The creature pounced, slamming me back onto the ground. Its weight crushed me, rain pouring into my eyes, mixing with hot tears as I shoved away. Then my knife found its neck, slicing clean. I anticipated the blood that’d gurgle from him, but there was nothing. It simply fell onto the side of the road, the cut dry as bone.
I staggered up, barely managing a step before another threw its weight onto me, sending me back to the ground. I held it back with the fist gripping my phone while I raised the other hand, tearing my blade through its skull. But two more followed, piling on me before I could rise. My scream drowned under the storm, their strength overwhelming. Rain poured into my mouth, my arms shaking and burning as I struggled to hold them back, legs kicking uselessly.
Their clawless hands reached for my face.
Tears streaked with rain as I turned my face away, pressing it into the gravel like I could sink into the ground and vanish, my body shuddering under their crushing weight.
When two more pounced on the other two I was holding up, my weak arms gave out.
I squeezed my eyes, waiting for them to tear into my face as they fell atop of me, but nothing came. They didn’t move.
Confused and panting, I forced my eyes open and shoved their bodies off me with shaking hands, chest thundering. I took a good look at them and saw their necks had split clean through, one after another.
With my heart rattling in its cage, I looked up to the side through the blur of rain. There, a dark figure stood some feet away, body bent low to pick up an object.
Thrax.
His dagger gleamed under the low light as he straightened, realisation hitting me like lightning. He had thrown it. From adistance, he had thrown his blade and cut all four bodies down, every single one of them severed with a single, perfect strike.
Relief flooded me so fast I almost sobbed.
He was here.
And I was still alive.
Thrax hurried towards me, dropping to one knee, both hands clamping over my face, tilting it side to side, searching for injury. His breathing was ragged and heavy, chest rising and falling like he’d sprinted through hell itself. Fear and fury tangled in his eyes, his brows drawn so tight they shadowed his expression. His hands, calloused and warm, swept frantically over my arms, shoulders, down to my ribs, as if he had to feel me whole to believe it.
His gaze finally locked on mine, soaked hair clung to his cheekbones, rain streaking down his face. His lips parted, but no words came. Although the question he wanted to ask was loud in the way he stared already.
I nodded, shaky but firm.I’m fine.
Relief cracked through him in one visible exhale. His chest deflated, grip softening.
But only for a heartbeat.
Because the sound of wet feet slapping against the street came again as ten more raced towards us, shrieks filling the storm.
Thrax shot to his feet, dagger twirling once in his palm before locking into his grip. His whole body tightened, becoming lethal in an instant.
“Stay here,” he ordered, leaving no space for argument.
Then he moved, meeting them halfway.
In less than five heartbeats, they were sprawled in the road, their bodies twitching before falling to the ground. He waited, water dripping from his blade. Three seconds later, more emerged.
Again, he cut them down, faster than I could follow, his movements clean and ruthless. His silhouette blurred with thedownpour, rain streaking like white fire around him as creatures fell the moment he reached them.
Then, with a single glance over his shoulder—so brief it stole my breath—he disappeared further, leaving me with only the sound of his blade striking body and the echo of monstrous screeches dying in the dark.
I staggered to my feet, brushing wet strands of hair off my face. My fingers clenched tight around the knife and phone, both objects feeling like dead weight. My socks squelched against the gravel, cold gnawing through my skin as I followed the trail of bodies lining the way.
For a moment, my mind fed me with the fear that they might rise again, that at any second, one would grab my ankle. My chest seized with that thought, and I quickened my pace, ignoring the ache in my lungs and the wobble in my legs.
I neared the house after a long time walking, and by then, the storm had started to ease. Finally, Thrax returned.
He crossed the distance back to me, the soft patter of the rain somehow amplifying the sight of him. His dark clothes clung to his body, dagger dripping at his side. His cold eyes raked over me in silence, lingering on my drenched socks and the nightgown plastered to my body.
The fabric was a see-through, clinging wet to my breasts, nipples peaked tight against the cold. His jaw flexed, but he said nothing.
