The sound of ringing steel fills the air.
Light flashes across their curved blades as both Glaive and Griffin draw their weapons. The angle at which they’re standing allows me to clearly see the weapons, and the tips pointed at me.
I’ve never seen swords like these. They are sleek, curved, and so sharp that the edges reflect the moonlight.
“Move aside,” Glass commands me, rising to her feet where she has remained opposite me.
She hasn’t drawn her weapon yet, and she takes several steps back, so I presume she will allow the other two the honor of killing me. Based on her present position, I guess she doesn’t want blood splatter on her armor.
She waits another heartbeat while I remain exactly where I am.
I am where I belong. Beside Erik.
A short, frustrated sigh escapes her lips. “Such a waste.”
Then she gives a nod to the other two generals, who raise their swords, their postures filled with purpose as they prepare to swing at my neck.
It will be a swift execution.
Judging by the way they’re holding their blades, the black-haired Griffin will cut my head from my neck while the auburn-haired Glaive will drive her sword at an angle through my shoulder and down into my heart.
My mind fills with the memory of Erik’s voice.
“Let me sit beside you, where it’s peaceful.”
“Let it end here with you and me,” I whisper.
The air moves across my back as the two razor-sharp blades swing toward me.
Chapter 13
But not today.
I drop and twist, my left hand snapping out, my fingers closing around my hammer’s handle.
My forward drop takes me down onto Erik’s chest and out of the path of Griffin’s blade, which sails harmlessly through the air where my neck was located only a heartbeat earlier.
Glaive’s blade was a second slower than Griffin’s—not because she’s weaker, but because that’s undoubtedly how they time their executions.
But it gives me the barest moment to twist out of her path.
Only just.
The blade’s edge slices across my fur coat, cutting open the material and letting the freezing air in.
Then the hammer is in my hand and I’m swinging it upward.
Its handle clashes against the edge of Glaive’s sword, knocking it away from me.
The moment the hammer is in my hand, my power explodes across the clearing, lighting it up so brightly that the Celestial Star’s now-distant form disappears completely.
Strength floods me, every muscle in my body firing.
Swinging the hammer is effortless. Even though I’m aiming it backward, a move that would ordinarily be difficult and carry less power. But the hit I land against Glaive’s sword is so powerful that she’s knocked backward, stumbling and then sliding to right herself.
Her eyes have flown wide.
Now that I have full access to my power, I can sense everything within the clearing.
