walls echoed her shout back at her, filling the ruins with her rage. "You low-down yellow bastard!"
So great was the sound of her wrath that she did not hear the rushing of bare feet behind her until it was too late. When it reached her ears, Cora turned on her heel, the revolver's barrel sweeping across the crumbling heart of the ancient city.
Something hit her in the chest with a sound like a punch. The animal eyes of the skin-walker filled Cora's vision as a wetness began seeping into her shirt. Looking down, she saw the witch's fingers wrapped around a bone hilt. The hunter's brow furrowed. Why could she only see the hilt? Where had the rest of the knife gone?
Another scream rose from somewhere beyond the ruins. Cora tried to take a breath. Her lungs filled with excruciating fire. Brown eyes, now rimmed with white, found her enemy's gaze once again.
"What...?"
The word burned in her throat. A cough burst from her lips, sending the world into a white haze of agony. Her body suddenly felt very heavy. She needed to sit down for a moment. The jolt as she fell to her knees unleashed another crippling wave of pain through her chest. Cora coughed again, dimly aware of the blood that now dotted the skinwalker's legs.
"You should have stayed away."
The voice rang in her ears, offering the hunter an anchor in the vortex of pain and confusion. Her brown eyes cleared, focusing on her enemy's face. Words formed on blood-spattered lips, but she couldn't find the breath to say them. More coughing, more drops of red on the witch's skin.
Cora swayed for a moment, struggling to stay upright. The world around her descended into a murky haze of dust and starlight. She was swept away by the maelstrom, pitching backward onto the packed earth. The impact made her draw in an uneven gasp only to expel it in another thick, wet fit of coughing. Rolling into her side, she doubled up against the pain, covering her mouth with her hand as the spasms ran their course.
When they finally subsided, Cora forced herself up onto her elbow. Her gun had fallen nearby. She could still finish the job if she could just find it. There was still time. Her eye caught on a faint glimmer of silver in the moonlight, and she reached for it.
A hand grabbed her wrist, pulling her backward. Cora fought against it, but the agony in her chest stole her strength. Forced onto her back, she watched in a daze as the hand curled around the hilt of the knife and pulled. Fresh waves of agony flooded the world as her wail returned to her ears again and again, magnified by the unfeeling stone. Her hands covered the wound as if it were an indecency, blood seeping between her fingers.
Mustering the last of her strength, Cora looked up at the skin-walker. "Damn....bitch...."
Those animal eyes regarded her. "You would have done the same." Kneeling down, the witch wiped the knife on the hem of Cora's pants. Cora tried to kick her, but she could only manage a feeble stirring of her boot. It was just too heavy for her to move.
When the weapon was clean, the skin-walker rose and turned her back on the fallen hunter. "You fought well," she said. Cora tried to answer, but the words drowned in the fluid welling up from her lungs.
The witch walked away in silence. Eyes fixed on the back of her enemy, Cora tried once more to rise, to recover her gun and take the life of the woman who had taken hers, but her body refused to respond. Another coughing fit took hold of her, and all awareness disappeared beneath a fresh blossom of pain. Cora could feel her life leaving her with every agonizing spasm as blood from her wound and her lips mingled with the ancient dust.
When the coughs faded away once more, Cora looked up at the stars. They seemed dimmer now, as though they were dying with her. A surge of anger swept through her. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. She was Cora Oglesby. No squaw could lay her out, especially with nothing more than a stone knife. Her fingers curled into a weak fist. She held it for a moment, intending to raise it and pound the ground in anger, but it was such an effort, and she was getting so tired. The anger flowed out with her blood,