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Three seconds

The blade bit Jael thought his throat was slashed and he panicked, but he could still breathe It stung--just a cut "So sorry," came a voice--a feminine whisper close to his ear The blade was sharp and she was not careful with it Another sting, another cut, and a laugh from over his shoulder Throaty, a their heads around to stare The space in between seconds was strung with their shock and clotted with Razgut’s cries "No no no!" The fallen thing’s voice was dark with fury "Kill the his co his sword toward the chihtened around Jael Her claws sank into his side, through his clothing and into his flesh, and her knife sank a little deeper, too

"Stop!" he cried To her, to his men He was not pleased to hear that it sounded like a yelp "Stand down!" And he was trying to think what to do--five seconds--but he had sent every soldier before hi hiave herself the whole wall as barrier--and his body as barrier, too, and behind her there was nothing but an eet to her, and this was Jael’s own fault, for hiding behind a wall of soldiers

"How easily couttural "I think it wants to be free Even your own blood despises you"

"Haxaya," said Akiva, warningly--and now Jael understood that the as a name--"Our imperative was no blood"

It was too late for that Jael’s neck was slick with it "He squirirl was free of hi at the bastard’s side, the three of them abreast: human, seraph, beast, the three he’d been alerted to expect, and what of this fourth he hadn’t looked for? How had it happened? How?

When Akiva spoke again it was to Jael, casually, as if picking up a dropped thread of conversation "Other factors," he said, his voice damnably smooth and certain Other factors may turn the tide, he had said aspecial value on one life above others Your own, for example If numbers were all that mattered, you could still win here Not you personally You would die You would die first, but your ht take the day, if they decided not to care whether you lived" He paused, let his gaze h they were entities capable of choice, and not , him or them? The idea that they could answer, that they could choose his fate, appalled Jael "No" He found hiht venture another response

"You want to live," Akiva clarified

Yes, he wanted to live But it was unthinkable to Jael that his eneames with me, Beast’s Bane What do you want?"

"First," said Akiva "I want your ut’s purring chuckle and his sweating hand clenched around her wrist, and so at the moment that Akiva pronounced Haxaya’s na’s eye socket and pivoted, using the instant of his sharp surprise to wrench free Even so, she alrip had the crushing power of talons, and her skin, when she braced a foot against the bed fraed and bleeding But it ca his eye and screa--"No no no!"--and the other eye was open and wild, rolling andher moon blades now as she took up a position by Akiva’s side She on one side, Virko on the other, watching Haxaya subdue the ain, and--thanks to teeth pilfered froia--in her proper fox aspect, lithe and very fast

She wasn’t part of the plan Not initially Back in the caves, when the idea had first taken shape in Karou’s mind, Haxaya’s corpse--or Ten’s corpse, most recently vacated by Haxaya’s soul--had been its inspiration, but Karou had not in any way intended her to play a part in its fulfillht to decide later what to do with it The thurible was a sotten to place it with the others before leaving the caves Serendipity? Fate? Who knew

Whichever it was, it was how, earlier this evening, after getting an unsettling vibe froive the fox chimaera a chance to redeem herself

They had hoped not to need a shadow soldier here They had hoped, even as they slipped through the , fracturing the ht play out its simplest variant It hadn’t

But they weren’t so stupid as to have come unprepared

"Can we trust her?" the three of them had asked the, she was the only candidate for the job

"It was personal," Akiva had repeated Liraz’s words The Battle of Savvath, and whatever Liraz had done there to take such vicious vengeance in her stride When it caht that Haxaya would be able to appreciate the gravity of the mission they were on now, and the stakes, and play her part And so, it see the no-blood ih perhaps that ell played Jael hite and wide-eyed, and his voice shook as he issued the command to his soldiers to lay down their swords

"Back up," Akiva instructed theainst the walls of the chamber It was hard to think of them as individuals, as mindful creatures with souls Karou made herself look at their faces in turn, to try to see them as real, as citizens of her world who had been ht--if Akiva could, if Liraz could--unmake themselves, untrain themselves

She couldn’t see it Not yet But she could hope

Not for Jael He could be no part of the future they were building Akiva advanced toward hiht side, and Virko his left They were nearly finished here

"Listen to e of wars is over For those who return and shed no h he had the power tothe full bleakness of their own uncertainty, Karou believed in him Did the Do, and Jael was silenced by Haxaya’s knife Razgut alone was unsilent

"The age of wars?" he parroted He was at the edge of the bed, one useless leg dangling over the side, a li The eye that Karou had sunk her elbow into elling shut, but the other was still incongruously fine, alh So very black "And who are you to end an age?" he growled "Were you chosen of all your people? Did you kneel before the ers? Have you drowned stars like they were babies in a bath? I ended the First Age, and I’ll end the second, too"

And with that, he hefted a knife none had seen, and hurled it at Akiva No one moved Not in tih she ht catch the knife out of the air or at least deflect it, but it had already passed her by

Not Virko, who stood on Akiva’s other side

And not Akiva Not a hairsbreadth

And Razgut’s aim was true

The blade What Karou saas peripheral If her hand couldn’t catch the blade, her head couldn’t turn fast enough to see it enter Akiva’s heart His heart that she had pressed palm and cheek to, but not yet her own heart, not her own chest to his, or her lips to his, or her life to his, not yet The heart that moved his blood, and that was the other half of her own She saw froh She saw