...
"Listen to your instincts," Lexicon urged. "And let your adrenalin take over."
"I got the girl," I yelled to Tritteon, and threw myself at her before she could react. I slammed my shoulder into her gut, knocking her across the table, away from Tritteon and the Emperor. The surface shuddered and the screen flickered.
She snarled, thrusting her feet up into my ribs and kicked me over her head. I flipped and landed on my back, grimacing as pinching pains began to eat their way across my rib cage with each breath.
"What a great start," I said to Lexicon, pretty sure I couldn't stand another blow like that.
The girl hissed and my left arm prickled in warning. I rolled to the right and the table flashed and went black as she stabbed her claws down into the place I had been, perforating the surface with ten sparking holes.
Behind me, a roar and a horrible, bone crunching filled the air, followed by heartrending screams from multiple people in the room. But I made myself ignored them. That was Tritteon's fight.
And then a crack and the huge, wooden doors at the opposite end of the room burst open. Seven, copper armored Kovei stormed into the room, their rods crackling with that gold electricity.
"Be careful. One bolt from that could turn a person to dust," Lexicon said.
I tried to keep the cringe from my face, my attention fixed on the girl still crouched a few feet in front of me. Her expression was feral, her eyes searching wildly, for what I wasn't sure. A way out? A way to finish what she's started?
But in between her moments of frantic searching, so brief I wondered at first if I'd been mistaken, her eyes went still and her brow creased, and then the searching resumed.
Two Kovei broke away from the group and grabbed the rogue Guardians' Sponsors. Neither put up a fight, both with identical expressions of devastation.
Gauwin rose slowly to her feet, her fingers cracking into fists as she realized it was over, that she had failed. Those disturbing, black eyes said everything. Except for another brief flash of something else, that stillness in her eyes and conflict in her brow. Or was that confusion?
The remaining Kovei positioned themselves around the table, training their rods on both of us. I flinched. Was I done for, too?
"Stop!" Rilyin yelled. "Stand down!"
The Kovei lowered their rods and turned their thin heads toward Rilyin like they were confused.
Tritteon jumped onto the table, his hand outstretched toward Gauwin, the air around it rippling. "What are you doing?"
"Nam, stop this!" Prince Sorrell yelled.
Gauwin let out a deep, rolling growl.
Tritteon tried a step closer. "Please. Why are you doing this?"
"Don't," she snarled.
A young girl to my right whimpered, her eyes awash with tears. "Gauwin, you don't have to die too!"
"This is not you," Tritteon continued, his deep, mesmerizing lilt a soothing caress. "Please, Nam. We can talk about this. Stand down."
"I said DON'T!" she roared.
Tritteon surrendered a step, his eyes closing for half a second in resignation.
"Let her finish the fight, Tritteon. Let Gauwin choose her fate," Rilyin said.
"No," the girl sobbed, backing up into the arms of her sponsor who had gotten to her feet, face pale.
I gave Rilyin my own incredulous look.
YOU ARE READING
The Opelux and Other Monsters || Book One
Teen FictionHer memory was taken. Her skills were not. Her very presence is a threat to everything he has ever cared for. They might make a powerful team... if they don't kill each other first. Once upon a time... In a land where the most powerful can be ki...
