She had to.
His pixie comrades needed him as they battled the Indies. Their party was outnumbered threefold, and one of the pixies—Biren, Sean thought his name was—already lay motionless on the floor.
Kiana, another of their pixie warriors, leapt onto an advancing Indy. Sean raised the gun David had thrown him as a man pulled a pistol from his jacket, aiming for her. He’d never shot a gun, never even held one, but David’s knowledge zapped through their connection.
With a squeeze of the trigger, the human was felled. Trystian disbanded the Indy within. Sean threw himself into the chaos, firinghis gun at any Indy who drew close enough. It only held seven rounds, but it was enough to improve their odds. Once empty, Sean threw the weapon to the floor and yanked out his knife.
None of the other Indies possessed firearms. A lucky break. Most attacked with fists or knives. Blades carved through flesh, spattering the dirty floor with crimson.
Sean tried to spare the humans. He shifted the dagger to his left hand, sparing his dominant to blast the Indies with Luster. First one, then two more, the humans screamed in agony as the Indy inside was torn from their consciousness. They blinked, confused and frightened amid the madness.
The other members of his party, however, killed at will. Sean’s mercy only left the human bodies free to possess when an Indy’s current host died. He thought of the life growing in Isobel’s womb—the one he wasn’t sure was protected by her magic. With a heavy heart swiftly covered with David’s ice, Sean revised his strategy.
He drove his blade into the stomach of a man barely older than himself. Crumpling to the floor, the man whimpered as Sean sheared the Indy from his body.
He left him there to bleed to death.
David’s ice slithered, numbing Sean to it all.
“Ashanta!” Bowenn shouted.
Sean spun in time to catch a woman as she leapt at him. They tumbled to the floor, his knife clattering away. She scrambled on top of him and sank a small blade between his ribs. A white hot sting seared through his flesh. Sean grunted, twisting and grabbing until he rolled on top of her.
Weaponless, he had nothing except his hands, but they were enough. He slammed his fist into the woman’s temple. Her head struck the concrete floor with a thud.
She blinked, dazed, her body softening beneath him. One more blow, and she was out.
Sean lurched to his feet, bright sparks of pain striking from the knife wound between his ribs. He took stock of the room. Bodieslittered the floor. Another of the pixie warriors had fallen, blue eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling.
Sean shoved that beneath the ice.
His father, Bowenn, and three of the pixies still brawled the remaining Indies.
Only a dozen left.
Sean swiped up his knife and dove back into the fray. He felled one with a quick jab to the stomach, another to the throat, and Trystian took care of the Indies within their bodies. With only a handful left, he and Kywyn paired up, leaving the others to the rest. They stood back to back, knives out, facing down a circle of Indies.
“Sean?” his father said.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t hesitate.”
Sean had no time to contemplate what he meant. The fight exploded in a blur of silver blades and ragged breath. The two of them moved in sync, backs pressed together, carving through the swarm. His father’s presence was a tether, a reminder he wasn’t alone in this deadly dance.
A blow caught Sean by surprise, but he parried with a strong drive of his blade. Hot blood pulsed over his hand as he struck something vital, and his victim gasped. With a blast of Luster, the Indy was dead and the human collapsed, heaving, to the floor.
Kywyn stood from his own victim, and their eyes met a moment. An Indy darted for Kywyn, but Sean jumped in the way. A fist landed in his stomach, and he barely managed to dodge the swing of a blade. Kywyn grabbed his shoulders and shoved him out of the way, facing the Indy himself.
The fight turned savage. Breathless, Sean turned to his own enemy.Swing, feint, block.In a few practiced moves, his opponent was bleeding on the floor. He turned to help his father.
Blades flashed between the fighters, neither of them making headway. Heart pounding, Sean ran to join his father. They fought as one, like they’d been doing it forever, until suddenly…
A slight misstep on Sean’s part left him open to attack. With the pain between his ribs, the pounding in his chest, the fear for his other half, Sean was too slow to dodge. He tried to lunge away, but Kywyn had already moved—right into the path of the blade.
The knife arced and buried deep in Kywyn’s chest.
His gasp was louder than anything else in the room.
