How long can I keep this up?
Then, as I spin away from another volley of his shadows, I slip on the ice. I land hard on my back.
He’s there above me.
His shadows wrap around my throat in the next moment, squeezing hard as I scrabble for breath.
“How the tables have turned,” Kratos sneers. “How the mighty have fallen.”
He squeezes harder, so hard I can feel my ears popping inside my head.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you slowly, Beaufort. You don’t deserve a quick, simple death.”
I try to breathe. Try to think. But all I can think of is my panic to breathe, the need for oxygen to fill my lungs.
They’re screaming inside my chest. My throat burns. My eyesight dims.
I scrabble at his shadows, fight them with all my might.
It’s not enough.
I am not enough.
I try to kick him. Try to spin myself around. But he simply steps aside, laughing as he does, kicking me instead right in the ribs and sending another punch of shadow magic into my gut.
I don’t even grunt. There’s no breath left in my body to do so.
Black begins to encroach my vision.
I have only seconds left.
I fight. I fight so damn hard.
But he’s beaten me.
First and only time, he’s beaten me.
My eyes drift shut. My shadows slip away. The world spins. Laughter rings in my ears. My hands drop lifelessly to my sides. And I hear a voice.
“Hey, boys, what are you doing?”
I pry open my eyes with the little strength I have left and blink up. My vision is blurred and swimming with tears, dark fraying at the edges.
Henrietta blinks straight back down at me. She has a sword in one hand, a club in the other, and a pair of nunchucks slung over her shoulders.
“Did the fun start without me?”
“Fuck off, Henrietta,” Kratos growls at her.
I can’t be sure – my vision is seriously screwed up – but I think she sticks her tongue out at him. Then she tosses the sword down to me. I reach up and catch it instinctively, my hands curling around the hilt.
Thunderstrike.
I can feel my magic buzzing again already. I can feel the sword responding to my touch.
I don’t waste a moment or miss a heartbeat. I swing the sword through the air, slicing through Kratos’s shadow magic,gasping for air as my throat is released, and then plunging the sword straight through his heart.
He looks at me, his gaze falling to his chest. His mouth hangs open in disbelief. He grips the blade, his hands running with blood.
