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“Go,” I said to him, patting him on the shoulder. “Run home.”
He gave me one more sullen, grave look. I smiled at him and patted him again. Colbolt reared, turned on his hooves, and started to run. The shadow figure, predictably, didn’t move one inch, allowing Colbolt to go galloping away. I couldn’t help tears from spilling down my cheeks. He had been good to us, but he didn’t have to die for us.
Valerian nodded, but he also couldn’t give me his eyes—he was focused on the shadow creature. “It was the right thing to do,” he said.
“I know. Now what?” I asked.
“We fight.”
“That’s it? You don’t have any other ideas?”
“I don’t. I have to tell you, though… we won’t make it out of this.”
A pulse of deep cold moved through me. “It’s going to kill us, isn’t it?”
“We can fight it, we can buy some time, but eventually, it’ll get us. Fate always gets what it wants.”
“I’d rather go down fighting than just let it eat me or whatever it’s going to do.”
Almost as if on cue, the shadow figure flicked its wrist and a large sword dropped out of one of its dark sleeves. The tip of the sword embedded itself into the snow with a thud, and even though it was almost pitch dark, I could still catch the glimmer of the blade’s sharpened edges.
I didn’t have much power left in me; enough for one or two more things. Realizing that the darkness around us was thick and full, and that Valerian would struggle as long as we were in it, I opened my right palm and sent a scattering of soft, silver lights into the air. These shining motes of light hung just above us, as if held up by strings. They weren’t strong enough to beat back the dark, but they gave the shadow creature’s blade light to drink and reflect.
When it came for us, Valerian would—at least—have half-a-chance at spotting it.
“Ready?” Valerian asked.
I dropped to my hands and shrugged into my wolf form. Huffing and pawing at the snow with my feet, I bared my fangs at the shadow figure standing in our path. It still hadn’t moved, except to draw its own blade.
“Ready,” I growled, exulting in the rush of angry fire I now felt coursing through my veins. Mother had always told me, the anticipation of a fight made a Moon Child more focused, sharpened their senses, and warmed up their muscles. I felt that now. It was like an electric current pulsing through me, igniting my nerves, loosening my joints, and making my paws tingle.
Valerian took a step to the side, opening up the space between us. I mimicked his steps, moving in the opposite direction to try to flank the shadow creature. It still hadn’t moved. It hadn’t even turned its head. It was waiting, giving us time to decide our strategies, to prepare ourselves. Why? Why give us a chance to mount a defense?
Because it knows we can’t win.
No. I couldn’t think like that. As long as I was alive, as long as I drew breath, there was a chance we would make it out of this. I had to believe that, otherwise all really was lost, and I wasn’t ready to lose. I had to figure out what happened to me. I had to find the woman pretending to be me. I had to find my way back to my life, but first, I had to gothroughthis thing.
Damned if I wasn’t about to do just that.
The shadow figure jerked its head toward me, and all of the bones in its neckcrackedone after the other. One foot after the other, it moved toward me, slowly, methodically, the tip of its sword dragging along the snow. It was in no rush to get to me, after all.
This was the first time I had seen it move, and it was jarring. I couldn’t see its body under its cloak, but it sounded like it was made entirely of bone, or wood, because with every step it took, something cracked, or creaked, or rattled. It was so tall, I had to keep craning my neck up just to look at its bone head.
With its attention turned on me, Valerian made his move. Silently, he rushed the creature, his sword raised. I watched him rush through the darkness, his silver hair flowing with the wind, occasionally catching the light from the orbs I had hurled into the air a moment ago.
The shadow figure didn’t halt its advance toward me until Valerian swung his sword. I had never seen something so big move so quickly, but this thing did, rapidly twisting on the spot and bringing up his sword to parry Valerian’s swing. Metal clashed against metal, sending a shower of sparks to illuminate the forest, and a sound that could have been heard for miles were it not for the choking darkness all around us.
Valerian drew back and went in for another strike, but the shadow figure parried that one, too. I took my chance, spotting an opening, and went for one of its legs. I opened my jaws, twisted my head to the side, and went to clamp down on its ankle, but the creature must have had eyes all over, because it lifted its foot up just in time to avoid my fangs.
I sidestepped, aborting my attempt on its leg and trying to get out of its way, but its foot came down hard and fast. I managed to avoid getting my head stomped on, but I didn’t avoid the rapid kick it threw into my side. I yelped from the impact and the sudden pain that came with it.
The kick skidded me along the snow, but it wasn’t enough to throw me over. I couldn’t understand how it had been able to move so fast, but there was no time to figure that out, now. All we could do was keep throwing ourselves at it, forceitto retreat fromus.
How do you make an unkillable monster retreat?
That question ran through my mind as the battle raged, as Valerian’s steel clashed against the monster’s, as my growls and yips filled the relative silence of the forest. But we were waves breaking ourselves against a cliff of steel and bone. Every moment we kept up our attacks was a moment that brought us closer to exhaustion.
Already I could feel it, the tiredness, the slowness. I couldn’t remember ever getting this tired this quickly, which meant it had to be the creature’s doing. Was it draining us while we fought? Was it capable of sapping our strength even as we engaged it?
