Page 56 of Marked By the Dark Lord
Alarm bells started ringing in my head.
“So, he prepared me for that eventuality.” Gunnar set himself, both weapons in front of him. “Glavardo!”
I blinked as he uttered the single word, a Fae word of power. Red light burst from both weapons as lines appeared on them, sharp and straight like they were trying to contain the magic but slowly shattering into a million pieces.
Someone had gifted him with a very powerful enchantment on his weapons. I hadn’t expected that at all. Nor did I have time to study its implications.
Gunnar came on in a rush, the air screaming as the axe blade split it apart, leaving a long gouge down my chest. I backpedaled as fast as I could, unprepared for the speed of his strikes. The hammer caught me in the shoulder, and magic exploded from the contact, sending me down the hallway like a ping-pong ball. The Viking tossed back his head and howled with laughter and battle fury all rolled into one.
When he came at me again, all thought had left his eyes, leaving him with just a crazed desire to kill.
I guess someone should have told him about the side effects of Faerie magic when used like that. He’d become the tool of whoever gave him the power. A tool meant to be discarded after use.
Unfortunately, his use was apparently to kill me, and he was coming annoyingly close to it. I had hoped to spare his life and simply beat him, but it was increasingly apparent that such an outcome was no longer feasible.
“Enough,” I barked, throwing magic at Gunnar.
The axe sliced through the magic while the hammer connected with my jaw. I left the ground, my horns smashing up into the rock, momentarily pinning me there.
Gunnar used that moment to bring the axe back across my midsection in the reverse swing, cutting deep through my black skin and spilling my blood. I roared in agony as the touch of his metal burned deep.
He punched me in the face with the top of his hammer, and the impact snapped one of my horns off, spinning me around, spraying blood everywhere as I catapulted away and hit the ground.
“This was fun,” Gunnar taunted as he approached, his weapons dripping my blood. “We should do it again sometime.”
“I think I’m going to be busy that day,” I grunted as he hoisted me up by my other horn, with his axe hanging at his side and the other hand gripping the hammer.
“Okay, then I’ll just kill you today,” he spat, tossing me against the wall and swinging his hammer so fast it connected before I’d even fallen.
My leg shattered under the impact of the enchanted weapon. A weapon enchantedperfectlyto hurt me. By someone who had intimate knowledge of me and who I was. Someone who could provide such magic. But who?
“I expected a better fight from you,” Gunnar barked. “You’re even weaker than he said you would be.”
My eyes narrowed. That confirmed someone hadactivelysent Gunnar to kill me. But there was no animosity between the demi-god and me. Not as recently as several days ago, the last time I’d seen him in Court. What had happened to make him like this? What changed?
Gunnar raised his hammer and brought it down—
And I intercepted it with a blade of glowing red magic that extended from my right forearm. Gunnar’s eyes went wide.
“You were used, Gunnar,” I whispered. “Used and lied to. And for that, I am sorry.”
The blade from my other forearm punched up through his stomach and out the other side, blood sizzling into vapor from the heat of the magical weapon. I tossed the badly wounded Viking aside and got to my feet. Foot, really, since the other leg was useless. I balanced heavily on my left leg, shunting the pain aside, ignoring it for the moment even as it hammered against my brain.
I thrust a hand at him, and red magic flowed from the weapons and into me.
“See, that’s the thing about using tailor-made magical weapons,” I said. “They work great when you have the element of surprise. But they’re easily countered after that. That magic is my magic. It’s part of me. And itrespondsto me.”
Gunnar smiled, which was very unsettling. “But did I fail?” he grunted.
“Yes,” I said. “And you gave away the fact that someone is looking for me and wants me dead. You were a bad move on their part. You should have said no.”
And then I took his head from his body, leaving a score in the stone under his neck from the sweeping strike of my blade.
Gunnar’s eyes blinked, the golden light fading.
“You don’t say no tohim,” he cackled amid a stream of blood.
He smiled at me as he died, all the light fading from his eyes.
