Pulling a grenade out of my jacket, I toss it at her lap.
The explosion rattles the walls and blisters my ears. I yank a mask over the lower half of my face as the magic shoves me back. The pain’s intense even with the protection runes on my body taking most of the impact. As black smog fills the room, Ibreathe in through my mask. It isn’t enough to stop the fumes from irritating my throat, but I’m not coughing like she is.
I can hear her heaving and wheezing somewhere in the dark. Drawing my sword, I step farther inside, followed by the eight guards trailing me.
“What happened…” She uses her magic to throw her voice around the room. It ricochets around the destroyed walls, making it impossible to pinpoint where she is. “...to the… foreplay…”
Athumpsounds on my left, one of my guards hitting the floor. I spin towards the noise, my sword raised. I can’t see shit. Maybe a bomb of this magnitude wasn’t the best idea, especially in a closed space, but I needed something to take out the magical armour she always wears. That bomb would have overloaded all the protection runes tattooed on her skin, just like it has mine.
“...you… love so… much...”
Anotherthumpsounds to my right.
“...Dickie?”
I raise my sword, barely managing to deflect the knife she threw at me. Ittingsagainst my blade before flying into the darkness. Before it can even skitter across the floor or slam into a wall, a small black mass lunges for me. I twist my wrists, pivoting my blade to aim straight at her.
She throws up a blue shield, cutting through the dark. My sword embeds in it, and the power of the blow and the hum of her magic races up into my shoulders. Her eyes light up in a wicked smile, phantom-like in the soft blue glow. There’s blood pouring down her face, but there’s no fear in her. No terror. No backing down even from the certainty of Death’s arrival.
Honestly, there’s a flicker of begging to her gaze.
“Do it.”
“Kill me.”
“Silence the demons you gave me.”
Shoving down the guilt, I yank my sword back to swing again. A guard of mine attacks her from the side, two knives slashing. Evangeline drops to her knees as she shoots a ball of magic at her. It splatters across her chest and rips her off her feet. As she slams into something in the darkness, my sword almost slices across my ex. But she’s rolling, twisting, disappearing into the dark. Being one with the smoke, as if it’s a friend she brought to the fight rather than an opening attack against her.
Damn her!
“You should’ve brought some witches with you, Dickie,” she says, her voice bouncing from all directions. “Or are you wanting me to kill all these women for you?”
Another body drops. I spin towards the noise, my ears straining to separate the real from the auditory illusion. The smoke is thickening rather than waning though. She is comfortable in the dark, but so am I, and the longer this goes on, the more magic she uses. The weaker she gets. Not even the stubborn Evangeline can use her powers forever. It’ll kill her eventually, eating her from the inside out.
But first it’ll weaken her so I can plunge my blade into her heart myself.
“Or you must not really want me dead...” she says slowly as she drops another one of my guards. “So thisisforeplay,” she says gleefully, “and you’ve brought Mama some gifts!”
The smoke whispers, and I lunge to the left. Rolling as I hit the ground, I’m back on my feet but twisting before I can stand. My blade swings with my shoulders. The muscles in my legs shift and flex, trying to counter the balance of her attack as she presses into me, her knife pinned to my sword, powered with magic.
“You know, ithasbeen a while since I’ve been properly choked. So if –”
She darts away, narrowly avoiding being stabbed in the back by one of my guards. A blast of red magic ruptures from her free hand as she rolls into the dark. It crumbles my guard where she’s standing. She doesn’t get up again in the time it takes me to rise.
“Ugh.” Another body hits the ground. “Don’t you know it’s rude to chokeblock someone?”
There’s only me and one other guard left. I raise my sword, my ears straining for the sound of my last ally. If we can fight back to back, then –
“Fatherfucker!”Evangeline screams over a chorus of breaking bones. I rush towards the sound, unsheathing the knife at my waist with my free hand. An explosion of magic tosses me back, but even as I hit the sofa with a grunt and tumble over it, I grin. She’s finally starting to fucking panic.
I roll to my feet as the black smoke rushes out of the room, her magic having flown in all directions – a desperate attempt to free herself from the shackle of someone she knows she cannot defeat. Echo stands calmly in front of her, her hand clenched over Evangeline’s fingers, crushing them completely. My ex’s magic washes over her like droplets in a shower. Her eyes widen as she stands on her one leg. She knew it would’ve been too risky to go for her prosthesis.
“Echo!But how are you here?”
All the seven guards Evangeline dropped rise to their feet. Her gaze darts to them in both horror and fascination. Those should’ve all been kills. It finally registers to her that they’re all the same height. All the same build. They all move the same way as they walk towards her. Though their faces are all hidden beneath exoskeleton helmets, she knows who each one is – even if she never knew Echo could split her body into multiples. Even if that shouldn’t bepossible.Evangeline always was a quick learner though, willing to change and adapt and accept any new information even if it’s at odds with her beliefs.
Her eyes fly to me as I make my way around the sofa, trying not to limp despite the pain of my injuries. Between two blasts of magic, I’m in fair need of a healer.
