Sineater

Someone was on top of me.

I looked down to see Alessa slumped over me.

“SECTUM?!” Talia pulled back my cousin as she looked at me.

“What’s wrong with her??” I leaned forward and touched her arm. Alessa was as cold as ice. My heart started beating faster as I touched her with my power. There was nothing there to heal. “What happened?”

“I don’t know!” Talia gently laid my cousin down. “I was trying to get her to leave and she looked at me and said ‘tell Sectum that he’s going to make a great king’.”

My heart crawled into my throat as what she’d done started hitting me. I couldn’t bring her back after what she’d done. Tears began to flow.

“Why?” I clenched her cold hands in mine. “I was supposed to save you. Not the other way around.”

Arkun screaming drew my attention away from my dead cousin. She’d given her life because I’d been trying to wear him down. Except he was too full of energy. He could run around the building for an hour and still have more energy than me.

I couldn’t save him.

For some reason that realization didn’t shock me as much as I thought it would. I had been trying to save him mostly for Alessa so she wouldn’t have to lose a parent so soon after finding him. And that had gotten her killed.

I picked up my sword and marched over to the King. He didn’t bother turning around as I plunged my sword through his chest.

He coughed as he turned around. “You???” He grabbed the sword behind him and began pulling it out. “I already killed you.”

His eyes trailed over where Alessa was lying, the red cross bleeding through her yellow dress.

“Baby?” The King threw the swords down and ran over to her and picked her up.

I could tell that he was trying to push his power into her, but nothing was happening. The only way that she was coming back was if he used the sacrificial part of his powers and I wasn’t sure if he was even sane enough to make that choice.

“Who did this?!?” The king looked around for a culprit and fixated on Talia. “You did this!”

He dropped Alessa like she was a rag doll and charged for the Gorgon woman.

“HEY!” I grabbed my sword and threw it at him. It hit him sideways and bounced off, but it got his attention. “SHE DIDN'T HURT ALESSA! SHE WAS TRYING TO SAVE HER!”

The King sneered at Talia, but turned towards me. “DID YOU HURT MY BABY?!?”

I grabbed the sword he’d used as the unarmed man charged me. “I didn’t hurt her either!” I pointed the sword at him. “You did.”

He almost stumbled as he stopped. Confusion was all over his face. “Me?” It was like he was counting on his fingers to walk through his memory.

“You killed me.” I got a little closer to him. “Alessa died to bring me back so I can stop you.”

His beared face contorted as he tried to register what had happened. His eyes lit up as he finally understood.

“YOU KILLED HER!”

Okay, he didn’t understand.

I was close enough that I was able to stab him, then dance away before he could grab me.

The second wound to the heart wasn't enough to bring him down either. I started looking for another sword as he pulled that one out. There were dead Golden Guards all over the place, so there were plenty of weapons to choose from.

“I’m gonna kill you again!” He raised the sword and charged.

I picked up another sword and was easily able to dodge the wild swing. This time I cut off his right hand before I danced behind him and stabbed him in the chest again. Despite being so full of life, it was like the rage was making him pause and think about the next thing he wanted to do.

The King walked over to his hand, picked it up and put it back where it was supposed to be. It only took a moment before the cut was gone and he was wiggling his fingers again.

“Come. On!” I started looking for another weapon. This was going to take a while.