Page 6 of Blood of the Fallen
A newly minted part of my soul wanted to toy with him, to torture him. I imagined myself chopping off his fingers one by one and stuffing them into his mouth. The images were gruesome, inconceivable to the person I’d been just an hour ago. Yet, I understood that this new dark side of me would thoroughly enjoy the horror of such punishment. For what he had allowed them to do to me, he deserved that and more.
I launched, knife slicing downward. His blade blocked mine, and we pushed away from each other. I growled, baring my teeth, and stabbed my weapon toward his gut. He jumped backward, sucking in his stomach. Taking advantage of my proximity, he turned the knife sideways and sliced at my neck.
Quickly, I ducked and stabbed forward, sinking my blade into his side.
He cried out in pain and fell to his knees. A dark patch of blood bloomed on his uniform as I pulled my knife out. He pressed a hand to the wound, blood trickling through his fingers.
I stood in front of him, watching impassively as he bled.
“Kill me then!” he growled in a hoarse voice.
“You wish me to grant you a swift death?” I asked, my voice dripping with contempt. “How ironic.”
The force of his hatred swept through me as, legs trembling, he rose to his feet, slicing the air with his knife, ready for more.
A smile began to stretch my lips, but quickly froze when I noticed a strange aura starting to glow around his head. I stared, taken aback, my knife dropping a couple of inches from the proper fighting position.
“What?! Scared of me now?” Val asked as the glow intensified and spread all over his body. He stared at his hands as he noticed what was happening.
It was magic, awakening in him. His coda was complete, and even though the power wasn’t supposed to manifest for many months, he had somehow managed to conjure it at this moment.
It was his turn to allow a small smile to stretch his lips.
Abruptly, he jerked his arm and threw the knife over his shoulder. It was a maneuver we’d practice for fun many times. We would set a target and try to hit it without looking. But why would he…?
A howl of pain rent the night, sending a fluttering of birds fleeing from the trees surrounding the clearing.
“No!” Ila cried out behind me.
Behind Val, Kall fell to the ground, shifting back to his human form, legs twitching. I stared in horror as I saw Val’s knife sticking out of Kall’s left eye. The weapon crackled with blue energy, and so did Kall’s head.
“Kall!” I ran toward him.
Before I reached him, the other two wolves also fell to the ground, shifted, and roared in agony.
CHAPTER 3
IlaandBethelcriedout and ran to Maki and Novuk, falling to their knees in front of them.
Bethel pulled at her hair. “What’s happening? I don’t understand.”
My hand went for the electrified knife protruding from Kall’s eye, then froze midway. I wanted to take it out, but what would happen if I did? And how was he still alive, twitching and thrashing? Hadn’t the knife…? I couldn’t think of it.
I looked at Maki and Novuk. They were jerking uncontrollably, same as Kall. Ila and Bethel’s expressions told me they’d never seen anything like this before and didn’t know what to do.
“Oh, no,” the trembling words hissed under my breath.
Without the triad…
Anger rose in my chest anew. I jerked to my feet, intent on killing Val once and for all, but as I scanned the clearing, I found him gone. I clenched my fists and growled in frustration. Through the darkness, I saw a dark shape riding on horseback at full gallop. Trembling with fury, I fell down to my knees, unable to wrap my head around the terrible consequences of the pack losing their triad.
It was my fault. They had come to rescue me and now—
“… knife!” Bethel’s desperate voice broke through my stupor.
She’d been talking to me, and I hadn’t noticed. I glanced up, feeling numb.
“Pull out the knife. Now!”
