Page 186 of Lady of Starfire

Keres growled, hitting her with a blast of wind that sent her flying back. She managed to keep her grip on her sword, her head hitting the rocky earth hard. The tonic kept her from feeling the pain, but black spots still filled her vision. She closed her eyes, focusing on the sound of his wings rustling. The crunch of his steps. The movement of the world around her. The press of his boot on her wound. The feel of the blood seeping out as he opened it back up.

He stole her breath—slowly, torturously. She felt the air stir, knew he was bending over her now.

“Pathetic,” he sneered. “You cannot even look your death in the eyes.”

Her lungs were burning, her brain screaming for oxygen now, but he was certain he’d won. Just like all those times males in the armies thought they had bested her. She opened her eyes, the edges blurred and Kere’s face swimming before her.

“So you do have some honor,” he said with a cruel smirk.

A smirk she mirrored on her own lips. She saw the pause. The sudden worry that he had missed something.

And then she slammed her hand into the still bleeding wound on his side, sending flames into his body the same way he was sucking the air from hers.

Keres lurched back, a scream of pure agony ripping from him. If Varlis and the other seraphs hadn’t heard them before, they certainly did now. Gulping down oxygen, she gave herself five seconds.

One.

Keres was still bellowing, having turned his magic inward now. She could feel it battering against the fire burning away at his insides.

Two.

She pushed to a sitting position as his wild gaze landed on her again.

Three.

He rushed her, winds slamming into a thin shield of flame she’d managed to get up.

Four.

She raised her blade, fire igniting around it once more.

Five.

She took in one more deep breath, all that time learning to control her breathing with sword meditation coming into play. Eliza pushed to her feet at the same time she felt Keres rip through her shield.

And she plunged her burning sword into his chest. Keres didn’t have time to lurch back before she was yanking it back and swiping it across his throat. Then she spun, popping up behind him to slice both wings from his back in one clean swing.

Less than a minute.

That’s how long it had taken her to have the seraph dying at her feet.

Less than a minute was also how much time she had before another seraph was in the sky and diving for her. The same one that was keeping Razik in slumber. That had to be using all of his power, which meant he had nothing left to combat hers.

Her dark smile grew as her fire wrapped around his limbs and yanked him to the ground. The sound of him hitting the mountainside echoed around them. Eliza stalked forward, already feeling her power starting to wane. That was fine. Blades would do.

“You are the one keeping him asleep?” she asked too calmly, crouching beside him and pulling a dagger from her side.

The seraph groaned, trying to push himself up on his arms and collapsing once more onto his front.

“Wake him up,” Eliza demanded. When she was met with another groan, she slammed the dagger into a wing, dragging it down the feathers.

The seraph howled.

“Wake him up,” she ordered again.

“Can’t,” he rasped, thrashing on the ground, trying to move away from her.

“What do you mean you can’t?”

---