This net wasn’t normal, and though it differed from how I’d seen the material used before to cover Rhistel’s hands, I knew this had to be made of ice spider silk. That was why I could not feel my magic. The web was negating my powers.
The orc, a massive male with fangs as long as my pinkie protruding from his lower jaw, lumbered out of the trees. I slipped my blade through the net, trying to pierce his chest.
He retaliated, hurling a dagger at me. The bastard had impressive aim too, for the blade slid right through a hole in the net and grazed my right cheek.
“Ahh!” My hand went to the injury and in doing so, my sword slid backwards into the net. Cursing my reaction, I fumbled for my weapon, but before I could pick it up, the orc was in front of me.
With a hand as large as a dinner plate, he grabbed me by the neck and lifted me. I kicked air, struggling for freedom.
“Neve!” Vale shouted.
Dead gods help him, he sounded breathy. Weakened.
I reached for my powers before remembering that they weren’t accessible. My heart raced. The orc laughed again, the sound hideous, the stench of his breath rancid. He slapped me across the face, and my teeth sang, but as he pulled a dagger from his belt, I ignored the pain and kicked at it with all that I had.
He slammed his knee upward, ramming it into my arse. I groaned, and in that instant, he slipped the dagger through the net, slicing my thigh. I screamed and gripped the net.
How was I going to get out of this?
My answer came in the form of Vale, who droppedbehind the orc and slammed the butt of his sword into the orc’s neck.
Our enemy’s knees buckled, but he was too powerful to fall. He whirled and used the dagger he’d sliced me with to cut Vale across his chest.
I fell with a scream, my hands plunging into the snow after the sword. Some of my blood had mixed with the snow, wetting my hands. I fumbled with the blade, trying to grasp it properly, to help Vale to?—
My blade glowed with a deep black light, like a dwarf had set it to a strange dark fire in a mysterious forge.
“By the Fates, what’s happening?” I whispered, staring down at the blade.
As if in answer, whispers hissed through the woods as a plume of black smoke—no! A shadow so dark it had to have been born in the darkness that separated the stars—blossomed from thezupriansteel. My throat tightened as the shadow took the form of a faerie.
“Your bidding?” It spoke in an ancient voice, one that set my heart to racing.
Bidding?Sassa’s Blade was one of legends. Legends I was, admittedly, largely ignorant of, but if such a thing were possible, surely Vale would have mentioned shadows emerging from a blade. Another grunt from my mate quickly ceased my wonder. I looked past the shadow.
Vale knelt all fours, now trapped beneath a net too. A second orc appeared from the woods and sneered down at my mate. The first massive orc stood over him, sword in hand, dripping with blood.
Where in all the nine kingdoms were these orcs gettingnets made of ice spider silk?! Wasn’t the material expensive beyond measure?
“Why did you summon me?” the shadow spoke again, irritation riddling his tone.
“I didn’t. I—wait, can you do anything I need?”
One curt nod.
“Kill the orcs. That one first.” I pointed to the orc standing over Vale, sword now raised. “Go!”
“I need blood.” He nodded to the pool in the snow.
I paled. The slash on my thigh had been shallow and between that and my quick healing, it had already ceased bleeding. I’d have to open a vein. “How much?”
“For this many? Much.”
I took my sword and cut across my already injured thigh, using the tear in my trousers to better gain access to the flesh. Fresh blood welled, and I nearly dropped the sword from the pain, but pinned it against my leg. I’d stopped short of the inner thigh, knowing to cut there would be death, but a sickening amount of blood still poured. I swallowed, but a second later, the blood vanished. Not in the snow, but into the air? Impossible.
The blade glowed again, giving me another option. One I never would have guessed. Had my blood goneintothe blade?
The question died, however, as the shadow soared to the orc—and flying straight through his body, left a hole the size of my head in the orc’s torso. I gasped, but the grotesque killing was not the only reason for my shock. The moment the shadow killed the orc, a tug came at my leg, a familiarsensation. It felt as though a vampire was pulling to get more blood.
