That’s even more disgusting.
Before my stomach can revolt, my eyes fall on Kya. She’s on the ground, fighting to keep one’s snapping teeth off her, while struggling to push away three more with her legs.
“My magic isn’t working!” she barks. “They can fucking subdue us now!”
No one goes to her aid, just like she promised no one would.
I’ll be damned if I just watch her die.
I grab the closest thing to me, which is a row of what I think are throwing knives. I barely notice the various symbols or different types of knives, and I start pulling them out and chucking them.
Instinct takes over, and shock radiates through me when the three knives I throw rip through the air with practiced perfection and nail all three of the creepy vampiric things in the heads. Right between the eyes.
I’m a freaking badass.
Kya’s eyes widen with surprise and a hint of gratitude, and I launch another knife at one racing up behind her before it can lay its hands on her. Again, the knife pegs the creature right between the eyes.
I don’t even know how I’m doing it, but it feels right. It’s almost too easy to be accurate, and a sense of pride swells. I just saved her life.
Kya starts launching red streaks of magic again, apparently no longer subdued, and I continue to throw the row of knives one by one.
Until I grab one near the end.
A garbled cry escapes me when a burning sensation runs from my hand up my arm, and I look down, seeing the knife glowing like the sun. My veins start glowing under the skin, matching the same golden hue of the blade, and I cry out in pain as the burning intensifies and travels through my body.
“Leah!”
Kya’s voice is drowned out by my own screams as more and more light starts to surround me, glowing brighter and brighter as though it’s growing from my body. All of my veins feel like they’re on fire, and suddenly the building power bursts free as light breaks across the yard.
Screams erupt, and panic seizes me, until I realize those screams are from the monsters and not the… well, they’re all technically monsters.
And apparently so am I.
The light continues to pour out of me, and I watch in disbelief as those things start exploding into ashes. They try to run, but the light chases them, disintegrating them as though its mission is just that.
My legs wobble as the power seizes me, and I clutch the doorway for support to keep from falling. As suddenly as it erupted, the light vanishes from sight, and I drop to my knees, unable to stand any longer.
Silence is deafening, so I look up to see all eyes on me. Most look confused, but one pair looks murderous.
Slade’s.
“Aquarius,” he says through clenched teeth.
“No, she can’t be. I’ve seen the anointed, and she’s not one of them. Her soul is—”
“Completely fucking different because of her bloodline. She’s a motherfucking Aquarius, Kya!” he roars. “The first bloodline of the anointed. They were the only ones capable of what you just saw.”
Following their conversation is impossible, and I look down to the knife in my hand. The glow is gone, but it looks polished and new instead of appearing like the antique relic it was earlier.
They’re still arguing, but the words are lost on me. The symbol on the blade calls to me, like it’s letting me know we belong together. It’s an innocuous symbol of a sun rising on the horizon. Or maybe it’s setting. I’m not sure.
“Slade, please, don’t! She just saved our lives,” Kya begs, snapping me out of my trance.
I look up just as a streak of blue barrels at my chest, but it washes over me, evaporating into thin air instead of doing any damage.
“What the fuck?” Slade growls.
Kya mouths, “Run.” Her eyes are wide and panicked, but she can’t stand up to Slade. He’d kill her too.