Page 154 of A Vow of Shadow and Blood
The shadow figure lunges, but Julian whips out a hand without even turning to look, wrapping his fingers around its throat. It dangles in the air where he holds it, and with a simple twist of his wrist, he snaps its neck. It falls to the floor before disintegrating into a cloud of black smoke.
A piercing scream carries through the night, and I turn to find Karius on his knees, clutching his head between his hands. His features twist in agony, and it feels as though my heart is being torn from my chest.
I can’t breathe. I can’t think.
I move instinctively, closing the distance between me and the nearest impure protecting Julian. I plunge the tip of the knife I stole straight through the eye of the creature. Its wails fill the night with a melody that sets my soul ablaze. Suddenly, the others wake from their sleep-like state, preparing to protect their master. A vice-like grip wraps around my wrist, and I look up to find the impure with the knife buried deep in its eye, holding onto me. Without hesitation, I slam my forehead into its face, loosening its grip just long enough to rip the blade from its flesh and glide it across its throat.
I spin, letting the edge of the blade form a gash in the neck of the one next to it before it even hits the floor, and then all hell breaks loose. The creatures begin charging at me, their dark eyes promising death. One tries to claw at my face, but I duck at the last minute, falling to my knees and sliding my blade across the back of its legs. Its screams fill the entire space as it collapses to the floor. I swivel, positioning my leg until I’m straddling itsbody. The familiar scent of decay causes my nostrils to flare as the creature flails its arms around in a bid to claw at my flesh. I tilt backwards, avoiding the attack as I line up my blade with its chest, remembering Eamon’s lesson.Head or heart.
I wrap my hand around its wrists, pinning them above its head, and I know that if it weren’t for Karius’s strength vibrating through every inch of me, I wouldn’t stand a chance against this thing. I sink my blade into its heart and watch as the life drains from its eyes. I look up just in time to see another creature leaping right for me, but its features contort as it hovers mid-air, and I watch as a hand rips through its chest from behind. My eyes take in its still-beating black heart clutched in a hand before both the creature and the heart are dropped to the ground.
Karius stands where the creature once was, and a spark of energy radiates between us as our eyes meet. He searches my gaze, and something close to fear swirls in the depths of his dark orbs. I rise to meet him, the pounding in my chest slowing at the knowledge that he’s ok.Alive.He lifts a calloused hand to my cheek, and I lean into it, seeking the comfort of his touch.
“You’re ok,” he says. It’s not a question.
I nod. “So are you.”
A long moment passes before he seems to truly accept that I’m ok.
“Come on.” He laces his fingers through mine and tries to pull me along with him, but I stop in my tracks.
“I’m not leaving without Willow,” I tell him.
He looks at me over his shoulder, his face softening.
“Neither am I.”
His words melt me as I hurry to catch up with him. Julian stands watching. An emotion flickers across his face at the sight of us standing there, but I cannot figure it out. The others catch up to meet us, and I notice that the only impures left are the ones standing with Julian. There are at least ten of them left.
Julian stares at us, and I know that he’s assessing and planning his next move, his eyes alight with an unspoken plan. We need to kill him. We must end this so he can never free his master. Julian is clearly their leader, and he has to die.
“You’d choose these savage monsters over your own sister’s life?” he asks, and I know that his words are aimed at me.
“Don’t speak to her.” Karius’s voice is a deadly whip against the night. I can sense his anger through the bond, as if it were a physical touch. Thick mounds of shadow pour from his hands, bending and twisting as they form into tall figures of darkness. A ripple of anger crosses his face as his eyes pierce into Julian. But Julian’s attention is not on Karius. It’s on me.
His mouth tilts into a crooked grin as Karius’s screams render the air. For the second time tonight, my mate clutches his temples, and we all watch on in horror as his shadows disintegrate to nothing.
“Impossible,” Kaia says.
Karius collapses to the ground, a guttural scream ripping from his mouth. I drop beside him without hesitation.
“Karius?” I shake him, but his back arches against the floor as he howls. I whip my head toward Julian.
“What are you doing to him?” I growl, but he only answers with a smile. My eyes dart back to Karius, but I don’t know what to do.
“I’ll come with you,” I shout out. “Just stop whatever you’re doing to him, and I’ll leave with you right now.”
“No!” Even through his pain, Karius tries to fight, but the choice isn’t his. I’ve never seen Karius like this, and if he can affect him, then what else can he do?
“Ah, I knew you would come around. It’s just a shame it took you so—”
Julian’s words die on his lips as his attention falls to his stomach. I follow the direction of his gaze and find a long bladesticking out through it, dark rivulets of blood leaking from the hole. I don’t stop to question how.Instead, I leap to my feet, running toward him. I glance at Kaia, and she doesn’t hesitate. She throws one of her shadow swords toward me as I stretch out an arm to catch it. I grip the hilt firmly in my hand before twisting my wrist and swinging the long edge of the blade straight through Julian’s neck.
A deadly hush falls over the group as his severed head slips from his body and tumbles to the ground, his eyes still fixed in horror as he stares up at me. His body slumps to the floor, falling just a few inches from his head.
Suddenly, Finn appears in the space where Julian was standing, dusting off his hands as though he’s just finished a hard day of labor.
“Gods, I thought I talked a lot, but he was seriously annoying,” he says.
