Another growl released, and then he screamed at my father before he swiped at him with his bare fist.
My father ducked and sidestepped, but he continued to be rushed, unable to raise his blade.
I unsheathed my blade then hurried to one of the orcs, climbing up his body without permission or explanation, and when the wolf ran by, I jumped forward, straight onto his back. I pulled out the blade from my scabbard and then jabbed it straight into his spine, pushing down once and almost rolling forward when he came to a halt. Then I had to use my boot to shove it the rest of the way, hitting him in the heart through his back.
He stopped, swayed, and then fell forward as he collapsed.
My father didn’t wait for me. He took off for the other demon, who’d just thrown Hawk aside.
My brother lay there and didn’t move.
“Hawk!” My father sprinted to him and slid across the stone on his knees until he reached my brother’s body. He grabbed his face and then checked his pulse. He glanced over his shoulder at the fight. “Lily.” With wide eyes that showed the rage and pain of a broken father, he yelled, “Kill him!”
I let my father handle my brother as I joined the fight with Callum and the others.
Callum’s eye was black from where he’d been struck in the face, and blood continued to drip onto his right hand like he’d been injured through his armor. Viper was always pale as a vampire, but he looked barely conscious, sometimes swaying from exhaustion or an injury I couldn’t see.
I jumped into the battle and drew the attention of the skeletal demon to me. “Two down, one to go.”
He didn’t seem to realize that he was the only demon left, that the Covenant of three had been reduced to one. “How is something so small so powerful?” He lost his interest in the others who had been battling him this entire time and focused only on me. His blade was black like the others, thicker and heavier than mine, and despite his skeletal appearance, I knew he was strong.
Otherwise, the six of them would have killed him already.
He issued a bony smile before he came for me, ignoring everyone else who had been fighting. Like the others, he attacked with his sword with supernatural speed, every strike meant to kill, not wound.
All I could do was keep up while I learned his tactics.
Callum and Viper came into view from the side, the two of them working together to carry an enormous stone that neither man could carry alone. They swung it several times, and then on the third swing, they threw the boulder hard and it struck the demon in the side, making him tumble slightly from the collision.
I’d been prepared for it, so I rushed forward in his momentary distraction and released my flurry of blows that he was forced to block. Now I was the one who pushed my advantage, the one who drove him back as he kept up with the dance of my blade. Despite my exhaustion, I didn’t let up in speed or strength, knowing even a single lapse in either would give him the upper hand again.
Just as my father had taught me, when our blades clashed together, I spun my blade over his and forced it down. Then I brought my knee up and forced my elbows down into his arm, using my body as the weapon to crush the bones in his arm.
He screamed at the multiple fractures I caused.
I slammed my elbow against his hand and then struck it with the hilt of my sword, breaking the bone there too.
He screamed again as he dropped his sword.
Just when he dropped down to grab it, I kicked it hard, sending it sliding over the stone to where Callum and Viper stood, swinging another stone aimed at the demon I faced. On the third swing, they released it again, the stone crashing into his leg bone and sending him tumbling because he didn’t have his arm for balance.
Since he seemed to be made of bone instead of flesh, I didn’t know if he had a dark heart like the others, so I ran to where he’d landed on the stone and brought my sword down like it was an axe about to split a piece of wood in two.
I sliced straight through his neck bone, and his head rolled away.
His eyes still moved and so did his mouth, but then all of his features went still.
The exhaustion finally hit me because I was officially allowed to feel it, and I dropped to my knees to catch my breath. My fingers released the hilt of my sword, and I listened to it clang when it hit the stone.
Callum ran to me and kneeled down. “Xivin, are you hurt?”
“No. Are you?”
“No.” He turned to look at where my brother lay on the ground while my father kneeled over him.
“Is—is he okay?”
Callum continued to stare at them. Aunt Eldinar kneeled at their side and helped my father remove the plates of armor over my brother’s chest. “I don’t know.” Then his eyes found mine again, full of trepidation. He got to his feet then extended his hand to pull me up.
