Sienna Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 7 of 11

The beast moved first. It closed the distance between them in three strides, claws raking toward her throat. Sienna ducked low and drove her sword upward, catching it in the shoulder. The blade bit deep, and the creature shrieked — a sound like ice cracking under weight. It twisted away, but she followed, striking again at the joint where its front leg met its body. The beast's weight shifted, and it stumbled. She pressed forward, trading blows she couldn't afford to take. Its claw caught her side, tearing through leather and flesh. She felt the hot rush of blood before the pain hit. Another strike scored her shoulder. Another across her thigh. But she kept moving, kept her blade between them, and when the beast lunged for her throat, she turned her body and drove the sword straight into its chest. The creature went still. Its eyes dimmed from red to nothing, and the fog around its body began to dissolve. Sienna pulled her sword free, watching the beast collapse onto its side, jaw slack and claws limp against the cobblestones. One massive obsidian claw lay separated from its paw, the chipped tip stained bright red with her blood. She stood over it for three breaths, waiting to feel something other than empty. The scar on her skin had gone cold and silent. Her legs gave out before she realized she was falling. She hit the ground hard beside the corpse, her vision narrowing to a tunnel of lantern light and creeping dark. Blood pooled beneath her, spreading across the stone in a wide garnet stain that caught the moonlight. She'd done what she came to do. The beast was dead. Her squad was still gone. And she was still here, bleeding out in a square that didn't care which of them had won.