Pushing myself forward, I summoned my strength, every movement a scream of agony. My vision swam, but I locked eyes with a Skorn within reach of my spear. Gritting my teeth, I dove toward him, my fingers closing around the shaft of the spear as I stabbed him through the neck, the head of the spear connecting with a nauseating crunch of bone and sinew. The shock of impact rattled up my arm, but it was enough.
I yanked the spear out then struck again.
Again.
Again.
Each twirl of my spear, each stab through a living body made my friends—my love—safer. The harder I fought, the more I felt the stickiness of blood flow against my skin, but my exhaustion had faded, my will to protect them dominating all else as I dodged, struck, slashed.
One large Skorn man loomed over the others, fighting his way toward Rykr, who was already surrounded. I raced toward the warrior, blood pumping through my veins like fire.
“Seren, don’t!” Rykr’s mind called out toward me.
I pressed forward, then pushed the blunt end of the spear into the ground, catapulting myself onto one of the boulders nearest to the Skorn man. I landed lightly on my feet, dancing across the stone as I gathered speed, then hurtled toward the Skorn warrior.
The warrior was fast—too fast. My foot barely grazed his shoulder before he twisted, his blade slicing toward my side. I spun in mid-air, narrowly avoiding the tip, then used the momentum to drive my spear forward?—
Straight through his eye.
The impact jarred my bones as I landed, rolling through the mud. Blood spattered my hands.
My breath came in ragged gasps.
Then I lifted my head slowly.
The Skorn were dead. So were the rest of the sentenced.
All of them.
Only Tara, my friends, me, and Rykr remained standing, each of us wounded and covered in dirt and grime. There was no relief in the victory. Our blood mingled with theirs in the dirt, the scent of iron thick in the air.
Haldron stood above us, untouched. Unbothered.
The crowd laughed and cheered as if we weren’t standing in pools of blood, as if we hadn’t just fought for our lives.
But it wasn’t the crowd I cared about.
It was him.
Haldron.
The man who had destroyed everything. The man who had sentenced me to death. Who had stolen my father, my sister, my people’s hope. Who had made us nothing but pawns in his war.
The taste of blood coated my tongue, and my fingers itched to rip his heart straight from his chest.
I couldn’t reach him. But I could do something.
The spear was solid and strong in my grip, every fiber of my being burning with fury.
End this. Here. Now.
My muscles coiled as I reared back … and hurled it with everything I had.
The spear cut through the air like lightning, a streak of silver in the moonlight.
For a heartbeat, I thought it would hit.
For a heartbeat, I thought I had him.
