Can't Cheat Death - Brennan Sorrengail

VIII: Cassian Moren Pt. 2

"Isla Riorson, Cassian Moren, you're up next!"

Red hot dread fills me to my core. Brennan shrugs from where he's standing across the mat, as if he couldn't be bothered to recognize how fucking stupid I am.

Moren is smaller than I'd like, lean muscle rippling across his bare arms and his long fingers are already twitching for a blade at his side. I try to rub the growing sweat along my palms onto my pants, but it does little to help my spiking anxiety.

"You've got this!" Iosaph slaps me hard across the back and I can't help but glare at her while she grins.

"Iosaph, not the time," I seethe, drawing in deep breaths through my clenched teeth.

She shrugs, and even behind the mischief in her eyes I can doubt growing.

Shit.

I inch towards the mat, my fingers twitching towards the blade sheathed on my hip. I won't lose. I can't.

When my feet hit the mat, the world beyond goes quiet, and I can practically hear my heart thrumming in my ears. I don't like the way he's palming the jagged blade on his hip, as if the moment our instructor calls for the go ahead, he plans to drive it through my heart. He probably does.

"Weapons?"

"Fine with me," Moren says, his eyes not straying from me.

Of course you are, I want to say, but I keep the thoughts to myself. "Fine."

"Ready? Fight!"

Before I can stop to think, I'm lunging for Cassian, dagger in hand. The blade arches along its path, all the strength I can manage flung into the strike. He side steps my blade, meeting it with his own dangerously serrated blade. The sharp clang of metal on metal is jarring, as is the full pressure of his body weight pressing into mine. I notice his second hand has reached for another dagger at his thigh and he's swinging towards my ribs. I twist away, and I can almost feel the air brushing against my midriff as his arm swings past.

He's too close to me, but each time I try to step out of reach he's on me again, our blades meeting again and again, each of us dodging just in the nick of time to avoid any blood drawn. We're a good match up, I'll give the professors that. Up until now I'd only ever fought big hulking men with too much pride and not enough agility, but now, up against someone more my size and ability, this match up seems painfully set up. Some sort of test.

My chest is heaving in my chest, my muscles screaming for some reprieve, but I refuse to give in. Another slash of his serrated dagger brushes my shoulder, and this time it draws blood. The wound burns like something unholy, and it's as if he's dragged the blade through layers of muscle and not just skin. Note to self, avoid that dagger like your life depends on it.

Our blades meet again but before we can lock into another battle of wills I shove against his blade, sending him stumbling a few feet back. But just as quickly as he's forced away, he's on me again one blade poised to strike at my neck and the other reaching for my abdomen. Throwing my arm up, I'm just able to block the first blade and lean out of reach of the second though the blade still clips my side.

Anger begins to rise up. I have to hit him. I have to. He's drawn blood twice and I've not even managed to nick him. Warm blood seeps through my shirt, dripping down across my shoulder and side, hot and sticky. I want to draw my hand up to cover the wounds and the tender flesh around them but Cassian is a whirlwind of brazen metal. I force myself to lunge, bringing my dagger down in a haze of pain and anger, no clear direction in my attack except for down.

He dropped to the ground, rolling beneath my blade and far too close for comfort, slipping between my legs and disappearing behind my back.

I lean forward, dropping into a roll and when I look back at him the serrated dagger had drawn a line straight through where my skull had been. My heart is a hammer in my chest, and although every instinct in my body is screaming at me to run, to yield to Cassian, my pride is stronger, and I'd rather die than give him the satisfaction of beating me.

Gritting my teeth I lunge forward again, forcing him to yield a few steps to me as I slam my blade into his again and again and again. In his retreat, Cassian stumbled over his feet, and I aim my blade for his sternum. Time slows as I watch the blade inch closer and closer towards his black shirt, but before my blade can strike to his arm has come up to mine and shoves my elbow off course. But there's blood. I've never been so happy to maim another human being, and it leaves a sick taste in my mouth as I watch his shoulder drip with the dark red liquid.

I pull my arm back again, the taste of victory on my tongue and I slash down for his throat.

White hot pain blooms across my whole body. My ears are ringing and the whole world has tilted sideways. I don't know what's happening, everything is dark around me, as if all the light in the world had suddenly been extinguished and replaced with brain numbing agony. Something wet coats my fingers, hot and slick as they reach blindly for the source of the pain. My tongue is wet with it, and I want to throw up everything in my body when I realize what the burning metal in my mouth is.

Blood.

There is blood in my mouth. There is blood coating my hands. It's everywhere. It's everywhere.

I can't breathe. It's as if my lungs have decided to stop working. If the pain wasn't so burning my fingers would be tearing into my chest, forcing my body open to the cold air around me.

It's so hot. Everything around me burns like hell has risen up from the ground, and yet my body quakes like a snowstorm. My blood has been set on actual fire, and I am burning alive. That's the only logical explanation I can think of through the pain and the blood and hot and the cold.

Stop

Stop

Please

Make it Stop

__

A/N:

Hey y'all!

So sorry for the short chapter, I wanted to get something posted so I wouldn't leave y'all hanging until next week! Things have been crazy with school, and this is concert weekend, so I am running around like no one's business 😭. This week is Thanksgiving (Happy Thursday to my non-American friends) so I will try to get another update posted before next Saturday since I'll be off from school on Wednesday!

Love y'all and all the support! It is so immensely appreciated!