Page 64 of Broken Fate
I had no skill with the blade, but I put all my strength behind the blow, and the blade sank several inches deep into the armor just below his stomach. The guard sucked in air in shock. I dropped the sword and kicked him in the nuts, trying to stop him from making any more noise.
He dropped to his knees, and Flak swept by, laying his blade on the back of the guard’s neck and opening a mortal wound.
I backed away from the fountain spray of blood, only to have a pair of arms drop around me from behind and squeeze tight like a vice, driving the air from my lungs.
The panic vanished abruptly as reflex took over.Thatwas something I had trained for. My right foot came up, and I stomped down on the inset of the guard’s foot. He lifted that leg automatically, which was when I swept the other out from under him. Falling backward onto him, I turned, escaping the death grip he might have gotten around my neck.
We hit the ground. Since I’d known it was coming, I could brace for it and absorb some of the impact. The unlucky guard was caught completely by surprise. His eyes opened wide—and I spat right into them. He snarled, but my hand was already finding the dagger at his side.
I wrenched it free of his grip and drove it straight up through the bottom of his jaw, taking advantage of the unprotected area. The light in his eyes went out as the blade reached his brain.
Yanking the bloody blade free, I got to my feet, spinning around wildly, looking for another target.
But it was over. Kiel and Clive were already darting down the row of cells. Flak was finishing off the wounded guards.
And Andi was in front of me, holding her hands out wide.
“It’s okay, Jada,” she whispered. “It’s okay. It’s over. You can put the weapon down.”
I swung the dagger back and forth, shallow breaths loud in my ear. My body rocked on my toes and heels. I couldn’t move. No control. Nothing was responding. I was stuck. I was stuck. I was stuck.
“Snap out of it!”
Andi’s hand chopped down on my wrist. The blow numbed my fingers, and I dropped the dagger. She followed that up, stepping in closer and slapping my face.
My head whipped around, the pain blasting through the adrenaline-heavy panic enveloping me.
I stumbled over a corpse and hit the floor hard. At the same time, I started blinking away the fog in my brain.
“You okay?” Andi asked, staying at a distance.
“I think so,” I mumbled through my throbbing jaw.
“Sorry about that, but you were locking up,” the other woman said.
“Yeah.”
“It’s okay,” she said, coming close. “It happens to everyone the first time they really experience combat.”
“I killed someone,” I whispered.
“Two of them, actually,” Flak said.
“Calli damn you,” Andi hissed at him. “Don’t be an asshole, Flak.”
The other man just shrugged. “It’s true.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Andi said as Flak and Praksis took up positions at the entry, just out of sight of anyone who may come rushing in.
“He’s right, though,” I said. “I did it. I … Ikilledthem.”
“No going back now,” Flak said.
Andi started to lay into him, but I yanked on her arm, forcing her to turn back.
“No, he’s not wrong. There’s no going back,” I said. “But that point didn’t just happen because I took a life.”
“Two lives.”
