Panic surged through me. It was one thing for me to take these kinds of hits, but Milly couldn’t sustain that. Her brittle bones might very well shatter. I heard her scratchy voice calling my name. Heard the fear in it.
Her fear added to my surging adrenaline. It made it swell. Made itsnap.Made my fingertips ache and burn and thenbleed.
I felt the liquid dripping down my palms, but I barely paid any mind to the red-hot blood seeping from my fingers. Because Milly was getting closer, and the man was swinging back his foot to kick me in a crushing blow, and I launched myself at him.
Like an animal, I snarled as I jumped at him. Clawed at him. Raked my bleeding fingers down his face. Not Milly. He wasn’t going to hurt Milly. I wasn’t going to let him come into her home, steal her hard-earned coin, and hurt us.
The man stumbled as I attacked him, tried to pry me off, but I slammed my hands against his head andpushed. And the blood on my palms smeared and gushed, and I was too frantic to even care.
And then, his snarls turned to gurgles. His prying fingers left my body to instead claw at his face.
The slick blood pouring from my hands made me lose my hold, and I landed on the floor again, but then my feet were wet too, like I was suddenly standing in a puddle of my own blood, or maybe it was his? But that didn’t make sense, because I’d only scratched and hit him, and he’d hit me, and why was there so much blood? Was it raining? Was the roof leaking? But why was it so warm? So thick?
My frenzied mind couldn’t come up with a single explanation, but the air held the metallic clang of blood, and the liquid was warm. So warm.
Milly tore through the doorway. Eyes wide, hand spasming over her hold on her walking stick that she held like a weapon. She raised her cane, ready to hit, but then she jerked to a stop, good eye taking in the man.
“Felton?”
“You know him?” I asked, but my voice felt strange.Ifelt strange.
“He’s my brother. Comes every few months. What—”
The man made a strangled noise, and then his knees hit the floor. There was a splash on impact. I flinched back when some of it splattered across my face.
“Felton!” Milly cried, and I knew. Knew I’d made a mistake. Knew it by the way she turned, uneven steps hurrying away and then coming back, this time, holding a lantern in her hand to help the dim dawn to light the room.
When the light hit the room, I couldn’t make sense of it.
The amber hue that drenched everything. The shine reflected from the lantern. The man was on his knees, clawing at his throat, making the most disturbing noises. But he wasn’t marked with streaks of red. The floor wasn’t puddled with rain. My fingertips weren’t bleeding. It wasn’t the metallic warmth of blood I was smelling.
It was...gold.
Milly’s hand flew to her mouth. The cane she was holding fell to the floor, splashing as it landed. Her expression was horrified. “Felton!”
The cry tore out of her as another burbled noise came from him, and my eyes went wide when she held the lantern closer to his face. His face where liquid gold had scored down his cheeks where I’d hit him, and wrapped around to his mouth. He was trying to cough as it drained down his throat, trying to get the viscid liquid away from his neck where it strangled and squeezed.
“What did you do?” Milly shouted at me, looking from me to him. “Look at what you did!”
He struggled for a moment longer, and then his kneeling form crashed to the floor with a splash.
Millywailed.
She scrambled forward, but the slippery floor made her go crashing down. I lurched forward to catch her.
I shouldn’t have.
I shouldn’t have, because as soon as my hands caught her arms, the gold spread toher. Like a conscious, intentional thing, it moved and encased, staining her clothes, blotching her skin, pooling in her mouth.
She couldn’t even scrabble and fight like the man did. And I was in shock. Utter, horrifying shock, as I watched this terrifying gold so viciously attack the one person I loved.
I tried to pull it away. Tried to claw at it where it poured in her mouth and dripped down her neck, but that only made it worse. More gold rained from my palms, surrounding her in a hostile downpour, making me snatch my hands back. I stared at them, watching more and more stream down, and I couldn’t stop it.
What did you do?
Denial tried to beat through my chest, but as I knelt over her, saw her one wide, milky eye, saw the way the gold was squeezing her and her brother against the floor…
There was nothing but panic then.
