Page 95 of Deathless
"Yeah. You hurt?"
"Head." He touched his temple and pulled his fingers away red. "Can't... everything's spinning."
His eyes kept drifting. We needed to move. We needed to get out of here before the next one hit.
The sickle came screaming through the smoke.
It slammed into the column right above our heads, and stone exploded. The chain wrapped around what remained of the pillar, pulled taut, links rattling against rock. I knew that sickle. Patroklos had swung it at me in the tunnels under Casablanca while I emptied a magazine into his chest.
Then Achilles walked out of the fire, a sword in one hand and the chain to the sickle in the other. Whatever had been behind his eyes before was gone.
"You," he snarled.
I shoved myself in front of Jasper and Mila. My shotgun was somewhere in the rubble, but I couldn't find it. I had nothing but my body between the two people I'd promised to bring home and a man carrying a chain and a sword.
"You killed him." Achilles yanked the chain, and the sickle ripped free from the column, spinning back into his grip. He started walking toward us. "Patroklos."
My pulse slammed against my ribs. Yeah. I had. On his knees in the dirt with a gun to his chest. The weight of that trigger still lived in my index finger.
"I'm going to take my time with you." Achilles kept coming. "I'm going to make it hurt."
He closed the distance, and the chain ticked against itself at his side.
I glanced around in search of a weapon. Something, anything. Come on, come on…. There. I grabbed a piece of rebar from the rubble and stood up. I wanted to buckle, but I locked my knees and stayed upright.
"Diego." Jasper slurred my name like he was drunk. "Don't."
It was already too late for that.
Achilles swung the sickle, and the chain sang before the blade arrived. I barely got the rebar up in time. Metal hit metal, and the impact jarred through my wrist, up my arm, all the way into my teeth. He whipped the chain back and came again. This time the sickle wrapped around the rebar. He yanked, and the metal tore out of my grip, taking skin with it. I stood empty-handed, and he was right there with the sword already rising.
I dove to the side. The blade hit stone where I'd been standing, and sparks sprayed across my back.
I scrambled toward Jasper and Mila, searching the rubble for anything I could use.
Achilles looped the chain around his forearm. Blood dripped from his knuckles onto the links.
"Diego!" Mila's voice. "Here!"
I turned, and she held my shotgun. She'd dug it out of the rubble while I'd fought Achilles. I grabbed the gun and spun back around.
Achilles was already moving. The chain whipped out, and the sickle came at my face. I dropped, and the blade passed close enough that I tasted the displaced air, metallic on my tongue.
I brought the shotgun up and fired.
The blast caught him in the shoulder and spun him sideways. He staggered, one knee almost touching the ground, but he stayed up.
I fired again and missed.
The chamber clicked empty. Mierda.
Achilles straightened up. The chain wrapped around his fist had gone dark and wet. He looked at me and smiled.
He rolled his neck, and blood dripped from his chin. "My father said I wasn't worth the name he gave me." He laughed, short and raw. "Patroklos was the only person who ever looked at me and didn't see a fucking disappointment, and you put three rounds in him."
He closed the distance before I could move. The sickle wrapped around my ankle, and he yanked me off my feet. I went down hard. The back of my skull cracked against the ground, and the world broke into white static.
When the courtyard swam back, Achilles stood over me with the sword raised.
