Page 71 of Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

You have no brother,the Sightmother reminded me.Sylina has no brother.

“Vivi,” he breathed. “It’s you—even with that thing on your face I?—”

He staggered toward me, and I pulled back.

Hurt reverberated through his presence. Confusion.

He lurched forward again, and I took another step away.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he said.

I couldn’t think.

I couldn’t think about any of this now?—

Behind me, Atrius let out a wordless hiss of pain as Tarkan managed to get a shot in, wounding his shoulder. He recoiled, then turned back to his assailant, crimson murder in his eyes.

Tarkan.

I was here for Tarkan. Tarkan was the goal.

That was all that mattered now.

I let that little ball of fire in my stomach grow, let it burn away my confusion and fuel my focus.

I drew a thread between Tarkan and I and stepped into it easily, reappearing behind him.

But he was fast. He’d seen his guards fall to my Arachessen tricks. As soon as I reappeared, he flung his elbow back.

Pain stabbed through my ribs.

I wavered, but held my stance.

He whirled to me justas I swung my sword.

When I was a child, I thought Tarkan stood twenty feet tall. He seemed that way from the tops of his parade carts, from the statues of him hoisted in the town squares.

He was not twenty feet tall. He was six feet, maybe, if that. And yet when he loomed over me, for a moment, I felt that way again. Like he could crush me.

But I wasn’t a child anymore. I wasn’t powerless.

I let out a roar and blocked his strike before he could land it. Countered before he could move. I opened a gash in his side, earning a curse and a snarl. To his credit, he didn’t waste his breath on taunts.

He lunged at me, then fell abruptly backwards, like a puppet yanked by the strings. Beads of crimson hung suspended in the air. His threads warped, as if manipulated by an outside force.

Atrius.

The two of them tangled again. Tarkan was off-balance, startled. The next strike had him reeling.

Atrius could have finished him then. I saw the opening. I knew he did, too.

But yet, Atrius held him for a moment. Shot me a glance over Tarkan’s shoulder.

And he nodded at me.

The understanding snapped into place. He was presenting Tarkan to me. He wasgivingme this. I didn’t know why. I didn’t have time to question it.

I swung, aiming right for Tarkan’s exposed back?—

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