Nikolach’s eyes were overly bright as he straightened, pain masked beneath whatever drug he was on. “Lies, lies, lies. Losing so much product must have cost him dearly.” He gestured with the axe to our general location. “Why else would he resort to this?”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Our meeting here,” he snickered again. “Don’t tell me you thought it was coincidence I found you here?”
I had believed it was horrendously bad luck.
“Oh, you didn’t know.” He gave me a predatory grin. “Poor stupid girl. Yeshar told me the date of the final exam. Where to find you. Can’t even afford to deliver. Deliberate. No–” He seemed caught in an internal struggle for a moment. “Delegate. Can’t even afford todelegatehis own dirty work anymore,” he made a clucking noise with his tongue.
How had Yeshar known what route I’d follow to Lake Mirae? Fear slithered through me, locking my limbs.
Now wasn’t the time to get caught up thinking about it. Nikolach wasn’t relaxing his grip on the axe at all, despite his injuries. My best bet was to wrestle it away from him.
Diving for the axe’s handle, I put my full body weight into the move like I was trying to grapple it. Nikolach might outmuscle and outweigh me, but having a weapon would even the odds.
He gripped it tighter with both hands, hugging it toward him as we wrestled for it. The sour stench of dust on his breathwas repugnant even beneath the cloying scent of the storm overhead. He giggled as we struggled. I kneed his shin and stomped his feet, alternating between tugging and twisting to try to free the blade from his hands.
Nikolach kneed me in the gut.
Gasping for breath, I doubled over, releasing the axe and falling back into the muck. He took the opportunity to slice my shoulder as he tore the axe back to himself.
Red hot pain exploded, wound red liquid spilling down my arm. I screamed.
It wasn’t enough. All the training was useless against his superior size, and the unfair advantage of the weapon he held.
The hissing grind of thunder cut off some of Nikolach’s words as he raised the blade over his head. “—no one fucks with me and lives.”
This was it. I was dead.
The Sun glyph could ensure our mutual destruction. It might be a more pleasant way to go.
What would it feel like?
Before I could decide, the whistling rush of air from the strike coming down fanned my face.
Down isn’t done.
I rolled away at the last second, scrambling back up with a fistful of grimey sludge in both hands. One grip held a rock at the center of the mud. The axe was lodged deep into the ground, and Nikolach was struggling to free it.
Lightning flared.
Flinging the mud at his face, he flinched away and wiped it away–as I knew he would.
I didn’t wait.
With the other hand, I pounded the rock into the same ear I’d punched earlier, hard. Blood spilled out from his ear andhe shouted a curse. Delivering the blow hurt my shoulder. I kept going, clubbing him again with the rock in the same spot.
Once. Twice. Three times.
He collapsed like the strings on his marionette had been cut, unconscious.
With a guttural snarl, I kicked him with my boots. Aiming for his spine. His kneecaps. His skull.
My rage was bottomless. I slammed my heel down on his elbows, his gut. Kicking his hands, his teeth.
Nightmares didn’t need sleep to haunt the mind. Nikolach had tormented my thoughts for months.
I wanted to bury him, to never live afraid again.
