Chapter 41
Flame and Shadow
It was a mix of darkness and fire that flashed with every step, shove, strike and stab we took.
My breathing was rapid and my lungs ached.
The woman was insanely fast and skilled.
The fight felt like a deadly dance of avoiding strikes and coordinating hits in return.
A viper and a wolf. Except she was the viper, and she would be too fast for the dark wolf to avoid fangs being struck into its flesh.
With each fluid step she drew closer and closer on the safe distance I had tried to maintain from her sharp rapier.
I wielded the fire in my blades to burn stronger and fiercer.
Her eyes were cold and ruthless. She landed a hard elbow on my jaw.
Nearly knocking the sense of sight and hearing right out of me.
The prince was out of the tent and it relieved me.
I could concentrate even better without him around.
Resorting to defence and then back to offence was what my body responded with.
The shadows around my mind seemed to dance in a numb state.
Sensing all the pain this woman had gone through in her life.
It was as if she saw something in my own eyes while fighting to the death that made her eyes soften.
And in a swift moment that look was gone and replaced with harder hits and more fluid movements.
"Your fighting is good. But not good enough," the woman acknowledged before running headfirst and jumping onto me.
I fell out of the tent with her on top. My breath being knocked out of me from the shocked weight of her and pain from the hard ground.
In a moment of quick panic, I crossed my arms with my fire blades across my chest in an "X" to prevent her from sinking her blade into my chest. I let the blades burn the most it has ever burned, and the woman smirked when she saw the shock I held.
It wasn't burning her.
The flames didn't harm an inch of her. The woman gripped both my fire blades and sunk her hands into them to pull them apart from me.
Her blood, green and dripping onto the fire blades.
"Witch," I spat and struggled beneath her. I panted hard while she began turning the pointed blades of fire into my own chest. I grit my teeth and tried to resist with all my might. Holding onto the hilts of the blades tighter. You are death. The shadows in me commanded. I calmed my breathing and held the witch’s menacing stare.
Shadows circled us and gripped the blades.
Helping me turn it towards her. It kissed the thick black leather of her arm and began sinking in.
I grunted and shoved down harder, watching the green blood begin to seep out.
She snarled and pulled away from me. I spat out the red metallic taste of blood on the ground.
I kneeled on one knee and breathed heavily.
Catching as much of my breath as I possibly could.
"Apollon blood will be spilt. And not even you will be able to prevent it." The woman held her bleeding palm to her also bleeding chest.
"They have all of the lands as allies by their side," I answered as a threat and finally stood up. Staring her down, watching her every shift in move.
"You are fighting for the wrong side." The woman cocked her in confusion, trying to figure me out. "The next time I see you, if you are fighting alongside them, I vow to kill you." I controlled my facial expression and refused the urge to say that none of this was my choice.
"There won't be a next time." I gripped the blade in my hand tighter.
The woman chuckled and the sudden loud shouts from soldiers erupted, commands from the prince were echoed, a mere distraction.
One moment she was there. Now... she was gone.
She had escaped. And that only meant the chances of me seeing her again were even stronger now.
The thought didn't sit well with me, my adrenaline dissipated, making my body ache more with the injuries I just attained.