Chapter 32 Foreshadowing #2
“I won’t let you turn yourself into a villain, princess.” Roden’s fingers curled into her shoulder blades as he leaned over her. His violet irises wavered, like he regretted his choices. “It’s cliché.”
Oh. Her blood boiled. Hell no.
Em drew every ounce of her energy into herself and sent a swift knee into his crouch.
Roden gasped, keeling over.
“No fair,” he wheezed. The half-elf curled into a fetal position in the dirt, groaning as Em rolled away to freedom. She stepped over Roden, indifferent to his moans.
She held out a singular, demanding hand to Sasha. “Give me the pen.”
“No.” The dryad stuffed Inky down the front of her corset. Sasha crouched low like a feline ready to dash away.
“Why don’t we talk this out like a civilized party?” Ming asked, holding her arms out and trying to cut between the two girls, but Sasha pushed the mentor-in-training aside. The Tiefling girl was lost in the shadow of the fuming dryad.
“Em, don’t do it,” Gair warned, squaring up beside Sasha. His betrayal stung like a wasp.
Em glanced toward Polo, hoping that the loyal imp would still be on her side. But the sidekick hung his head in shame and avoided her gaze, hiding behind Gair. It just fueled her frustrations more.
Have it your way.
Em braced herself, unsheathing Destiny’s Song from Roden’s belt.
He attempted to snag it from her, but she was too quick, thanks to his discomforting disadvantage.
The blue glow of the prophecy blade flickered to life at her touch.
Shimmering glitter flowed about her, and humming energy seeped into her veins, and for the first time since she’d seen it, Em embraced the powerful connection they shared.
Buzzing magic swelled through her, loosening her aching limbs, pumping her with adrenaline.
Em aimed the glowing sword toward her ex-friends.
“Give. Me. The Pen.”
Sasha drew her knives, twirling them in her hands. Her arched eyebrows rose. A gleam in the dryad’s amber eyes told Em this brewing fight was exactly what the other girl had been hoping for. At her side, Gair also drew his short sword.
“Come get it, sweetheart,” Sasha challenged.
Fine. Em braced herself in the sand. I will finish this shitty story alone.
“There are more emotionally stable methods to approach this unfortunate plot twist…” Inky called out from Sasha’s corset, but Em had already charged forward. She let out an enraged scream, Destiny’s Song raised over her head, racing across the street.
Sasha dodged her attack, then parried. They danced and dueled one another.
Sparks flew off Em’s gleaming blade, and pure strength emanated from the hilt into every fiber of her being.
The prophecy sword empowered her, full of magic.
Destiny’s Song guided her hands where to jab and when to swing, matching the dryad’s agility.
All she had to do was hold on and follow its lead.
A haze swept across the village between the dueling girls as they kicked up the street’s dust.
Sasha alternated between her knives with each flick of the wrist, trying to jab an undercut at Em’s sides.
But the prophecy sword blocked each blow perfectly.
The dryad’s eyes widened the longer Em withstood, like she hadn’t expected her to last so long in hand-to-hand combat.
She struggled to block Destiny’s Song’s blade.
Em paused, gasping for air. Her lungs burned, and her side cramped, but the humming sword tugged at her arm to push on. To keep swinging at Sasha.
She shoved against Sasha’s knives, hacking. The joint clang of their snapping weapons rang across Mercer Village. In the corners of her eyes, she could see Ming and Polo’s horrified flinches at each sweeping sequence of flurries.
A sharp sting bit into her wrist.
Em yelped.
A speck of her blood flicked into the earth, and another smear of it wet the edge of Sasha’s knife.
Em froze, examining her shaky arms. A clean gash wrapped along her wrist from the knife cut.
Every fiber in her joints and bones ached for her to drop the heavy sword and catch her breath.
Adrenaline vignetted her vision, her focus fading except for the furious satisfaction creasing along Sasha’s wicked grin.
The dryad angled her bloodstained blade toward Em, taunting.
Shit. Em moaned, swallowing back her wince. With an infuriated shriek, she lunged at the dryad again.
A lurch jolted across the hilt of Em’s sword as she skidded past.
Sasha’s gasp confirmed her strike.
Em whirled around, aiming Destiny’s Song toward the hunched, groaning dryad. Red dripped off the point of her blade.
Sasha clutched at her side, a tear cut across the center of her corset, her dark skin marked with a long, bleeding slice. Blood dripped between Sasha’s knuckles.
“You!” the dryad gasped, her amber eyes flashing with glassy panic.
An ounce of guilt caught in Em’s throat.
Except, Sasha pulled Inky from her corset and snapped the pen in half. The crack of a split quill, the splutter of ink flicking across the air like blood, black fluids smearing across the dryad’s hands. A wicked smirk curled along Sasha’s face.
“FUCK!” Em charged.
Sword met flesh.
Someone screamed.
Then Sasha’s breath hitched.
Em blinked, processing what she’d done. Her blade impaled her friend straight through the stomach, blood and ink now dripping from Sasha’s strewn flesh. The dryad’s eyes widened, staring down at the jeweled sword hilt wedged between them both.
Sasha wavered a weak smirk past her agony.
“Guess I deserved that,” she rasped.
Em’s heart skipped a beat. What the fuck did I just do?
“NO!” Roden was back on his feet, another sword drawn, racing across the street toward her. From the other direction, Ming and Polo both were still screaming and cursing up a storm.
The girls stared at each other for another second. They breathed in each other’s gasps.
The split remains of Inky fluttered into the bloodied street at Sasha’s feet.
Em pulled Destiny’s Song free, the reek of fresh coppery blood choking in her throat, the sticky warmth trickling from her sword onto her hands.
The dryad faltered, wincing. Sasha pressed into the wound, but the blood kept flowing. Em’s stomach curdled at how it all soaked into the other girl’s dress. At how smooth it rivered about them.
“Em!” Roden’s call tore her attention away.
Em tested the straining weight of her sword again, the thrumming warmth of its magic swelling through her veins to soothe her sore arms. She aimed the tip of her sword toward Sasha’s throat.
“Stay the hell back, Roden Trislee!” Em shouted.
Sasha visibly gulped.
“Don’t do something you will regret,” Roden growled, stepping one inch closer. He held a ready blade out at his side. “If you kill her, it will forever haunt and blemish your story.”
Em sucked the salty sweat off her lips, curling her toes inside her boots. She had already fallen so far. There wasn’t much left to save in her plot after this sequence.
“If you kill her, you will never be able to undo it,” the half-elf went on.
“Shut up!” Em screamed at him, adjusting her grip on her sword. She laid the flat of the blade against Sasha’s collarbone. With one jerk of her wrist, she could end it all. The traitorous dryad would be gone, back to her tree form somewhere else in Novella.
No one would question her again.
“Em…” Sasha stammered, wincing past her wounds, “let’s just think about this for a second, sweetheart…”
“You broke my pen,” Em said. “Give me Inky back. Fix this! Give me back my story!”
“This is our story,” Sasha retorted, her eyes darkening with determination even in the face of death. “All of us are just as important to it as you are… no matter how blind you are to see that.”
“I’m the Main Character! I’m the fucking Chosen One!
” Em shouted. Acid rose in her throat at the sight of how much blood squelched from Sasha’s stomach.
At how drained the dryad’s face had become.
She swallowed the bile back, fighting to regain control of her voice without choking or gagging between words.
“And I’m the Great Author of Novella, too. ”
“Don’t kill her, Em,” Roden said again.
“She can’t die, idiot,” Em snapped. “She’s a dryad!”
Roden’s silence revealed his shock, even without her giving him another glance.
“But she can sure bleed,” Em said. She internally gagged at the words, shuddering.
Sasha grimaced, curling more inward as she hugged her impaled core with both hands. A glistening chunk of torn flesh reflected in the bright sunlight, and Em dry-heaved, coughing.
In a flash, Roden’s blade cut across the corners of her vision.
Em tore Destiny’s Song away from Sasha and whirled on her heels, blocking his attack. The vibrating crash of their blades resonated up her arms. She staggered to keep her footing.
From between the cross of their swords, Roden glared at her.
“I don’t care what she is, princess,” he growled. “You don’t get to hurt fellow party members. Especially not ones you dragged into this quest with you.”
“She betrayed me.” Em shoved against him. With a grinding screech, their blades pushed apart. She held her sword out toward him again, calculating each shift of his broad chest, each dart of his violet eyes. “Without Inky, all of Novella is doomed to fall apart now!”
“That pen has ruined you,” Roden said. “And as someone who loves you, I can’t have that happen.”
Em’s mouth soured. “You don’t love me.”
“I’ve made it clear how I feel about you, princess,” Roden said. “You just haven’t accepted it.”
“And I’ve made it clear that I want nothing to do with you or your brooding or your wings or your leathery costumes or your roguish vibes or your fucking tropes!
” Em slammed her sword against his, and they darted about, blades singing against each other.
She had him on the defensive, Destiny’s Song guiding each swing into a perfect attack toward his parries.