“Riselda. She’s responsible for the plague. She’s been extracting lifeblood from the dead, bringing them back from the trees. All of Ghadra is meant to die tonight.” Lux watched his father’s hands clench and remained there. “They want more, Shaw. He craves lifeblood, and that is all he wants now.”
Aline cried softly into Shaw’s shirt, apparently still conscious. He shifted her weight in his arms, and with eyes glistening with unshed tears, he took one more step toward the aged image of himself. “I’m sorry, Father. For letting you take my place, for all you endured for me. Please forgive me.”
“All will be well, Son. You can repay me easily enough.”
Lux’s kick to his knee sent him to the ground as he lunged toward his children, and when Shaw leapt out of the way, the barely held tears released, tracking down his cheek.
“I can’t kill him,” he breathed.
Lux’s heart constricted, for she had thought the same thing, once. “If it’s you or him—”
“No, Colden, please!”
Lux dragged her eyes from the man struggling up from the cobblestones to the one holding a blade to Morana’s exposed flesh. But she was far away. Too far away to reach in time. Lux scanned around her feet. A stone, just small enough to rest comfortably in the palm of her hand. She scooped it up.
The rock flew true, striking Colden in the temple, sending him staggering back. But Morana, instead of fleeing, rushed to his aid.
“What are you doing, you imbecile!” Lux shouted.
A glint of murky-grey eyes swiveled toward her voice, recognition lighting his face, and with a smile, Colden drove the knife home. Morana screamed in agony, gripping her side with both hands as she fell away from him. Red droplets spilled over her fingertips.
Lux could see Shaw’s father moving toward his children again from the corner of her eye. Same as she could see Colden striding toward her now with a feral grin. He hadn’t even taken the time to drain Morana. Not yet. Lux searched frantically for another lucky stone but found none.
“Lux! We need to—”
“Leave me! Get Aline out of the market!”
She couldn’t even spare Shaw a glance.
“Necromancer. Did you miss me?”
She planted her feet against Colden’s height. “As one misses a parasite or a once-removed, prominent mole.”
“I’ve missed you.” He glanced down to his hand, momentarily confused by the lack of knife there.
Lux kicked him in the gut. He stumbled back from it and his mouth fell wide, parted in shock. Though, to be fair, Lux’s did too.
Colden’s hands encircled the blade protruding from his chest, his fingers cut and slipping against the point. Without anothersound, he collapsed face-forward onto the stones, the knife buried to the hilt in his back.
Lux waited another moment to ensure he wasn’t about to move again and sweep her legs from under her. When she glanced up, it was to find Morana, chest heaving and eyes bright.
“That bastard tried to kill me.” Blood continued to trickle from the wound in her side, but it appeared to be slowing. She did a once-over of Lux before bending down and extracting the blade. “Are they all like this?”
Lux nodded, acutely aware of Shaw and Aline’s absence. And that of their father. “All with eyes like his.”
“Thatwitch.” Morana tossed the blade to her opposite hand and signed a cross with its dripping end. “Off to return the next to the afterlife, then.” She swept away without waiting for any reply.
Lux pushed the loosened waves from her eyes, standing on her toes to view the stage. The Shield, the mayor, and Riselda—they were gone. The square’s revelers were rapidly following suit, leaving more fresh blood than Lux wished to see in a lifetime.
He’s fine.Death won’t long for him again so soon. He is fine.
Except he wasn’t. He was hurt and probably sick and hunted by a monster.
She forced herself to calm and think rationally. If she stood here much longer, she’d become just another source of lifeblood. She needed to move, but to where?
Where would most seek sanctuary from such an evil?
Lux smiled as she spun, dashing down the nearest alley. It was far from humorous. So many of the Light weren’t greeted by those lost because they hadn’t lost anyone in such a gruesome way. They were the first to abandon the market, and there was only one place they would turn to for refuge.
