the letter G in the center, a mark that signified I came from the Graykey line, and therefore I carried the Graykey curse.
Meaning I should be filled with bloodlust right now, too, murdering the rest of my family like everyone else.
But I didn’t feel like killing anyone. Especially anyone in my own family, who had raised me and protected me and nurtured me my entire life. The idea actually turned my stomach sour.
Did this mean I was immune to the bloodlust too? Just like Grandpa Obediah had been in the last reaping?
I hoped so. I didn’t want to become feral.
“Why won’t you just die already?” a man roared over the sound of clanging metal.
I knew his voice. Daddy’s middle brother, Uncle Palmer, had always kind of scared me.
After seeing the way he’d cut down my father only minutes ago, that fear wasn’t going to fade anytime soon either.
“You first,” a woman answered, straining and panting from the effort she must be putting into fighting him off.
I sucked in a breath, also recognizing her voice. Uncle Palmer’s wife, Taiki, was my favorite aunt. She always took the time to pause whatever she was doing to teach me something new and interesting. And she smiled and laughed when she did it, as if she truly enjoyed my company. Usually, I just annoyed everyone with my relentless questions and curiosity. But Aunt Taiki called me refreshing.
I bolted upright when she cried out after a particularly loud thump.
If Aunt Taiki died, who would be left?
Only the frightening murderers, that’s who. Certainly no one who’d walk down to the stream with me and try to spot minnows and crawlers in the water. Certainly no one who’d snuggle close to me in front of a warm fire when it was storming outside and tell me funny stories to keep me from being scared. Certainly no one who enjoyed my questions and called me refreshing or could make an entire room seem as if the sun had just come out from behind a cloud whenever they smiled.
Aunt Taiki couldn’t die, too. She just couldn’t.
Since she had married into the family and wasn’t a blood-born Graykey, I knew she wasn’t held under the thrall of bloodlust. Like Mama, she was probably only fighting right now to either defend herself or someone else.
My entire body began to shake. I knew she needed help. But I was so scared. I couldn’t seem to make myself move. If I left my hiding spot, I’d surely die. But if I lost Aunt Taiki on top of Mama, and Daddy, and Grandma, and Grandpa, and Quatro, how could I live, anyway?
Realizing I physically could not handle losing anyone else today, I found the will to move and shoved my way to my feet before darting out from under the stone stairwell.
Uncle Palmer had Aunt Taiki backed into a wall. Her sword lay nearly ten feet away, and blood seeped from a wound on the side of her face as she slipped down to sit on the ground and was barely able to lift one limp arm to defend herself. She looked defeated. Done.
With a sneer of triumph, Uncle Palmer lifted his own sword and reared it back to deliver her death blow. “I’ve wanted to do this from the moment I met you,” he announced.
“No!” I screamed.
Lifting both hands, I spread my fingers wide and—palms aimed in his direction—I pushed the air at him, compelling it to blow until it rushed right into him and shoved him off his feet and away from his wife.
Surrendering to my gift of persuasion, the air made a mighty, roaring wall, flowing up and separating him from Aunt Taiki so he couldn’t reach her again after he regained his footing, no matter how much he hollered and fought against it, trying to break through.
In return, Aunt Taiki scrambled from the floor and snatched up her fallen sword with both hands. Screaming a warrior’s cry, she summoned all the strength she could muster and swung the weapon, spinning her body in a full circle before she let go of her hold and threw the blade forward.
The sword sailed through my wall of air and caught Uncle Palmer right in the chest. He choked out his surprise and clutched the metal before tipping over backward, plummeting to the ground, dead.
“Aunt Taiki!” Letting go of my hold on the air, I rushed to her, needing someone to hold me and take care of me before I fell to pieces.