes its teeth at me, but I grab the atroxis by its beastly jaws before it can bite. A furious scream bursts from my chest as I push the creature off, scrambling back onto my feet.
Again, Calantha draws my blood, adding barbs to the crimson whip.
She smiles as the atroxis rubs against her leg, purring. “I have to admit,” Calantha says with a low sigh. “I thought this would be more of a challenge.”
I spit at her feet, roll my shoulders. “And here I thought you were taking it easy on me.”
The atroxis crouches, as if preparing to spring, when something darts between my feet, drawing the creature’s attention away. Calantha’s eyes narrow on the tiny brown mouse as it scurries past, and the atroxis leaps, chasing after it.
“Come back here, you useless mongrel!” Calantha hisses, her lip curling into a snarl.
I attempt to seize my opportunity to grab my daggers, but Calantha strikes, her whip inches from my outstretched hand.
“You’re nothing without a blade,pirate,” Calantha says with a sneer.
“A few days ago, I might have agreed with you,” I say, and I can’t help the grin that tugs at my lips. Because somewhere beneath the screaming and the shouting comes another sound, like waves crashing against the rocks that surround Castle Grim. I focus on the hum of the water in the blood, listening to its unique song as I feel my power thrumming inside me, begging to sing along.
Calantha’s eyes narrow, her manic laughter now as grating as a Gore’s. She lashes out again, the barbed end of her whip like a rod of crimson lightning flashing across the sky, aimed for my face.
But it stops a breath away from my nose.
Calantha makes a choking noise, her eyes wide, as my hands close around the whip, unharmed. She curses as I take hold of the weapon, pulling the liquid from her grasp.
I fashion the blood into two cutlasses.
The liquid feels like an extension of my own hands, buzzing in my grasp with an addictive energy I’ve never felt before. I perform a mock curtsy, delighted at Calantha’s horrified expression. She stumbles backward. “Abomination!” she cries as she turns, fleeing into the cloud of red smoke.
My magic latches onto the scarlet cutlasses in my grasp, desperate for more—more blood, more power. The notes that moments ago resonated with my heart now feel unbalanced. Still, I can’t bring myself to let go of the unnatural weapons.
More. More. More—
“Aster!” Will’s voice is rough, cutting through the haze.
Blood splashes my dress as the weapons lose their shape.
