the darkness falls around me at night
I watch in all but awe as the man cuts through the luxere with such ease, it’s staggering. But there’s a second one that’s peeled away from the group… toward me. The luxere charges, and instinct takes over.
My parents may have kept me sheltered, but they’d been training me since I could hold a weapon. I don’t think. I don’t plan. I just move—straight in, not away. The moment those void-dark antlers lower, I leap to meet them.
Both daggers flash in my grip as I hook them into the base of the rack, locking my arms around the curve like reins. The creature is fast, heavier than it looks, and I grit my teeth as its momentum nearly rips me clean off my feet. But I hold on and twist, pulling hard to the side, using its speed against it.
One blade bites deep into its neck. Blood sprays hot across the cold.
It doesn’t fall.
It screams, wild and raw, and jerks violently. My grip slips. I stumble, heels skidding in the snow—and then I’m down. Hard.
My daggers fly from my hands, one skittering into a drift, the other vanishing completely into the churned white.
I roll, scrambling to get upright, heart pounding in my throat. The luxere is still up, still moving—and I’m suddenly just a girl on her knees in the snow, unarmed and shaking, staring up at a wounded beast that’s not done yet.
My voice comes out in a huff. "Shit."
My parents may have kept me sheltered, but they’d been training me since I could hold a weapon. I don’t think. I don’t plan. I just move—straight in, not away. The moment those void-dark antlers lower, I leap to meet them.
Both daggers flash in my grip as I hook them into the base of the rack, locking my arms around the curve like reins. The creature is fast, heavier than it looks, and I grit my teeth as its momentum nearly rips me clean off my feet. But I hold on and twist, pulling hard to the side, using its speed against it.
One blade bites deep into its neck. Blood sprays hot across the cold.
It doesn’t fall.
It screams, wild and raw, and jerks violently. My grip slips. I stumble, heels skidding in the snow—and then I’m down. Hard.
My daggers fly from my hands, one skittering into a drift, the other vanishing completely into the churned white.
I roll, scrambling to get upright, heart pounding in my throat. The luxere is still up, still moving—and I’m suddenly just a girl on her knees in the snow, unarmed and shaking, staring up at a wounded beast that’s not done yet.
My voice comes out in a huff. "Shit."
Theea
and covers me in silence so bright
