Night Lover didn’t look quite as pretty anymore. With his eyes blown wide and fearful, his teeth clenched, cutting into his bottom lip. But the shade of red his face was turning was quite satisfying. So you can suffocate a sword.

A hand gripped my shoulder and tried to pull me away. I shrugged it off and tightened my grip. “Blood-Forged,” Piercing Gale hissed, grabbing my shoulder again. “You can’t kill him here in broad daylight.”

Night Lover’s hands on my forearm started getting weaker and the legs around me stopped kicking.

“Why not?” I sneered, not taking my eyes off of Night Lover’s face, watching as his eyes rolled back.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Piercing Gale crouch down and get a bit closer to hiss, “because you aren’t Prince Ves’hil’n and he’s not obviously a servant of the Demon Lord.” Piercing Gale’s fingers dug into the flesh of my shoulder.

“He’s right.” Shocked, I looked up at Death-Bringer but she wasn’t looking at me. Rather she was staring down the road at a group of men coming our way. One of the men shouted, “halt!”

Piercing Gale tugged at my shoulder again and this time I let myself be pulled off of Night Lover. Night Lover rolled onto his side, coughing and sputtering and sucking down air. “We have to go!” Piercing Gale barked out, grabbing my hand. He entwined our fingers together and pulled me down along the road. My mind flashed to how often Eun would take Ves’hil’n’s hands after they became lovers and how he would kiss each scar on Ves’hil’n’s fingers. The sudden intimacy from Piercing Gale stabbed through my heart with the force of cold steel. I felt myself unable to breathe for a moment. Hatred and pain clogged up my throat but I was unable to take my hand out of Piercing Gale’s as he pulled me through the city streets. Death-Bringer followed a few steps behind us, Night Lover slung over her shoulder.

I was too focused on Piercing Gale’s hand, which was rapidly growing clammy, in mine to even notice when it happened but we lost any pursuers and made it out of the West gate of the city. We slowed to a walk and Piercing Gale dropped my hand. Unconsciously, my hand twitched at the sudden emptiness and I clenched my fists.

Night Lover was still slung over Death-Bringer’s shoulder, hanging limply to the point I had thought he lost consciousness. But then he whispered, “Please let me go,” his voice weak and rough.

Death Bringer flung him down, stepping on his chest before he could scurry anywhere. I crouched down beside him and sneered, “why would we let you go?” My voice was even rougher than his, still raspy from screaming, “Do you have a knife, Death-Bringer? We should slit his throat and get moving.”

Death-Bringer shook her head and Piercing Gale opened his stupid fucking mouth again, “We shouldn’t kill him. If he’s working with the Demon Lord then we might be able to get some information out of him. If he was telling the truth and isn’t working with him then he’s innocent.”

“Innocent?” I stood and turned to glare at Piercing Gale, who met my gaze calmly, “he killed-”

“I didn’t kill anyone!” Night Lover snapped, before succumbing to a coughing fit, touching his hands to the already dark purple bruises forming on his neck, the force of his coughing making him strain against Tejara’s foot on his chest. “I was a sword. I didn’t choose my master and I didn’t choose how he used me.”

When Night Lover finished his bullshit plea of innocence he turned his panicked, fearful gaze to Piercing Gale, some hope sparking in his eyes. I raised my foot to kick his pretty boy face in, but was yanked backwards by Piercing Gale, stumbling a few steps. “Blood-Forged! You have a brain now! Use it to think instead of acting like a blade without a sheath!” Piercing Gale snarled.

I wrenched my arm from his grip, “Piercing Gale, traitorous whore, how dare you show mercy to the ene-”

A crisp smack, a stinging pain in my cheek, and my head was turned sharply to the side. It took me a long, long second to realize I’d been slapped. I couldn’t stop my mouth from falling open or my hand from raising up to my right cheek, still prickling with pain.

Without a word, Piercing Gale brushed past me to step closer to Death-Bringer, “the authorities might be following us, we should get moving and bring him with us, we can question him on the move... Death-Bringer?” There was silence behind me, as Piercing Gale looked beyond me to Death-Bringer. I couldn’t bring myself to turn around until I heard Night Lover sigh in relief. I spun around to see Death-Bringer walking away and Night Lover sitting up and rubbing at the boot print on his chest. Piercing Gale offered a hand to help him up.

Feeling an itch in my heart, I forced my eyes to Death-Bringer’s back, “Death-Bringer!” When she glanced back at me the only word I could get out was, “...why?”

She sighed, “he’s right, Bloody. Night Lover’s worth more to us alive.”