Page 20 of The Star's Sword
I took my arm from him and groaned, holding it up to my shoulder and imagining I was all in one piece. That nothing could hurt me. Warm light shot through me, melting and remolding my arm at the juncture until I was whole again, but slightly sore.
“We need to get your reassembly faster as well,” Cayne said.
I nodded, rolling my shoulder tiredly as Sam jogged out to meet me.
“You okay?”
Cayne sighed, tossing his head to one side. “Sammy, you really have to stop overreacting every time Cleo gets a little dismembered. It’s going to happen.”
“And exactly what did you want her to do with that ridiculous attack?” Samael yelled at him, rubbing my shoulder gently as I rolled it in the joint and patted him on the back to go back to the bleachers.
I had this. It was my job.
So that I could take down the strongest attackers in the world. So demons like Samael didn’t have to suffer.
Samael had spent the first eight years of his life in a nightmare few could imagine, seeing things that would still kill or wound my soul to witness now.
It firmed up my resolve just thinking about it, and moved fire through my every junction. My inner demon joining the fight with my inner star.
I could relate to Sam’s multifaceted nature, because like him, I was a mix of things.
I had heightened senses and my wolf shifter form, but also my inner demon which could use hellfire and telekinesis. And my inner star, whose power seemed to be limitless, as long as I could imagine it.
That part I was still working on. Letting go and letting that most powerful magic make me into something I couldn’t imagine. That no one else was.
Cayne stepped back into the same position to attack again. He swung his sword. “Don’t use the blade this time,” he said, looking over to check that Samael was back in the stands.
I nodded, getting ready. He moved back and forth quickly, so that I couldn’t prepare from his direction of attack, and then launched into the air again. This time I raised one hand in the air and focused all of my energy on his body, on ensuring he couldn’t reach me. That he couldn’t get to my friends. That he couldn’tmove.
He froze mid-air, his huge body about twelve feet up, in a magnificent pose with both feet off the ground in a full barbarian attack, sword forward.
And as a few seconds went by with him barely moving, I realized he was stuck.
I smirked, keeping my hold on him with the energy surging through me, the pain still echoing in my shoulder.
I walked underneath him. “How you doing up there? Did I pass your test this time?”
He grunted, but couldn’t even move his neck enough to look down on me. “Damn, your telekinesis is strong. I thought you’d only be able to slow me down. I was expecting you to slow me and then match the blow this time.”
I shrugged. “Guess I don’t know my own strength.” It was hard not to laugh at him sitting up there, frozen.
“I like this art installation,” Simon called out, jeering playfully. “Can you set it up in my room? I’ll call it shirtless, flying barbarian.”
I laughed, but Cayne snorted above me.
“Don’t get cocky, Morningstar. A celestial will be using an illusion at the same time, maybe multiple. Unfreeze me, now.”
I kind of wanted to leave him up there but I did as he asked, and he fell smoothly to the ground, landing far too lightly for such a huge demon.
His pointed ears were slightly red from embarrassment as he motioned to Sam. “Samael, Mor, Simon, come out here. We’re practicing multiple attackers.”
“I’m too tired,” Simon said, yawning as he curled up in his blanket. “Wake me up when it’s time for snacks.”
“I told you. You should have fed on me yesterday,” Cayne muttered, though Simon didn’t seem to hear from his place on the bleachers. “Alright, Os, Zadis, you get out here then,” Cayne said. “Os, Samael, You’re going to be using illusions and swords. Zadis, just your blade and a few spells, since we don’t know if fae allies will be there. And Mor, you get ready with portals and melee.”
Mor cracked her knuckles, walking forward in a gray tracksuit, while Os was wearing a purple one that matched his eyes and hair. Mor was tall enough to pass for a celestial male, with short dark hair and mirror-gray eyes.
“I got you, Cayne.” She grinned at me. “I’ll try to get that arm off again.”
