Page 23 of What Blooms from Death

And this time, his skin seemed to crack at my touch, jagged fissures appearing and crisscrossing over his face, down his neck, disappearing beneath the loose linen shirt he wore.

He gasped.

I tumbled back, nearly losing my balance. Catching myself, I rose back into a more formidable crouch, lifted my gaze to his face—

He wasawake.

Awake, and staring at me with a hatred so intense it felt like my skin might melt from the sheer heat of it. The moment stretched on for several horrific seconds before he finally blinked, and his expression changed; his first instinct had been fury, but his second seemed to be confusion. Disbelief.

Finally, his eyes narrowed once more in rage—and recognition.

“You.”

I withdrew the knife at my boot before quickly rising and taking several steps back.

He was on his feet just as quickly. He swayed for several seconds, as if he’d been holding his pose for long enough that the muscles in his legs had atrophied. But just as I started to lower my guard, thinking he might be too weak to actually fight, he rushed forward.

Crackling light surrounded his fist.

He swung.

I managed to avoid the fist itself, but not the bolts of energy that flung from it. They fell like a hail storm across my body, the larger beads of energy stinging straight through my clothing and leaving painful welts on my skin.

In the corner of my vision, I still saw covert movement. People were still darting around, just out of sight, surrounding us. Phantom stalked along the edges of the trees, hissing and snarling, trying to flush them out.

I kept my attention on Aleksander—was forced to, as he was already preparing another attack. This time, the crackling energy around his clenched hand tapered to a point, like a makeshift sword.

Before he could finish forming the weapon, I rushed forward, swiping my knife toward his neck.

When he moved to parry my blade with his half-formed sword of energy, I slammed my other fist into his stomach. He doubled over. I considered plunging my knife into the exposed back of his neck. I could picture it so disturbingly clearly: a river of red staining the silvery locks of his hair; his body crumpling, returning to the statue-like stillness of before…

Two things stayed my hand.

First was the need I felt to keep him alive long enough to question him, to make sense of how he could beherewhen he was also in the living realm.

And then, there was the way more cracks had appeared in his skin when my fist connected with his body; there were dangerous flashes of magic sparking out from the fissures, reaching toward me like bolts of living lightning.

I squeezed the handle of my knife more tightly and backed away, attempting to put distance between myself and those currents of bright magic so I could think more clearly.

He remained bent over for several seconds longer, clenching his stomach, cursing.

I shook out my wrist, letting the clinking and clanging of my bracelets ground me once more. The red-beaded bracelet slipped down over my palm, falling over the others as if urgingme to use it first. I traced my thumb over its triangular golden charm. I whispered the word Orin had taught me.

The distinct energies of my surroundings swirled into view, but they seemed…wrong.

All the colors were skewed, and strange halos appeared around it all, blurring everything together and making it impossible to focus my magic on anything specific.

Was I still too weak, too disoriented from the amount of power I’d used on the Nocturnus Road?

Or was something about Aleksander’s magic throwing mine off?

I tried to level a glare in his direction.

The amount of energy surrounding him was blinding.

Blinking, I spun away, abandoning my attempt at a draining spell, and considered escape routes. Aleksander still seemed off-balance from his time spent in repose. I could have gotten away. He might have followed, but someone had saved me from the restless dead chasing me earlier; maybe I would get lucky again.

I made up my mind to run—

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