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Josephine lunged for my hamstring with a swipe of her dagger, but I blocked it with the Sol sword, then surprised her with an offensive strike to her leg. Its flames and steel bounced off her like they were made of rubber.
“I remember your family, hunter,” she said and sneered. “I knew to protect myself with a few carefully crafted spells from the Reids’ prized Sol Sword.”
I tried to shut down my panic. There was no time to dwell. Josephine came at me harder with vicious swipes of her dagger. She reached for a matching silver blade strapped to her thigh, but not before I caught a glimpse of what else she hid under there.
The Bloodblade.
It couldn’t have been anything else. It glimmered ruby red and radiated with power that hummed a deep, bone-rattling song. Laying eyes on the infamous instrument of death was more jarring than I could've anticipated. Josephine nicked my arm with one of her blades. I shook off my fear once more and focused.
I recalled Dad’s brief lesson on daggers. Only the most skilled warriors fought with them, and those who did put their opponents, should they be less skilled at close combat, at a huge disadvantage. I wouldn’t count a few fistfights as close-combat, but I was born to fight witches.
I faced witch-clones for crying out loud.
I could do this.
Josephine suddenly lunged from my left, with a quick back-handed swipe at my throat. I narrowly avoided it, then skirted out of her other knife’s path as it came for my hamstring. I let instinct take over and dodged all of her quick attacks.
For the first time since discovering the supernatural world, I became a part of it.
“You have to accept your ancestry.”
My father had been right for once. So had Freya. Even Cadence had done her part to convince me that maybe different wasn’t worse. Maybe I’d only felt so out of place in all of this because I hadn’t wanted to give up safety, for myself or my family.
Life had other plans.
It was time I got with them.
Frustration lined Josephine’s face. She was toying with me, but I still wasn’t as easy of prey as she’d expected. She increased the speed of her knives, and sweat slickened my brow. I struggled to keep up with the pace of her blows, and she smiled once more.
Something flew at me from my right and knocked me to the ground. My sword flew out of my grip, and pain raced up my arm. Cadence screamed, which pierced the silence I hadn’t even realized had descended over the battlefield. Driven by fear I’d never known, I struggled to my feet and stomped on a vine that tried to trap me.
“You’re quicker than I expected,” Josephine crooned, “but you’re still human. How long will it take you to tire?”
I raced for my sword and my only defense from her attacks, but I couldn’t make it a step without a vine or rock or dagger snagging my progress. Leaning into my instincts, I avoided all the obstacles, but I knew that was only because Josephine allowed me to. She wanted to draw out the death of the human who dared challenge her. She wanted to savor killing the man she believed was the reason for Freya’s betrayal.
My sword was too far away, and I would never reach it. It couldn’t kill her anyway. It was time to face the facts—there was only one weapon that could kill Josephine.
The Bloodblade.
I had to get back to it.
It was my only hope of winning the dual.
Even if wielding it killed me.
Another bolder knocked me to the ground, but this time it hit me square on my chest. It knocked all the breath from my lungs. I couldn’t orient myself as to which way was down or which way was up. My arms were weightless and out of reach. My chest heaved for breaths that only brought more pain.
This is it, I thought, I’m going to die.
Chapter Thirty-One
Freya
The world rushed away from me. Colors blurred past, and the wind’s hollow screams echoed in my ears. I flailed wildly, but it did nothing to control my fall. Just as abruptly as it had begun, it was over.
I fell back inside my own body. Magic roared in my veins and kept me connected to something—someone—else. I grappled with my thoughts and tried with all my might to shake the disorientation that engulfed me.
A scream pierced the roar of magic.
