you should probably focus on fighting instead.” She jumped back as the top half of her sword clattered on the floor.
I half expected the queen to stop the duel at her courtier’s confession. Wishful thinking. It might have been a surprise to her court, but it was no surprise to the queen.
Teaghan studied me from a distance. “Enchanted dagger, huh?” She glanced at the broken sword in her hand. She tossed the hilt to the side and pulled two daggers, one in each hand. “I have some of those as well.”
She didn’t mention the spell, or the confession. Her goal was to kill me. Nothing else.
She circled me. I turned, keeping her in sight. She lunged forward, and I jumped to the side. She missed by over a foot, but pain seared across my upper arm.
Blood soaked my sweater. My blood.
What the hell?
She lunged again. Missed. But a cut opened on the back of my dagger hand, and another on my forearm.
Fuck. What was the enchantment on her daggers? What was a safe distance?
In a distant part of my brain, I noticed the buzz of cheering from the audience. Not all, but I didn’t have time to see who was rooting for her despite her confession, and who was just hoping to watch some bloodshed.
She lunged again, driving me back. From the corner of my eye I saw the shadow of her dagger nick my shadow. A deep gash opened on my shoulder.
Mind your shadow. That was what Dugan had told me. Now I knew why. She didn’t have to hit me. Just my shadow. I’d slowly bleed to death.
And I’d never get close enough to use the truth spell again.
I scrambled away from her, searching for an angle where my shadow wouldn’t hang out in front of me. But the light in the court came from everywhere. Faint shadows stretched out from me in all directions.
How could I change my shadow? By changing the light. If I could summon a little ball of glowing glamour directly above me it would chase away the shadows. But that was outside my ability. I couldn’t control glamour. Hell, I needed a charm just to stop from glowing all the time—
Oh.
I reached up and pulled the chameleon charm from my neck. Its concealing effect shattered and my natural Sleagh Maith glow broke free. I became my own light source.
My shadow vanished.
“Aw, you’re no fun,” the other fae said, giving me a mock pout as she straightened. Then she switched the grip of her dagger and hurled it at me.
I jumped aside. The blade sliced off a curl beside my ear. Teaghan held up her hand, and the damn dagger stopped. Turned. Then it shot back toward me again.
Fuck.
I hit the ground, panting. The blade whizzed over me.
She threw it again. I dodged the first pass, but the second one caught my shoulder. The cut was only a grazing blow, but I was now bleeding from at least four spots.
This was not going to work.
My own dagger jerked in my hand. I followed it. My blade caught the guard of her dagger just as her blade sliced through my biceps. This wound was deeper. But as my dagger impacted hers, slicing into the hilt, the flying dagger made a sizzling sound. Then it dropped like a lead weight, its enchantment fried.
Teaghan snarled again. I’d ruined two of her weapons, but while I was bleeding from numerous wounds, I hadn’t even scratched her yet.
“I’m getting bored now,” Teaghan said. “Let’s finish this.” She pulled a short sword from a sheath on her back and stalked toward me.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Ryese produce something from beneath his cloak. A yellow stone the size of his fist glittered in his hand.
No.
It was the stone from the revelry. The one that had almost certainly triggered my basmoarte to spread at an unprecedented rate. If he triggered it now, and I passed out, I was dead.
He was cheating, interfering with the duel—not that I expected anything else from him.
I opened my mouth to call him on it, but the queen’s hand closed over his wrist. I thought, for a heartbeat, that she was stopping him from cheating. Then her wide eyes darted from the stone to her own purple wound.
She didn’t want him to trigger my basmoarte and possibly be caught herself. He had the cure, but I bet it wouldn’t reverse the damage. No way would she want her perfect flesh tainted.