shallow wound and gave Mave another source of blood. She remembered the mistakes she’d made fighting Lothen. She couldn’t make them here. She couldn’t call too much and kill herself in the process.
Mave tried to go on the offensive, but Kristanya deflected her attack with ease and sliced into Mave’s bicep before she could pull away.
“I’ll kill you with a thousand cuts if you don’t want to die quickly,” Kristanya said, smiling. “If you really think you can win, I’ll destroy you slowly. It’s been a long time since someone truly gave me a chance to practice.”
Mave was a toy, and Kristanya was going to play with her.
Their blades clashed, and Mave tried to hold strong. If she faltered, Kristanya could cut her in half. Her muscles screamed, wondering how her opponent could be so strong. She had to break the block and jump, wincing as the blade slid over her shoulder.
Mave kept calling on power as Kristanya continued to attack. It was relentless. Mave felt chased, she felt beaten, and it had only begun.
“You think you can hold the darkness and conquer death?” Kristanya roared, both taunting and furious as she cut into Mave again. “Do you think you could represent me on the mortal plane?”
“Yes!” Mave answered, kicking the goddess back, finally getting a hit. It wasn’t a blood, though. It was purely defensive, and the goddess only moved back two steps. “I do,” Mave growled. “I think I can. On the mortal plane, I have conquered death time and time again. I have overcome, and I have been a bringer of it. You know that.”
“Prove it now, then!” Kristanya laughed, spinning her blades. “Prove that your dark core is as deep and cold as my own. Prove to me when you have nothing left, you can call upon that last bit of yourself.”
The goddess attacked again. Mave roared and met her, their swords hitting hard enough to make the world shake with the sound. One of Mave’s moroks broke, the steel snapping in two. She ducked, so Kristanya couldn’t take her head.
Mave tried to kick Kristanya’s feet out from underneath her, but the goddess jumped the attempt and kicked Mave in the face, sending her head back to crack into the rock and dirt of the mountain.
Her ears were ringing, but Mave overcame the daze and kept moving. She didn’t fall into the past, long over that weakness. She was Mave, and she was an Andinna warrior, fighting a goddess. The horrors of the pits and Elliar were long behind her. They had made her stronger.
She dodged Kristanya’s next two vicious attacks but once again, found herself on the back foot. The fight continued as Mave began to breathe hard. Kristanya pressed her to keep moving around the peak, knowing if she ran too far, she would enter the storm and be swept away. Trapped in this small space with a goddess bent on her death, Mave reached into herself.
She didn’t try to heal her wounds. She only yanked more power from her blood and flooded her body with it.
When Kristanya swung again, launching the next deadly attack, Mave was able to block the first two swings and deliver a counterattack. It didn’t land, but it made Kristanya jump back, which gave Mave the opening she needed to press forward and take charge.
“You call upon the blood of the living,” Kristanya said with a grin as Mave tried everything she knew to break the goddess’s defenses. “And that power fades every moment you use it.”
Mave knew the goddess was right. Every swing meant Mave had to call more power to maintain. Every injury allowed more power to slip away and weakened her body.
Mave was too slow with a single strike, and Kristanya took advantage, cutting Mave open across the back of her hand. Her remaining sword flew from her hand, and when Mave looked down as she ran, she saw black blood flowing from her injury, not red.
Her legs were shaking as she grabbed her sword in time to stop Kristanya from delivering a final blow. She held the sword above her as Kristanya pressed down on her with both of her own.
Mave stared into the goddess’s black eyes, her mind frantic.
No. I can’t lose here. I can’t fail them. I have to do this for my family. All of them. The ones who brought me out of the darkness. I need to do this for them.
Mave reached into herself, deeper than she ever had, and pulled