Go. Tallis had sheathed his seaxes to move the boulder, which meant he felt damn near naked. He flicked his gaze between Pashkah and Kavya. Get your woman out of here and go.
Im not leaving while he lives, Chandrani said.
Pashkah blinked . . . and Chandrani screamed.
She collapsed onto her knees. She pressed her hands around her skull.
Thats what you get for being a thorn in my side for too long, Chandrani, dear. Anyone who protects or harbors my sister will receive the same. Pashkah trained his viciously vacant expression on Tallis. I wonder how little effort it would take to lobotomize a Pendray.
The charged-up urges gathering in Talliss blood had become a hurricane contained within skin. He smiled broadly. Im up for it if you are.
That unreserved joy seemed to upset Pashkah more than the words, with his brow drawing into a blink-quick frown. Try me, Reaper beast.
Tallis let himself go.
With seaxes instantly in hand, the world whirled into shades of scarlet and lead. His peripheral vision became steam. Formless. Irrelevant. His focus trained on Pashkahs sword. In the heartbeats worth of time between ordinary and extraordinary, Tallis had identified the weapon as the crux of the standoff. Without it, Pashkah could injure but not kill. The Black Guardsmen still held their captives. They might kill the young women if they escaped through the archway, but Tallis wouldnt let their vulnerability influence Kavya. Nor would he divert his energy.
The sword was the key.
He homed in on the glinting golden glow. The power of the Chasm lived within its luster. Talliss swords would be cleaved in two if struck by that blade. Nothing commonplace could withstand its potency.
He whipped his body into a greater, faster ragehyper-focused, yet frighteningly mindless. The part of him that had lived too long among the humans dropped away. He was a creature of energy and the elements. The earth flowed up through his feet. He struck quick-patter steps across the valleys granite floor.
Slicing Pashkahs hand off shouldve been an easy task. But the fleeting moments before he sacrificed his rationality left him open to telepathic attack. Pashkah lanced his body with pain and filled his thoughts with bile, sugar-spun lies, and dizzying misdirection. Tallis saw images of flowers, bloody teeth, entrails, grains of sand in an hourglass no larger than a childs palm. He felt the wind against his face as if fire and acid had joined with a tempest to flay his face.
His gift fought back. He hadnt given in to its entirety in years. The monster was immune to Pashkahs meddling, because the monster dwelled deeper than consciousness. Whatever Pashkah was doing to his higher thoughts no longer bothered Tallis. Whatever had sparked the confrontation no longer mattered. All that his deepest instincts remembered was the sword.
He spun his seaxes like fan blades. But when he attacked Pashkah, he did so with his teeth.
He bit .
A scream echoed down to where Tallis existed, as if his mind
had plummeted into a well. His jaw locked. He wouldnt let go. Only when a chunk of flesh ripped free did he rear back. The sword was limp in Pashkahs hand, but he was strong. He held on to it, swung, missed.
Tallis spat the mouthful of flesh onto the ground and smiled.
Clutching his wrist, Pashkah continued to rage in a distant corner of Talliss mind, but Tallis attacked with his seax. Steel sliced skin and muscle. A crack of bone was satisfying. A second splintering sound was even better. His enemy shrank back. Female shrieks split the air. Only when Pashkah fled through the archway did Tallis turn on the guards.
It was intoxicating to be so pure, so graceful, so at one with his body.
The first guard lost a foot. The second tried what his leader had donemental attack. Yet he was quicker to give up a useless tactic. He shoved his captive away and drew a broadsword that had originated in the Isles where berserkers ran mad. Did this Indranan expect to best Tallis with a Pendray weapon? He nearly laughed. He was smiling with the contentment of a man whod been unexpectedly released from prison.
Two strokes later, the guards sword clanged to the ground. The hand that held it still gripped the hilt.
The women had stopped screaming. They huddled around golden, silken Kavya.
Tallis needed to get them out before his rage subsided. The return to his waking mind promised untold pain. Whatever Pashkah had inflicted wouldnt dissipate quickly. Tallis needed the animal to protect himself from that crippling agony.
Kavya, he said, like a wolf given leave to speak. He shouldered his pack. We go.
She glanced at the freed women, who continued to whimper. Theyre coming with us.
We go. Now.
With them . She was angry and terrified. Disgusted and amazed.
Beautiful.
The animal was honest. Tallis wanted her. He wanted her in every way a man could have a woman. Rough. Fast. Merciless.
With tenderness.
He would take her. One day. She would fight it and love it and he would hold her in the aftermath.