"I'm sorry to leave you so soon," Elise said, her expression hardening.
There was no warning as Elise palmed a blade, lunging at the Osiri. Her arm punching forward in a perfect strike.
The Osiri glided effortlessly out of the way.
Elena's mother reversed the strike, aiming for his heart.
Yes! Elena cried in her mind.
Her jubilation sank like a stone as the Osiri caught the blade with his bare hand. "I thought you would have learned how futile it was to resist after the last time."
The blade whitened, growing brittle right before Elena's eyes. Elise released it, right as the white reached the hilt. A second later, the blade crumbled into dust.
Elise whipped out a pair of knives, hurling them at him.
Elena flinched as the Osiri smacked them away, sending one of them rocketing at her. She squeaked as it embedded in the bed an inch above her head.
"I'm losing patience with you," the Osiri said.
He made a gesture. Elise flew back, landing in a heap a short distance away.
She was laughing as she rolled onto her side. "You're right. I did learn my lesson last time."
The Osiri's eyes widened. He whirled, a shriek leaving him at the sight of the knife above Elena's head. It was buried to the hilt, an odd energy running up and down it.
He set his hand on the bed, his forehead furrowing.
Elena tried to shrink away as a sense of wrongness invaded the space around her before withdrawing.
"You've killed it," the Osiri snarled at Elise.
"No, you killed it," Elise corrected.
The Osiri yanked the knife out of the bed. "You planned this."
Elise lifted onto one forearm, pain flashing across her face before she controlled it. "I did."
The Osiri stared, his rage saturating the air. Harsh and menacing. Fear pressed down on Elena. Though Elise never flinched, meeting the Osiri's gaze with the stubbornness that must have made her the perfect companion for Aunt Kira and Uncle Jin once upon a time.
The pressure in the atmosphere vanished as the Osiri stalked toward Elise with slow predatory steps. "You haven't saved your child, my pet."
Elise's expression changed.
Fyr lifted his head, shock on his face as his gaze flitted to Elena's
The Osiri's face gentled. "Yes, I'm aware of her connection to you. You have only yourself to blame for me figuring it out. There's only one thing capable of making you act so recklessly. An offspring. Your one weakness. My informant told me there was a possibility. Though that person assured me your daughter was also dead. A pity, really. It’s so much easier to shape them when they’re young. I’m glad to see she survived after all."
Even with Elise's impressive control, there was a trace of fear in her features as the Osiri loomed over her.
"She's half human, isn't she?"
That same feeling of awfulness increased as tendrils of water rose from the pool behind Elise. Her mother's expression turned wary, her body going very still.
"I always suspected we hadn't fully broken you. There was just something about you," the Osiri said conversationally, his expression almost tender. "We'll have to fix that this time."
The tendrils speared Elise in the back. Her spine bowed, her mouth opening wide on a silent scream.
Elena thrashed against the ropes in desperation. "What are you doing? Stop it!"
