His Shadow Luna

Chapter 8: Shadows-2

She stumbled. This was so unexpected… In that form… she couldn't have been wounded that easily.

Another shadow blade formed out of nowhere and stabbed her back. Then one more and one more, followed by many.

We need to run! Bia was panicking.

She is a shadow wielder! Elene spat blood. One of the Changed ones!

A wave of disbelief and regret washed over her. How cruel was her fate to give her such a revelation? This was clearly a divine gift, which meant the woman had most likely taken part in the same battle as Elene had. Only,Elene did not receive any special powers from it, but some cruel assassin had. Why was this happening? Weren't the gods supposed to take care of good mortals? Elene sure knew she wasn't perfect, but she couldn't possibly be worse than a murderer!

"My name is Aconite." The woman finally emerged from the shadows, knowing that her opponent was properly weakened by now.

Elene steadied her breath, carefully planning her next move. All she needed was to get through all the shadows.

Easier said than done, Bia admitted regretfully.

"Running's futile, Princess," Aconite taunted, her voice laced with malice as darkness danced around her fingers. "I always finish the hunt."

"I'm not prey to be toyed with," the northerner retorted, shifting back to her human form. The shift helped to accelerate the healing process, but she still could barely stand, which caused the assassin to stretch her lips into a smirk. She thought she had already won.

"We'll see about that." The assassin laughed, the sound devoid of any joy.

The darkness surged forward like a living thing, hungry and all-consuming. Elene leapt aside, evading the first swipe but feeling the chill of shadow graze her skin. It clung like frost on winter leaves, trying to seep into her very bones.

Bia snarled in her mind. Fight back! Don't let this witch drown you in her night!

Elene darted at her opponent, Aconite's laughter echoing around her as she dissolved into darkness again, and more sharp tendrils reached out for her. Elene's movements were precise and calculated to confuse and misdirect, but the assassin seemed unfazed by her attempts. For her, it was nothing more than a funny game.

Partially, Elene loved that the woman underestimated her, but at the same time, it was incredibly annoying.

She knew how to play games too, so she paused momentarily, knowing it would be too tempting for someone like Aconite not to tease her more. She closed her eyes, trying to sense the warmth of her body instead of looking for it with her sight.

And when she felt it, Elene struck! Her long, sharp claws slicing across the assassin's face.

Aconite stumbled back, a hand flying to her face to feel warm blood trickling down from her fresh wounds.

The shadows dissipated, and Elene was finally able to see her at last. Three long lines ran over her left eye.

"You are going to regret this, princess!" she promised, and immediately, thorny vines made of shadows entwined around Elene's legs, arms and waist, pinning her to the ground so she could not move.

The Princess struggled in vain as the woman towered over her, a twisted grin splitting her face.

"I wanted to let you die easily as a sign of my respect, but you had to ruin it for yourself," she informed her. “Let's make it more fun then. First of all, an eye for an eye.”

One of the tendrils turned into a sharp dagger again and slowly grazed over Elene's cheek. Almost gently, but with a menacing promise.

"I wish I had a mirror," Aconite smiled, wiping the blood from the wounds she received from the Princess and then licking each finger clean. “I would like to repay you in full, after all.”

The blade pressed harder, and Elene winced when it made the first cut. It was deliberately slow. Deep enough to hurt like hell. Not deep enough to kill her.

The second came straight through the eye, the pain so intolerable that Elene howled instead of screaming, a guttural sound leaving her restricted body.

"Pretty little princess is not so pretty anymore," the assassin smirked and came closer, slowly lowering herself on top of Elene, straddling her. "I bet you love your beautiful face. Dying this ugly will be sad for someone as shallow as you."

"Speaking for yourself?" Elene seethed, finally taking a good look at her opponent with her still good eye. "Don't worry, in my humble opinion, the scar only makes you look better!"

Aconite's face twisted. She had the most beautiful full figure and quite long, shiny blonde hair, but overall wasn't strikingly beautiful. She had her poise, but Elene realised she hit her where it probably hurt the most, judging by her reaction.

"What," the Princess smirked, "Daddy didn't tell you that you were beautiful when he said good night?"

“B*tch!” Aconite growled, growing a claw and slicing the third scar so roughly Elene lost the ability to scream. She could feel it reaching her bones.

If only she was blessed like the others. If only Fenrir took pity on her, too… Gave her powers like Aconite's…

"Time to die, Princess." The assassin grabbed her throat and squeezed, closing the airflow.

Elene struggled against her, clawing at the woman on top of her, digging her own claws into her flesh as deep as she could. She was desperate enough in the last fight for her life.

"What the f*ck," Aconite seemed as shocked as she was. "What are you—"

She didn't get to finish the sentence because Elene saw a shadow blade poking out of the assassin's chest, both women shocked with the discovery.

Elene could feel a strand of shadows touching her swollen cheek as if to caress her. At the same time another wrapped around Aconite's neck and wrists, submitting her.

Elene could feel that. She could feel every shadow, every spec of darkness around them.

She could command them. She could touch them… and most importantly, she could wield them.

Their eyes met as the realisation sunk in for the assassin as well.

A second — and the sharp tendrils pierced Aconite's flesh at different angles, showing no signs of recognition or mercy. Blood gushed out of the helpless woman, and Elene managed to finally push her off herself, grabbing her red scarf on the way to wipe and cover herself.

The assassin was still twitching, and Elene couldn't take any chances. They were so close to the cliff that the answer was simple. Gathering up her strength, Elene pushed her body with her foot and rolled it off into the abyss.

The shadows curled around her, and she still wasn't sure what to do with them.

What just happened? She asked Bia.

A miracle, her wolf replied. So, let's not question it. We lost a lot of blood. I need to heal you as much as I can, and we need to —

The sounds of footsteps caused Elene to make a sharp turn, and shadows sharpened around her again, ready to pounce at the intruders.

"Hey, new girl!" A tall young man with bronze skin and messy, long black hair raised his hands to show he meant no harm. He was dressed in black combat clothes with massive boots with sharp metal studs. "We are on the same side. Eleventh division of the Firstborn army. Allies."

"Gods, you are messy!" A woman with short blue hair joined the other assassin. "Was that northerner that tough?"

Elene was afraid to say anything. Mostly because she wasn't sure if they were simply teasing her too before attacking.

However, a minute passed, and nothing happened.

Elene remembered, Aconite mentioned she had just transferred here. Maybe there still was some luck saved for her by the gods after all.

"Look at your face," the female assassin played with her blue locks and smirked. "So unfortunate."

She wasn't sorry at all.

"You should see the other guy." Elene tried to sense the surrounding shadows again and sent them to the pair the same way she had attacked Aconite just moments earlier.

One clean sweep, and she could run.

However, her luck had its limits. The darkness dissipated right next to their faces as a puff of black smoke.

Elene tried to contain her disappointment, but at least the two looked scared and took a few steps back.

"Are you nuts?" The woman with the blue hair yelled at her.

"So, the rumours are true. The famous Aconite is crazy indeed." The guy snorted. “Noted.”

"Come on, show off!" the female threw a backpack at her. “Dress up! We are being urgently summoned back. The cleaners will arrive here shortly. The Princess is dead, and we took the samples from the crash to confirm the mutt is dead as well. Our job here is done.”

Elene was still afraid to believe this was true. Did they really not know who she was?

She brushed her hand over her blood-soaked hair and realised her face was still disfigured after what Aconite did to her. And they did not know the other woman's face because they had not met before.

This was real. She still had a chance to turn all this around somehow.