All I have to do is take one life.
The vampire lord standing before me is the source of all our pain. All the anguish. Without him the Hunter’s Hamlet would be free of its obligations, its walls. My family would be whole. Drew and I would’ve gone to the sea long, long ago. How can one man be the source of so much despair and hope? How can one man be so hard to kill?
I fray and begin to rip. Seams I didn’t know were holding me together buckle and come undone; I explode with pain I’ve been ignoring my whole life. Fury I’ve never allowed myself to feel dredges up from a forgotten place deep within me and erupts with violent force. My father’s death. My brother leaving. Every longing glance I never let anyone else see because I was not permitted a moment of happiness that a normal person would have. Years of pent-up hurt smooths over the breaks in my flesh and ache in my muscles. This anger gives my feet speed.
The world blurs and I charge toward the vampire lord. I shift my weight, putting one foot forward, rearing back with my arms. I swing the blade with all my might, bringing it down like a forge hammer in an arc of hope.
He doesn’t even flinch. The lord lifts a hand and catches the sword easily by the blade. It’s so dull that the steel can’t even penetrate the leather of his gauntlet. Ruvan heaves a monumental sigh.
“The hard way, then.”
He rips the sword from my grasp and swings it through the air. The strength that filled me is evaporating. I don’t have time to dodge before the pommel meets my temple.
The world goes black.
