Page 19 of The Star's Sword

Suspicion clawed at me, though I quickly pushed it away. Simon would never betray me by supporting the other candidate.

“It’s not like that, I’m sure,” Cayne said, glowering. “Simon can tell, as I can, that your power level is extreme. You have to be the fulfillment of the prophecy. Even if I wish you weren’t.”

“Why is that?” I asked. “You want the Morningstar to rise.”

He nodded, glancing at Samael. “I want no more demons to suffer like Samael, or those with him, suffered.” He looked me over. “But I didn’t expect the Morningstar this soon.”

“Is that why you tried to kill me when you met me?” I joked.

Cayne smiled fondly at the memory, then shook his head. “Hell, good days. But no, that was because you were an intruder and brought my brother on a collar. You know how protective I am.”

I nodded. I appreciated that about him. Probably where Samael got it.

“Well, I’ll keep an eye on Simon where possible,” I said. “It’s just a little above me.”

“Yeah,” Cayne said. We stopped finally in the middle of the field.

“What’s with the, you know.” I gestured at his overall shirtlessness.

He shrugged. “Hot day.”

“Or you’re showing off,” I said, grinning.

He swung his axe up over his shoulder. “Prepare yourself, Morningstar.”

Then he shot forward, swinging his weapon in a diagonal strike at me.

This was a test of my unsheathing speed, which had gotten faster of late.

In an instant, my hand was on my tiny void scabbard, which grew to full size instantly as I gripped the hilt and pulled the sword out quickly, just in time to bring it up and block Cayne’s blow. The heavy weight of his axe against my sword made my body vibrate, my teeth knocking together painfully as my body was pushed back by the force, my boots digging into the ground and pulling up grass as I moved back.

With a scream, I lunged forward, using my two-handed hold on my sword to push my blade in against his handle, which screeched as I shoved him back. Sparks glinted between the weapons, and then Cayne moved back, dropped his axe, pulled out his red katana from a sheath that had just appeared, and lunged in to attack me again.

He liked to throw me off balance with a heavy weapon and dizzy me and then come in with faster, closer combat to test my reflexes.

This was always the first two hours of every day.

He lunged from every angle, and I caught blow after blow against my sword, adjusting my footwork, my weight, my grip, spinning this way or that depending on the direction he attacked.

It was fast, an act of reflex verses reflex, and the steadyclink clink clinkof the blades was kind of reassuring as I let my body fully commit to being pushed to its limit, leaving my thoughts open and blank.

Here and there, if I wasn’t fast enough, his blade sunk in, drawing blood and making me gasp, but not enough to stop or slow me. He wanted me to be used to taking damage.

After an hour and a half, we were both covered in sweat, slightly bloody, our wounds rapidly healing, our bodies energized and surging with quickly pumping blood.

Cayne’s hair was falling out of his braid, and he grinned as he walked in a slow semi-circle in front of me. Then, he surprised me by launching into the air from about ten feet away, holding his katana aimed down at my head as he swung down toward me faster than I could aim a blade to catch his and stop it from hitting my head.

So I did what I could and dodged to the side, and felt his sword sink into my shoulder, deep and then all the way through.

Pain lashed through me like lightning and I heard Samael yelling something angrily as he ran toward us.

Then, with a slight tearing sound, my right arm fell off and to the ground, taking my sword with it.

Well, shit.

8

“Activate your star power,” Cayne snapped at me, walking over to look down at my arm as I stared at it with shock. “You shouldn’t even let me take it like that. You aren’t even a physical form, Cleo. I keep teaching you this. You are created with the power of a literal star. Elder god substance. You can take any form, keep any form. And if you don’t want me to take your arm, you can keep me from taking it.” He bent down and handed it to me and I heard gagging from the bleachers. “Now reattach this, and we’re going to work on your switching from blade work to telekinesis. Because I saw that you didn’t think you could get your sword up to stop me, but that’s not how I expected you to stop me.”

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