I’m losing this.
I’m defending, and I’m losing.
He’s fighting harder. Faster. I didn’t have time to build my skills with Crimson, and I am no match for Fenix. He has both his own intent and Ten’s skill against me.
I lift the sword with my right arm, but the weight of it feels like it’s doubled in size. My ears ring with a funny whooshing noise, and as I look at Ten, heading back towards me, I wonder if Fenix will do it—if he’ll command Ten and use him as the spear to cut me down and leave me bleeding in the dirt.
At least it isn’t in the snow.
I smile at the thought.
The clang of swords rings out again, and in a sloppy but frustrated cry, I swing the blade widely and catch Ten’s left arm across his muscle.
It doesn’t stop him like last time, and I wonder if Fenix’s magic has been strengthened by the full moon, as with all Kirrians.
My leg gives out, and I crumple to the ground, avoiding another swing of Ten’s blade, but it was close, the air ruffling the loose strands of my hair.
“Arghhh!” A strangled cry rips from Ten, as if he’s fighting to even speak.
I look up as my leg continues to trickle blood into the dirt. “I love you, Ten.” He might not be himself. Fenix might have violated him in the cruellest way, but I can still tell him that my heart is his, even if it might not be beating for much longer.
Ten looms over me, the sword raised above his head, but the silhouette he cuts against the blazing Novandia sun shakes with every motion of his body.
He’s not fluid and smooth anymore. And regardless of his own injury, he’s resisting.
“Fenix, please. Don’t do this,” I beg. “I’m sorry.” I will say anything to get him to stop this.
“I suggest you get used to a few scrapes. They won’t kill you.”
“Maybe I should fight you, instead, Brother. You do seem to bring out the best in me.”
Ten lurches forward, and the tip of his blade lands at the junction of my neck and shoulder. The pain spiderwebs out and over my skin as it pierces farther into my flesh.
I look up at Ten, but his eyes are closed, his jaw tense, and his whole body is vibrating.
“Fenix!” I scream.
My instinct is to grab the blade, to stop it sliding deeper into my shoulder, but as soon as I grip it, it cuts through my palms, too.
“I’m so sorry, Ten,” I whisper the words as the blood spills down my chest, running quickly from the slow stab wound.
“That’s enough!” A booming voice, unrecognisable as the Usher’s, sounds around us. And as I look up, I see a wedge of darkness cracked open around Fenix, and it severs his connection to the sun, and with it, his power.
Ten drops to the floor, tossing his blade away, before crawling the few feet to me. “Ever, it’s okay. You’ll be fine. You’ll be fine,” he mumbles the words, over and over, and completely disregarding any worry of touch, he pulls me into hislap, regardless of his own injury, and puts his hands over my wounds. First, the one across my thigh, and then he pulls one hand away to my shoulder, and I take my hand and place it on top of his.
The pressure feels good, but pain chases that feeling into the dust, and I grit my teeth as I suck in a breath. No sooner has he finally looked at me, given me his eyes to soak in all the comfort I can from them, he’s pulled away, violently wrenched from me, and I’m back on the ground.
“Hey! She needs a healer!” Ten calls, and I turn to look up and see Crimson with him, fighting as they’re pushed and prodded away from the ring by a circle of men and women.
I’m sure we didn’t have an audience before.
“We’ll be fine. We’re okay.”I push the words from my mind to Ten, needing him to hear them. He’s hurt, too.
“Look after him, Fenix. You promised me, you bastard!” I scream the words to the sky as I grip the necklace lying around my throat with my blood-stained hand.
Aslendrix, if you have any sway in the actions and course of our lives here, please help me.I say the small prayer as I succumb to the exhaustion flickering at the corners of my eyes.
“I’ve got you, girl.”
