Blaine collapsed, a guttural scream ripping through his lungs as smoke actually billowed out from the wound.
That wasn’t just silver in the blade. Something unnatural stirred inside it, absorbing the blood staining its blade until the sword spotlessly gleamed in the pale moonlight.
Russell swiftly brought his blade up again, and I suddenly cried, “Stop!”
The Reaper cocked his head over his shoulder and smirked. “You want to go first? Fine by me,” he sneered, snickering at the beaten boy writhing on the ground at his feet.
“No!” Blaine gritted through clenched teeth, watching Russell turn to me. He tried to get his knees under himself to stand, but he slumped back down, his whole body shuddering from sheer agony.
The faintest glow ignited from under my sleeve. Anger.
Focus.
I pinched my eyes shut, trying to picture what I needed to do. An invisible force slammed down on me as I managed to wave my hand. Whatever enchanted that sword didn’t want me controlling it. It yanked itself in the other direction, ripping free from Russell’s grip. The blade flung aside, disappearing into a collection of overgrowth.
Russell turned back to Blaine, clearly believing him to be the culprit. “Stay put, you little shit. I’d hate for you to miss this.” He snatched a handful of my hair and yanked me upright to my knees. I choked on a stifled breath as cold metal seized my throat. I gasped, but it served no good. Metal rattled as the grip tightened. It was a chain. Blaine’s guttural screams bellowed across the valley.
Russell jeered, prying me up. My knees were now suspended off the ground, but I didn’t have enough space to gain my footing. He continued to squeeze. Tighter and tighter. Gray began invading my vision as I reached up, clawing at his hands, his wrists. Anything to find relief.
But something else was wrong. It felt and sounded like a clothing iron was being dragged across my neck. It burned like hellfire! My fingers grappled at the chain, only to meet the same scalding.
“What the hell?” Russell sneered.
Even through my blurred vision, I could see it. Smoke. It was rising up from my neck.
“I fucking knew it. You blood whore!”
My body began convulsing. It was shutting down.
Save that for later. Blaine’s words slammed into the forefront of my mind. Save that for later.
I drew my leg up and pried out Reese’s knife. Before Russell could even figure out what I held, I reached behind me and plunged the blade into his thigh. I could feel muscles and tendons ripping apart under the drag of the dagger as I yanked it down.
Sweet relief finally flooded my lungs the moment I pulled the blade free from his flesh. The chain clattered to the ground, but a heavy boot hammered into my back as Russell called me every rotten name in the book. The impact knocked the wind right out of me again, and I face planted into the grass, gasping for air.
The world fell silent, except for a lone gurgle, as something warm splashed my back and hands. Still croaking, I rolled to my side, only to have Russell fall down beside me. His hands clasped desperately at his throat. The sickening wheeze that rasped from his severed windpipe sent blood spraying everywhere.
One look at my own hands, and I shot up from the ground, still unable to drag in a breath. I collapsed backward, furiously rubbing my hands against the grass and the fabric of my pants. His blood was all over me.
What had I done?
What had I done?
What had I done?
I killed him. I killed him. How did I kill him? Had a rune ignited?
“Hey.”
I gasped, seeing crystallized blue eyes suddenly looming over me. Blaine. The hilt to Russell’s creepy filigree sword dangled in his limp fingers. Just as before, the blood evaporated from the blade. He let it fall.
“You…”
His arms suddenly cradled beneath my back and the bends of my knees. He was trying to lift me off the ground.
“No,” was all I could manage. I batted my hands and threw my elbows at him until he finally let me go.
“Kat—”
“Get away from me,” I rasped, mindlessly crawling across the grass.
“Kat, stop.”
The chain. It was lying in the dirt beside Russell’s body. I immediately snatched it up, ready to hurl it at Blaine.
He groaned. “Kat—”
The instant my fingers wrapped around the fetter, I cried. My skin sizzled, and smoke rose from the area of contact even after I dropped the manacle. “What…?”
Blaine’s hands cradled my own. “It’s silver.”
No, no, no, no, no!
I must have said it out loud, because he pulled me to his chest, pleading with me to calm down. Hot tears burned my cheeks as I beat his torso, trying to wrestle out of his hold.
Only the purest of evil is affected by silver.