Page 65 of Spark of the Everflame

If I couldn’t get through them, my blades could. I cocked an arm and launched one of my twin daggers, carefully aiming through a slim opening in the obsidian cage.

My heart sung as my blade hit its mark. The point dimpled into the soft flesh of his throat, right over his jugular—the kind of wound that could end a life in seconds.

Buried deep beneath my fear, a cold, heavy numbness spread through me at the prospect of his death at my hands. Not a sadness or regret, but a dark acceptance that made all my precious ideals seem distant and foreign.

But as quickly as it came, despair took its place. The knife bounced harmlessly to the ground without leaving so much as a scratch.

My blades—my worthless, cheap,gods-damnedmortal blades—could not pierce Descended skin. I might as well try to pelt him to death with a pebble. It had been so pathetic an attack, he hadn’t even turned his head to acknowledge it.

I looked on in horror.

“Gods save me,please,” the woman sobbed. She clawed at the spikes in a frantic, futile attempt to yank them free. A second ring of them materialized and plunged into her throat. Blood bloomed along her collarbone and trailed down her chest like a cruel necklace of dangling rubies.

My gaze locked on a pair of frightened blue eyes beneath her slumping body. The child was too young to understand what was happening—only that his mother was hurt, and he was scared, and he didn’t know what to do.

Neither did I, and the realization destroyed me. I couldn’t get to him, couldn’t save his mother, couldn’t stop his father. I could swagger and act cocky, making my brash threats against the Descended all day long, but in the end I was just another weak, useless mortal.

As I sank to my knees, a desperate idea broke the surface of my anguish. The blade Brecke had given me—he’d claimed it was sharp enough to pierce Descended skin. Maybe, just maybe...

Careful to avoid notice, I slid the blade from its sheath along my calf.

The man thrust his arm upward. The spikes impaled in the woman’s body rose, dragging her with them into the air. He flung out his hand, and she flew across the alley and thumped against a thick stone wall.

I flinched at the sickening crack. I knew the sound of shattering bone when I heard it. When I finally mustered the courage to look, my gaze met the vacant, glassy eyes of a corpse that would see no more.

Fight, thevoicedemanded.Fight.

A snarl erupted from my chest. “You killed her, you fucking monster!”

He didn’t hear me. His eyes were singularly focused on his next target.

I frantically gestured to the boy. If I could get him to safety, then make just the right throw...

“Come to me,” I coaxed.

His face jumped between me and his approaching father, his features pinched and unsure. He took a step toward me before pausing with a wary glance at the bars that held me back.

“I don’t want this, but I don’t have a choice.” The man spoke low, though loud enough for me to hear, and I wondered which of us he was trying to convince. “I have to do it. It’s the law.”

“You don’t have to,” I pleaded. “I won’t tell anyone. I’ll take the child away and say it’s my own.”

He paused.

“If we’re found out, I’ll bear the consequences myself,” I rushed out. “I don’t know your name, I couldn’t turn you in even if I wanted to. No one will ever know.”

His gaze went thoughtful as he stared silently at his son. His eyes rose to me, and my heart staggered to a stop.

“Please,” I whispered. “He’s just a child. Don’t do this.”

His face hardened. “No.”

He closed his cowardly eyes to hide from the truth of what he did next. With a single outstretched palm, a bolt of shadow shot across the alley.

Fight.

Instantly, I moved. Brecke’s blade left my hand and soared toward the Descended. This knife was still new and foreign, its delicate balance so different from my heavy daggers. My years of training were enough to put the blade in his neck, but it struck too far from any veins that would bring him down.

He stumbled backward, hands fumbling at his throat as dark crimson slithered through his fingers.

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