Page 168 of What Blooms from Death

He moved as fastas the light he controlled—knocking my sword arm aside, catching me by the throat and slamming me backward.

I struck the pedestal’s edge, my body bending over it with a gruesome amount of force. As stinging pain shot up my spine and radiated toward the tips of my fingers, my hold on Grimnor weakened enough that Lorien was able to drive it from my grasp with a well-placed kick.

He loomed over me, reaching toward the Sword of Light. I watched, terror blooming in my chest, as he beckoned—and as Luminor obeyed, dropping from the air into his grip.

I tried to scramble after my own sword, but Lorien beat me to it. His movements were graceful yet wild, impossibly fast but entirely controlled.

Inhuman.

“If I can’t haveyou,” he growled, “then I will make do with your sword.” He kneeled beside Grimnor, placing a hand over it.

The sword reacted to his closeness with a menacing hiss, the energies swirling within its blade darkening, forcing him to drawhis hand back. The sight kindled a spark of hope inside of me; I felt, not for the first time, as if my sword was alive—which meant I at least had an ally in this chamber.

“But, as I suspected…” Lorien said, turning his hungry eyes upon me once more, “…I’ll need toborrowa bit of your magic in order to make it easier to wield.”

“You won’t get a drop of magic from me,” I snapped.

He laid Luminor beside its counterpart and then rose back to his full height, a sly smile sliding across his handsome features. It was jarring, how different those features looked without the warmth he’d been faking over the past weeks. How much sharper. How much crueler.

“I wasn’t planning on askingnicelyfor it,” he said.

I shifted into a more formidable crouch, grabbing for the knife hidden at my thigh and drawing it out.

He prowled closer, twisting his hand as he came, pulling light from his palm and guiding it out along his fingers—five separate lines of light that curved into sharp points at the end, extending like claws from his hand.

“I borrowed my ability to possess bodies from my dear Calista,” he said, “and that power has endured all these centuries—so I believe I’m fully capable of taking what I need from the likes ofyou.”

“Stole it,” I said, standing and clenching my knife more tightly. “You didn’t borrow it, youstoleit.”

He flexed his fingers, making the light at their ends shimmer and sharpen even further. “Same difference.”

I sized up the distance between myself and my fallen sword, wondering if I could possess it and pull it into my hold quickly enough.

“This will be less painful for you if you don’t resist me,” Lorien said.

“I choose pain, then.”

He huffed out an unamused laugh. “You would.”

He lunged.

I sidestepped, narrowly avoiding his reaching hand. He doubled back in a blink and swung for me again. I stumbled as I avoided him this time, barely catching myself against the wall. Spinning around brought me face-to-face with him at the exact instant he slammed the claws of Light magic toward my chest.

I ducked. His hand—and his magic—struck the wall, leaving burn marks behind, sending sparks sizzling over the stone and dangerous heat washing over my skin.

My shadows lashed violently outward, briefly distracting him. I rose in a rush of cold fury, plunging my knife into his stomach, sinking it as deeply as I could and twisting until my forearms shook from the effort and my hands grew slick with blood.

He caught a fistful of my hair and yanked, throwing me to the floor.

He dove after me, but I managed to roll out from underneath him and stumble to my feet. As I put more space between us, he paused long enough to rip the knife out with little more than a pained hiss, flinging it across the room in the same motion.

Blood seeped from his wounded stomach, quickly covering the bottom of his shirt. He didn’t so much as wince. His breathing remained evenly measured. His gaze was as fierce and focused as ever.

Did he even feel pain?

This monster had endured for lifetimes, and now…

I realized that I didn’t know how much of him was evenhuman.

---