I duck and dart and evade each of her attempts to make contact.
“I’m a Blacksmith,” I snarl back at her.
Even though that isn’t entirely accurate, I feel like it’s splitting hairs right now to tell her I wouldn’t have been born with this power except for my mother’s heart and even though I might control this power, I can’t access it.
But, hell, it feels nice to say it out loud.
For all of two seconds.
She misses a step, pulls her next punch, and tips her head at me. “A what?”
“A Blacksmi—”Well, fuck. Halle clearly wasn’t lying about Blacksmiths being long forgotten.
Assassins study every creature they could possibly ever come across, so if anyone would know what a Blacksmith is, they would.And… they don’t.
I shrug. “Never mind.”
The rush of energy around her only increases as she resumes her attacks, and it’s all I can do to avoid them. At some point, I’ll have to stop evading and start attacking, but I’m not there yet.
“There are only three kinds of supernatural who can see through our invisibility,” she says, her voice tighter than before, her fists and feet moving impossibly fast. “You can’t be one of the other two kinds. So you must be a fury.”
“If you say so,” I snarl. And then, on pure impulse, I follow up with a dark grin. “Maybe I’m a vulture.”
She stumbles. Given how agilely she was moving before I spoke, it’s a sure sign that I’ve surprised her, although I’m not sure how.
Her misstep takes her closer to my evasive maneuver, and my claws scrape across her side.
I didn’t mean for it to happen. Maybe I should have put away my claws, but I wanted to keep them ready.
A jolt of energy bursts through me at the contact, and it shocks me to my core.
The energy suddenly streaming from her body is lively, alert, questioning, and full of wonder.
An energy that speaks to a mind not yet fully grown.
“Fuck!” I retract my claws as fast as I can and leap away from her.
Her cry of pain meets my ears before she, too, jumps backward. The man has already thrown himself toward her, his arms wrapping around her before he pulls her away from me.
“I’m okay!” she cries to him. “I’m okay.”
But I’m not.
I could have really fucking hurt her.
“Do not fight me!” I shout at her, retracting my claws fully and extending both of my arms, palms out. “It wasn’t my intention to hurt you. Or your child.”
The woman has stayed where she is while the man’s arms are wrapped protectively around her. Her clothing is slashed from where my claws ripped through it.
She’s bleeding from multiple cuts across her stomach. With a shot of fear, I can’t see how deep they are.
Her clothing must have been designed to resist blades because I sensed the resistance in it when my claws cut through. The assassins must have thought there was no way I could slash it apart.
I force myself to keep speaking as I take careful steps away from them. “Your daughter is inquisitive. She wants to understand her world. I don’t want her to learn that creatures like me are to be hated.”
Mommy Assassin is staring at me wide-eyed, still clutching her side, her face pale with what is no doubt intense pain.
But I don’t think Daddy Assassin is listening.
