It didn’t seem fair.
“Are you here to kill me?” Fi said. “Or just reminisce over old times?”
Astrid’s scowl was fierce, but after learning how to stand her ground with a daeyari, these teeth didn’t seem so vicious.
“Verne’s not happy with your skulking,” Astrid said. “You’re going to tell me what Antal is planning.”
WhatAntalwas planning? As if Fi was some pawn.
A pent-up snarl finally slipped free, drawn out by scorching pain at her jugular and the red-hot audacity of this bitch she used to love. Fi felt sick at the thought of becoming Verne’s Arbiter, yet Astrid seemed to stomach the work just fine.
“I see.” Fi puffed air from her mouth, playing with a stray curl. “Counter offer?”
She struck a palm at Astrid’s arm, hoping the dagger wouldn’t strike lethal.
It didn’t.
Astrid snarled and slashed for Fi’s shoulder, a fraction off inthe jostling train, lighting the space with mauve sparks as her blade dragged across the metal wall. Fi drew her sword hilt. Silver light flooded the car as she cracked an energy capsule into the pommel. Then, a warring scarlet as Astrid brandished a daeyari capsule and Shaped it into the blade of her broadsword. Fi had a single daeyari capsule in her pocket. She wasn’t sure she wanted to burn it yet.
“I waited for you,” Astrid said as she advanced. “I looked for you in your room. At the river. At that Curtain under the cedar grove where we always hid away for stargazing. You never. Came. Back!”
Astrid charged with a crushing strike at Fi’s shoulder. Another at her side. Incapacitating blows, not lethal, but Fi would rather keep her limbs. She parried, struggling for space to maneuver with cargo tight on either side.
“You’ve gotten better with that sword,” Fi observed grudgingly.
“Ihadto.” Astrid swung again.
Static pricked Fi’s tongue. Astrid tensed.
Antal appeared between them. He grabbed Astrid’s sword on the downswing, a coat of red energy shielding his palms from the blade. Claws screeched down the length as Astrid shifted her stance. Daeyari and vavriter locked gazes over their grapple, but the dance of red light across her face betrayed no fear.
Of course Astrid had learned how to face a daeyari properly. Another place she was miles ahead of Fi.
“Antal,” Astrid greeted through clamped teeth. “You ought to consider better company.”
Antal growled in reply.
Astrid twisted her blade free. Antal slashed with energy-coated claws, but a parry held him back in the tight space. Fi, trapped behind him, scoured the car for a way around.
Then came a slip in Astrid’s swing. Antal lunged.
Fi shocked herself when her arm shot out. When she had to clamp her teeth to keep from shouting at him to stop.
As the two combatants crashed to the floor of the train car, an unexpected terror spiked Fi’s chest. Terror for Astrid. She wasstillAstrid. She was still Fi’s friend, falling beneath the claws of a daeyari, ripping Fi’s heart in two directions.
Yet Astrid got her feet under her. She jabbed an elbow to Antal’s throat before his teeth found hers, then a kick to the ribs shoved him off. As the daeyari skidded, Astrid stood unscathed, sword ready.
An impact shook the train car.
Fi steadied herself as the tremor faded. Another rumble of movement followed from the roof, accompanied by a scrape of metal and… claws. The fighting paused as all eyes looked up. Of the three of them, Fi had backed closest to the hatch she’d cut open for entry, a porthole view into Void sky and crimson aurora.
Then, one giant red eye.
“Fuck—”
Fi’s curse clipped to a shout as a massive white paw scooped into the train. The claws dug mostly into her silviamesh, yet the pressure knocked her breath away. The world spun as she was wrenched upward, back into the roaring wind outside the train.
Then down again.
