Page 245 of A Touch of Poison
“I can’t see. Am I blind?”
Sword and dagger ready, I closed in.
“No, I can’t eith—”
I cut his throat.
Although I couldn’t see, I could feel the shape of the corridor, the plinths, and every place my shadows weren’t. I aimed for those fae-shaped pockets of emptiness, a slash here, a stab there.
“The shadows are attacking!”
A grunt. A gurgle. Two more dropped at my feet.
One swung wildly. I barely dropped in time, the blade whistling past my head.
“Ow! Fuck! Was that—?”
Spinning on one knee, I drove my dagger into her thigh. Blood sprayed through my shadows as I rose.
“Fuck. Fuck! My leg.” As she fell, bleeding out, her panicked voice stirred whimpers from the others and more flailed into the darkness.
A wild slash caught my arm. I bit back my pain.
“Backs to the walls,” a firm voice cut through the rising fear as I crouched and cut the injured woman’s throat. “Anyone in the centre is an enemy.”
“You’d better hope they can’t hear you.” A chuckle edged my voice as I straightened. “Oh, wait, Ican.”
But before I could reach the wall, someone swiped for me. On instinct I darted to one side, but my foot caught on the dead woman, and I stumbled below another slash.
White flashed over my vision and pain burst through my skull as I hit a plinth.
Darkness. Vague, spinning shapes. Shadows subsiding.
I blinked.
Incoming, something in me whispered.
I rolled to one side as sparks rained from the plinth, right where my shoulder had been an instant earlier.
“I see him! It’s the Serpent!”
Shadows. Get them up. My other side hissed in my head.
My pulse surged, the world suddenly clear. In my daze, I’d let my shadows sink and lost my only advantage.
A strike jolted up my arm as I caught it on my sword. More flew at me from two attackers, and it was all I could do to dodge and parry, retreating. Sweat snaked down my spine.
If they forced me into the garden room, they’d be able to surround me, and I’d be fucked. My other side would survive, but I needed to get to the throne room before Kat. If she went there alone…
Teeth gritted, I made a neat riposte, slapping my enemy’s blade away before diving in with a lunge. The resistance of flesh told me I’d hit, but the other pressed in, stealing my attention as their sword slid along my dagger.
As the first one fell, another took his place.
Parry. Dodge. Swipe. Duck. On and on and on without a moment to focus on bringing my shadows back.
Pain lit up across my stomach, blinding for a second, followed by the warm spill of blood.
Fuck. Bad.
