Page 35 of A Sea So Cruel
You.
Oh, gods. Yuck.Why had that thought even popped into Asta’s head? She shivered.
A flash caught her eye and she whipped her head toward the north wing, where a black dot was cascading down the stone wall.
“Run!” she bellowed as she took off.
Kaid was right behind her.
Asta sprinted down the beach, her thighs burning from the resistance of the sand. The crunching sound behind her let her know that Kaid kept pace with her. Her eyes remained pinned on the cloaked figure, who had almost dipped out of sight behind the brush around the shore.
She darted up a path leading to the north wing, grabbing Kaid’s wrist behind her to swing him in the same direction before she ran again. She had to get there before they left. She had to get there to get answers to at least one mystery in her life.
Kaid’s breathing was labored since he was not as in shape as Asta was. She was thankful for the hours of work she had put in, thankful that they had a purpose.
They made it to the north wall to see not one, but two cloaked figures hurtling back toward the beach. Asta heard a groan of displeasure behind her, surely Kaid realizing they had to run back toward the shore they had just come from. If she hadn’t been so worried about what was yet to unfold, she would have stopped to laugh at him.
The figures were in her sight the entire race to the beach. They were extremely fast, about the same speed as Asta. That rattled her nerves, knowing they were likely as well-trained as she was. Maybe more.
When Asta’s boots hit sand once more, she lost sight of the others and she felt something strike her stomach so hard that it knocked the air from her. She fell back into Kaid, who had caught her and held her up. They had thrown a log of driftwood at her and kept running.
She took a moment to catch her breath, not nearly as much as she needed, but she couldn’t let them slip away. Asta and Kaid continued chasing them down the beach until they came to halt at least a mile away from the castle. The coast had turned to crushed stone, the sandy shore forgotten behind them.
The two cloaked figures were pacing back-and-forth in front of them, like predators circling their prey. They had lured them away from the safety of the castle grounds. They were clearly female, their figures small yet sturdy, but Asta couldn’t see under their hoods. She hoped that they couldn’t see under hers or Kaid’s, either.
Asta pulled a dagger from her sleeve and tossed it to Kaid, then unsheathed her sword from her hip.
She heard a snarl from one of the beings in front of her—the noise was very, very inhuman. She noticed the glint of metal against the moonlight in each of their hands.
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.They could turn back. They could run. But how much of a head start could they get from these things, these… creatures?
Asta felt the pressure of Kaid’s hand on her lower back and knew what he was voting for. Stay here and fight. Stay here and find answers.
Asta dared to step forward and her step was met with multiple in return by one of their opponents. She thrusted her sword up in time to block the blow coming at her face, her arms straining against the sheer force of her assailant. The other dove for Kaid and he pulled a sword from his cloak, one Asta had not noticed on him before. She watched as he used the sword and dagger to block, parry, and swing, still keeping her wits about her enough to block her own partner’s strikes.
The four were caught in a dance, all fair opponents for each other. None had managed to strike an injury as they all attacked. They spun and spun and spun, and Asta was completely unaware of what direction she and Kaid were facing now, unaware of their surroundings, and she hated it.
Was that their tactic? Keep them busy enough to confuse them and get the upper hand?
After blocking a particularly strong blow, her arms shook, and she dared a glance around and saw that the castle was now at their assailants’ backs, the attackers standing between her and Kaid’s protective fortress.
Absolutely a tactic, Asta concluded.
The glance around had cost her and the cloaked figure in front of her managed to slice her shoulder. The pain seared through Asta, causing her knees to buckle, but it was superficialenough that she fought through the burn. At the same time, she heard a yelp from Kaid and he was now clutching his thigh.
His partner attacked him again in a storm of steel, more forceful and skillful than before. Kaid was a moderately skilled fighter, but an amateur compared to that.
“Go!” Asta shouted to him. “I’ll hold them off!”
Kaid ignored her and went for his opponent again, favoring his injured leg. She couldn’t wait to witness the scene because her cloaked figure made a dive for her again as well.
She was strong, this creature. Every one of her attacks made Asta’s bones reverberate within her flesh. Asta spun out of the way of a straightforward jab and managed to slide her sword along her opponent’s ribs as she passed.
A growl broke from the cloaked figures mouth, feral and, honestly, terrifying. That solidified Asta’s thoughts that these were creatures and not people. Maybe the same thing the courtesan had been.
Kaid’s wail echoed across the sea as his opponent drove her heel into his already bleeding wound. Lightning cracked through the dark sky, charging the energy between them. His turquoise eyes locked on Asta’s and she just nodded before blocking the next strike. He needed to get out of there. They both did. Asta knew that, she just didn’t know how to do it.
