Page 74 of This Shattered Star

My vision darkened and tunneled all at once. That calculated dance, the waltz of killing, I abandoned all of it. There wasno time. Before Darion could advance another step—before he could even deign to use any of his magic on me, I lunged.

This is the enemy,my mind whispered. The shadows around the room echoed in kind.

Enemy. Enemy.

The three traitors behind me were not. Maybe they never had been. Promise after promise. Save after countless save. They’d chosen to shoulder my burden. Chosenme.It didn’t matter why, not at that moment. Not when they’d done far more than they needed to. More than any ally would have.

I would choose them, too. For as long as I could.

Yanking the blade out of the waistband of my pants, I poured every single ounce of strength into a precise throw, flicking my wrist just before my fingers let go of the hilt. It wasn’t anything close to a throwing knife, but it hit home with a satisfying squelch.

Darion paused with a surprised grunt, his chin dipping so that he could properly examine the blade now embedded within the center of his chest. Not my best work. Only half of the actual blade burrowed into his skin, victim to the protective padding.

But it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

I used the hilt of the dagger to push Darion into the wall, metal sinking further into him as his back hit stone. Wasting none of his shock, I wrenched it free. Warm droplets of blood sprayed onto my face, mirroring the splatters on his own cheek. No amount of protective padding could stop the impact of the blade as I plunged it into him again, slightly to the left of his sternum, between his ribs. Directly into his heart.

His pained intake of breath sang with many I’d heard before.

Death’s climax.

I lost myself in it, the roaring in my ears a steady drumbeat of encouragement. Adjusting my grip on the hilt, I wrenched the blade again, but not to take it out of him.

If his heart made any sound as it tore, I couldn’t hear it.

The roaring drowned everything else as I leaned my full weight into the blade, lips peeling back from my teeth in a snarl. Widening the crater in his chest. My fingers, slick from his blood, slipped, nearly losing the hilt. But I held it tighter while I spoke lowly into his ear, the edges of my vision darkening further as the shadows crept along my periphery, wanting a closer look.

“What heart?”

He finally amassed the ability to scream when my wrist twisted, locking in the damage. I leaned back so that he could see my imperfect eyes—my cursed iris. A reminder that I should have been infinitely weaker than him. That I shouldn’t have been the one to best him. That he’d lost to thecursedbitch.

And maybe I was all of those things.

But I was all of those things, and he was just dead.

Once the remnants of that crazed look in his eyes dulled to blankness, I slid the dagger out of him. With nothing left to hold him up, he slumped to the ground with a loud splash. Within seconds, a cloud of red formed, tainting the water sloshing around him.

Fighting to keep my breathing steady, I turned, ever so slowly, to face my allies.

Brannon rubbed a hand along the column of his throat, like he could massage away the lingering burn of drowning. “That was efficient.” He tilted his head to the side. “Admirable. Slightly terrifying.” A racking cough. “But efficient.”

Kodhan opened his mouth, vapor still streaming from his lips, but I spoke first, bending to rinse the blade off. With Darion no longer controlling it, the water slowly dissipated, sinking through the floor and back into whatever magical abyss it came from. And he disappeared with it. Courtesy of Starlight Trialmagic, no doubt.Good riddance.“Brutality has kept me alive. I will not apologize for being efficient at it.”

“I was going to tell you that you have nice aim. But if you don’t want the compliment, that’s fine by me.” His words held their usual bite. But I could’ve sworn his voice was laced with pride.

Theia held her throat, too. Like she was afraid more water would flood her esophagus. “Darion would have done much worse. I highly doubt his plan was to let the rest of us die so easily. So, thank you. For saving us.”

“It was time for me to return the favor.” And that was nothing but truth.

Kodhan’s boots splashed as he came up to me. He held my hand up by the wrist, twisting it so he could examine his blade’s sharp tip. “Maybe I should actually be worried the next time you angle this thing at my throat,” he mused, pensively.

My response was rapid, pure fire. “Next time, I won’t be so gentle.”

He smiled, a real one this time. The sight of it ignited a sharp, burning hunger, straight from my core, that nearly left me gasping. His nostrils flared, a spark glinting in his eyes.

“You surprise me.”

Invisible roots wrapped around my legs. Trapping me in his warmth once again.