Page 131 of The Star's Sword

The vampires gasped in wonder as long, red hair sprouted, black horns growing from his forehead, and his eyes turned a glowing red.

Sam merely sat down on the bottom of the cage, studying his nails and then looking up to wink at me. “Go get ‘em, Morningstar.”

“Will do,” I said, reaching for my sheath. “Bring the night.” My sword grew to crackling, glowing life, the red runes lighting up along the side. Then I smirked, realizing I wanted this to go slow, so I could cut her up rather than kill her immediately. “Stay the night.”

Vasara looked over, going even paler. “It’s not fair. She has an evernight sword.”

“If you’re the Morningstar, don’t you have one, too?”

“Of course,” she said. “But I wouldn’t use it here.” Her voice turned into a whine. “Make her use a normal sword.”

Simon shook his head happily. “In a combat trial, both opponents can choose any melee weapon they like.” He pointed to the swords. “Several of these have enchantments and are very dangerous. But you should be fine as long as you’ve trained with different magics.” He cocked his head, eyes gleaming like red roses at the bottom of a deep lake. “And you have trained, right? After all, someone who could defeat a slayer-turned-rogue, and fight the king of hell would surely be prepared for anything that could be thrown at them in combat, right?”

Vasara just stared at him, pulse pounding so hard I could see it at the side of her forehead.

“Cleo has been practicing her healing from dismemberments,” Simon continued, making Vasara’s eyes widen slightly as she looked at me in disgust. “Hope you’ve been practicing.” Then he leaned into her, looking around him. “As long as you were training day and night, like Cleo was, and not spending a hundred percent of your time spreading evil lies and taking credit for the feats of others, it should be fine.”

Vampires were gathering in a huge crowd around the arena, sitting in rows on the hill behind to watch, and standing crushed together by the forcefields.

Simon led Vasara, who’d finally picked a sword, and me, into the arena.

There was just a sandy surface with a line down the center this time.

“Here are the rules!” Simon called out. “This is one-on-one combat, with support allowed. That means that if you support a champion, and stand on their side of the court, you will lend them a certain amount of strength.”

Fuck. Why hadn’t Simon mentioned that? The fact that she had hundreds of vampires watching meant she might actually be strong enough to hurt me.

The vampires were already rushing like a mass of black to her side of the spectator areas, cheering as they went.

“Miracle! Vasara! Miracle! Vasara!”

The chant was starting to make me ill.

Simon waited until almost all of the watching vampires had moved to her side.

Several stayed out of the area where support counted.

Back up on the hill above us, hundreds of vampires watched.

And hundreds were ready behind Vasara.

Only my friends stood on my side of the arena.

“You have all of us with you, Vasara!” a vampire yelled, and the rest cheered.

“Kick her ass, blood forever!”

“Vampires will rule!”

“For the last time,” I muttered. “The Morningstar doesn’t rule.”

“But I will,” Vasara said, facing off with me shakily with a large great sword that looked awkward in her hands. It had a blue hilt with a silver blade, and white runes running up it. So she’d chosen electricity.

Interesting.

Vasara looked back at her vampires, straightening cockily as she took in their cheers. She even managed to turn her back to me, walking over to them and holding up her sword, causing them to cheer even louder.

“Today the lies are over!” she yelled, getting into propaganda mode. “Today, that fraud of a Morningstar stops trying to lie to the vampires!”

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