Chapter 55
Chapter
Fifty-Five
ALLIE
I pushed Nadya to the side, like Ryker had done to me, and attacked.
The figure moved faster than I anticipated, his sword aimed straight for my neck.
But now I had the advantage–I could see him.
I crouched low, dagger heading straight for his legs. But a second sword came down upon me, missing my hand by a hair, embedding itself deep in the ash.
The purple light might have given me my vision back, pulsing right underneath his feet, but he had two sharp swords to make up the difference.
It tilted its head, the movement wrong.
Too jittery, too sudden.
Assessing.
Then its other sword slashed down toward me.
I brought my dagger up just in time to greet it in a sharp clang. The shock jolted up my arm.
Shaking, the figure lifted its other sword.
I fell down onto my back, throwing him off balance, even as his sword came dangerously close to my face.
With the sudden momentum, I kicked him straight in the chest, sending him flying back.
Behind me, Nadya moaned, trying to walk.
“Stay back,” I hissed her way and jumped to my feet, dagger held tightly. “He’s mine.”
The pulsing light followed me as I stalked forward.
It gave me courage.
It filled me with hope.
This wasn’t the maze on Sanctua Sirena where I’d faced the arrows alone.
And I was no longer the same girl who’d raced out of harm’s way to save the others.
I wasn’t prey.
I was The Huntress.
The figure who’d dared come after us staggered back to his feet, swinging his swords around.
I swooped down upon him with vengeance.
His movements were steadier, more precise than the cloaked figures I’d taken down with my arrows. Even his mask looked different, the copper tinged with green at the edges.
But I didn’t need my bow to protect now.
The thuds in the walls became more frantic.
Another scream broke through the stillness, more desperate this time.
My power burned in my chest.
All the anger, all the despair, every tear I’d shed or swallowed in the past weeks melted into my arm. I swung at him like a woman who had nothing to lose.
Like a woman who had enough of being tricked and attacked in the darkness.
None of my foes had dared face me directly. They had to skulk and hide to get the upper hand.
But I saw this figure now and I wanted to make it pay.
He criss-crossed his swords right above his neck as my dagger glinted toward him.
I pressed harder, gripping the handle with both hands.
He slashed them loose, pushing me back. I bent backward, my foot coming up and hitting him square in the jaw. The ring of my boot connecting with his metal mask was music to my ears.
As fast as my racing thoughts, I straightened, coming down upon him again.
And again.
My blade sparked against his, not giving him a moment to breathe. If he even needed air.
The light came after us, its pulse almost a cheer underneath my feet.
“Light! We need light!” Vylkor cried out, sending chills down my spine.
If that mountain of a man was scared, the battle in the passage had become desperate amid the darkness.
I had to help.
The figure slashed one of his blades at my head once more. I dove underneath his arm and pressed my dagger into his chest.
I knew he would turn into ash.
I knew it would explode in my face.
But I grabbed the back of his neck with my free arm, looking into his beady eyes in the last moments of his miserable existence.
Nobody hunted the Huntress.
I closed my eyes as he burst into a cloud, the mask thudding on top of his cloak. I spit the grit from my mouth.
The groans in the passage turned to yells.
My power pushed against my skin, as if it wanted to break through me to get out and help them.
Protectorate blood still drummed through me and it wanted to help.
I looked down at the light. Maybe it would follow me if I raced back into the passage.
Or maybe–
With nothing but instinct and faith, I kneeled down, pushing the soot out of the way. The light pulsed underneath me, unsure.
My power stirred in my chest, restless and eager, as if urging me on.
I pressed my right hand, bloodied fingers and all, against the pulse. The ground was cold, but I felt it thrum under my palm.
Cautious, at first. Sensing me just like I sensed it.
I know you.
I touched you underneath the crypt.
You know me, too.
The light began to grow beneath my palm. My own power rushed into my fingertips, straining against my skin to meet the light, as if they were two friends reuniting.
The purple light snaked up my hand, glimmering.
Accepting me and my power.
Finally, just as I felt ready to burst, blue tendrils unfurled from my fingertips, coiling with the purple. They drank each other in greedily, twisting and turning.
“Please,” I muttered under my breath as the cries in the passage echoed louder. “Please give us light.”
The pressure in my hand built as blue and purple danced together.
A hum began to drum around me.
Behind me, Nadya gasped.
A moment later, a hazy blue light began to spread through the crevice.
It crawled up the walls, searing into the ceiling.
The maze lit up like the sky at dawn.
“What did you do?” Nadya asked, breathless. Mesmerized or horrified, I couldn’t tell.
I turned to her with an ashy smile. “I helped us fight back.”