I frowned, not sure what she meant. Static rolled through my mind, a sound of frustration if ever I'd heard it.
Open, she growled, join you.
Meaning she wanted me to open myself fully to her? Wanted me to allow her—a demon spirit encased in steel—free rein to run through me? Control me?
Not, she said. One.
I shivered. The one thing I'd feared from the moment I'd plunged her steel into my flesh and felt the surge of her power was that she would somehow gain a foothold in my mind and make me more like her. And now she was asking me to grant her the freedom to leave the sword and fully become one with me.
Every instinct I had suggested it would be a very bad move.
But if my only chance of survival was to do what I feared the most, then do it I would. That determination was what had driven me to confront Jak and ask for his help, and it still drove me now.
I just had to hope that once I'd given her freedom, Amaya would step back into steel when all this was over.
And that was one thought to which she didn't reply.
The air stirred to my left. I swung around, stabbing Amaya in front of me. The exotic Rakshasa laughed softly—from the right, not the left. Something hard and cold hit my back and I jumped away, swearing as I swung around. Again, I hit nothing but air.
Blood was now running freely down the back of my legs, and every drop that hit the stone seemed to make the heartbeat stronger.
"The sleep of our god ends," she whispered, this time in front of me. "Soon he will awaken fully, and then we will bleed you out."
"Not if I can help it." To Amaya, I said, Let's do it.
Invite, she whispered, excitement in her tone.
Trepidation shivered through me, but it wasn't like I had a lot of options left. I took a deep breath, then silently said, Amaya, become one with me.