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She looked astonished. I’m guessing the protected vampires had given her and Daria a lot less trouble than this. Most people, when faced with death, reach the level of acceptance and eventually yield. I got as far as denial and sort of stuck there. It made killing me pretty frustrating.
I gave her a nod, then bolted for the door.
If I believed for even an instant she would turn on Nolan, I wouldn’t have run. But I’d seen the hatred in her eyes and the commitment she had to the task at hand. Her sole purpose, for now, was killing me.
In the hall the fog had dissipated, but I still managed to snag my foot on the edge of a rug. My stupid feet were numb from being bound so tight. I stumbled down, catching myself with both hands, and ignoring the screaming agony in my head and forearm, I vaulted myself forward into a somersault and landed in a standing position at the base of the staircase. I looked from the door to the stairs and debated my options for the millisecond I had.
Noriko was through the door and chasing me into the hallway, rage-blinded and screaming in an inhuman, animal wail. I, like every stupid slasher-movie victim, chose the stairs instead of the door and bounded up them two at a time. She was right on my heels.
I was a second ahead of her into the mirrored room, and when she followed me inside she was forced to pause.
Dozens of her stared at dozens of me.
I waved, and the multitude of Secrets followed suit. Her mirror images all looked equally enraged by this turn of events. I didn’t speak, because my voice would give away my real location. I used her momentary confusion to trac
k my previous blood trail on the floor, through the maze, to where I’d broken the mirror panel earlier that night.
She followed my reflections, but had apparently never come through this way before. She walked into a mirrored wall at least once, swearing with irritation and smashing the glass to retaliate. I crept back to her, a large shard of mirror in my good hand. She was still too distracted by breaking the mirrors to notice me until my reflections were all right next to hers in the remaining panels.
“Guess you picked the wrong one. ” And as she turned towards the real me in surprise, I buried the shard of glass deep into her neck. Her body seized, and a gurgling, wet noise escaped her throat. She slumped to the ground with wide, shocked eyes. I crouched next to her, but with the glass in her throat it was hard to check for a pulse, and I’d never been able to feel for one in the wrist. I nudged a piece of glass in front of her mouth and watched for any sign of breath. When none came I scooped up her sword, avoiding the silver blade, and trekked back into the main hall.
“Nolan?” I called out. I was limping and keeping my bloody arm pressed against my belly as I reached the top of the stairs. My head was pounding with the torment of a thousand migraines and it wouldn’t dull any time soon. Calliope was in for a treat when I got out of here.
She was an Oracle though; she would have seen it coming.
Too bad I wasn’t an Oracle.
Noriko’s whole weight slammed into me and we both staggered backwards, struggling to maintain our balance. I had a thing or two to learn about the mortality of daytime servants because I’d have staked even money she’d been dead, but I must have hit something vital. She wasn’t speaking in words, just making guttural barks of noise while blood seeped from her neck. The glass was still sticking out the side of her throat.
She tried to throw our combined weight to the stairs, and the only thing I could do was force us in the opposite direction. The struggle was briefly even, a full-body arm wrestle, until I used some untapped reserve of strength and hurled us both into the full-wall picture window opposite the stairs.
In the time I had to reflect on this, while we fell through a shower of glass and wooden window frame, perhaps it wasn’t my best plan ever.
Parts of me that were previously uninjured were now a moist tapestry of cuts, and when I got to my feet a glittery stream of small glass slivers tinkled to the ground. Larger fragments were embedded in my palms from pushing myself up.
Noriko was gasping in short, labored breaths, but still she struggled to her feet.
“Just. Stop,” I pleaded.
“Die,” she cursed.
Her sword was on the ground two feet away, and she seemed to notice it at the same time I did. We saw our equal chances of reaching it, and both dove. When we found our footing, she was holding the sword and I was crouched low enough to avoid her first attempt to divorce me from my head. The air above my scalp shrieked.
I got to my feet while her arm limply sagged at her side. If I looked even half as grim as she did right now, it was a wonder we weren’t both dead.
In an attempt to make peace I said, “It’s your last—”
She lunged for me rather than listen to my bargain, and I was ready for our fight to be over. I turned to my side just as I felt something sting between my ribs. My foot connected with her stomach in a perfectly executed side kick, and she didn’t get a chance to regain her balance.
Noriko tumbled backwards down the hill and into the broken wooden fence at the back of the property. The sharp point of the old gate pierced through her chest with fatal precision. She slumped, and the fight went out of her along with her life.
I stood panting, looking at the silver blade stuck six inches into my rib cage, and let out a whine of pain as I drew it out by the hilt. My whole body was aflame with the poisonous torture of the silver. My arm wasn’t healing, and the new hole in my side would be just as slow to close.
I was ready to sink to the ground and give up, when I heard Nolan speak.
“Secret?” There was a tremble of fear in my name.
Holding the sword by its benign, silver-free handle, I turned towards his voice.
