As Kasidy hit the ground, I saw Irwin hit Kasidy with a healing spell.

“No!” I yelled as I jumped out of my throne.

As I pushed out, I realized that I shouldn’t have moved. I couldn’t walk or move to her. There was no way for me to reach her other than being carried. I fell from the elevated height of the being carried. I had meant to hit the ground feet first. The only problem was, of course, that I didn’t have feet. I only had one nub and one missing leg. So when that nub hit the ground with all my weight, I tilted to the side without the leg. Then I smashed face-first into the ground.

Worse than that, with me being out of the throne, I could now be targeted. I also couldn’t direct the flow of battle because I couldn’t see what was happening. I forced myself to twist and try to pull myself forward to Kasidy.

I watched as Kasidy’s health was still deteriorating as Irwin ran to her. He knelt down, hit her with another heal, and then pushed a health potion into her chest. I watched the number that showed her total health fall by one. It wasn’t the current health. It was the total possible health that had fallen.

I yelled at my minions. “Put the throne down and get me into it!”

As they pulled me up, I saw the enforcer flash forward again. This time, however, his sword was met with Renfry’s blade. The enforcer smiled and kicked at Renfry.

My champion stepped around the kick and struck out with his offhand knife. The enforcer laughed and vanished.

My throne was put down, and the woman who had been beside me ran forward to help move me back into it. As she was pulling me, two of my skeletal guards pulled me up and in. Then I commanded them to lift me and move me forward to Kasidy.

I growled as I looked down at Kasidy from my throne. She was standing up when the enforcer appeared again and cut her down. The same black blade went into her heart for a second time. Irwin tried to strike back out but was too slow to hit the enforcer before he disappeared again.

Kasidy’s health all but vanished. For less than a heartbeat, her name turned gray as Irwin yelled. He pushed his healing spell into her, and her health went up and fell again. Irwin pushed more mana in as I was being moved closer.

Renfry had raced in front of them, only for the enforcer to appear at Kasidy’s side. I shot off a dark bolt as he stabbed her again. This time his blade passed into her head. As he pulled it out, he flashed away, and the dark bolt hit the wall.

Irwin yelled, placed both hands on her, and pushed all his mana in. He started to glow with a red and blue swirl that pulsed from one hand to the next. As he pushed, I saw her name go from gray to black again and back to gray. Then Irwin grunted, and his mana fell through the bottom. He collapsed next to her as his health bar slowly sank.

Across the bond with Blink, I felt pure rage and a desire to kill. It wasn’t her normal light-hearted killing desire. That was just part of who she was. No, this was the rage, not the anger I got from her when teasing. She hadn’t even felt this way when trapped. No, it was a blood lust, unlike anything I had ever felt. It mirrored my own.

I was throwing my own minor healing at Kasidy as Renfry poured a healing potion into her head when I heard a roar.

Then Blink was screaming across the bond. “They killed Mommy! I’m going to eat them all!”

I snapped my head to see Blink launching herself through the hall’s opening at the enforcer. However, she was doing something that I had never seen before she was growing. As she grew, she opened her mouth wide and blasted out fire. Then her body was too big for me to see what was happening.

She didn’t fill the whole hall but just most of it. I heard grinding metal and screaming mixed in with Blink’s deep angry roar as her forty body vanished down the hallway. I saw flame washing back down and around her body, as she charged in.

I checked the group health and saw that Kasidy wasn’t gray anymore. Then I let a slight sob out. I had my throne moved close enough that I could get out and reach her. As I was being set down, I watched Renfry pour another healing potion into her mouth. She choked for a moment and then started to swallow it. Then her health began to clip up.

I let a worried sigh out and then checked the battle. My skeletal guards were being pushed on now by fleeing merchants, guild fighters, and mages. All sorts of yelling and screaming echoed through the hallway as the guild members were in a full route. I had my guards move into a defensive stance and use their active skill of shield wall.

I shifted my senses into a shade and smiled as I saw what my enemies were running from. Blink was terrifying. She was as big as a dinosaur with glowing bloodshot eyes. She fit most of the hall but not so much that she couldn’t run forward. As she ran, she was biting and tearing. Half a burnt cleric was hanging out of her mouth as she somehow roared and shot fire. It almost looked like she was breathing it, but something was off.

Her flame bellowed out about twenty feet from her. It wasn’t hot enough to kill on contact, but it was hot enough to give third-degree burns. The few fighters trying to stand against her quickly found that their weapons just couldn’t harm her.

Worse yet, it seemed like those who didn’t run made her more angry. I watched both in horror and delight through the eyes of one of my shades as she slammed a man into the wall. The bone shield behind her head didn’t give, but his armor did. It looked like what someone would expect if they hit a can of tomato paste with a hammer.

Then she got even more angry because he was now attached and scraping the wall. I watched as she bucked forward, trying to scrape him off, and she launched her body about twenty feet down the hall. The hallway was so packed with soldiers that she missed a few as she jumped forward.

That didn’t spare them at all as she thrashed back and forth. Her whole body was a weapon, and it appeared that she had practice fighting in this size. I left the shade to check on Kasidy, and even in my body, I was shaken by Blink’s roaring and the crashing of armored bodies.

The growing necromancer in me mourned how she killed and ate potential minions, but the man was quite happy. They all deserved to die, and I could only wish I could kill them again and again.

I hadn’t gotten out of my throne as I still needed to control the battle. The real reason, however, was that Renfry had already been there giving Kasidy health potions. So when I opened my eyes, I saw that Kasidy was sitting up crying again.

I called over to her. “Kas, you’re okay. You’re alive.”

She looked back at me and shook her head. “Arn, I’m not okay. I’m cursed and dying.”

I shook my head. “No! We can figure this out. There has to be a way.”

She gave me a sad smile. “It was a blade of Adite. I am cursed to die. My experience and health will leach out until I am no more. I have already lost a level and, with that, a full point of vitality.”

I slammed my fists down on the armrests of the throne. “We will find a way.”

Renfry, who had been standing silently by, shook his head. “My lord, even in my day, the blades were known. They always kill their targets. Most don’t live as long as Kasidy has. They steal all health and then leach out experience.”

I shook my head again. “Let’s find the sword. If we break it, we can keep this from happening more.”

Renfry nodded and started to head down the hall. I sent dozens of guards down behind him, looking for the sword. As he left, Kasidy got off the floor and came over to me.

She let a little whimper out and said. “I’m sorry.”

My eye blazed angrily, and I yelled, causing her to step back. “It’s not your damn fault! If I had been a bit faster, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt. If I had never left you to go down the stairs, you wouldn’t have gotten captured. It’s my fault you’re hurt! I failed you….”

She rushed forward and gave me a hug. Then she kissed me on my lips. It took me just a moment to return the kiss. She pulled away and looked in my eye.

Then she almost whispered. “I shouldn’t have gone forward without you telling me to. It’s my fault but if anyone can figure out how to break the curse it will be you.”

The girl who had been holding onto the edge of my throne spoke up. “Begging your pardons. It’s neither of your fault that she got stabbed. It was that man your monster ate.”

I gave the woman whose name I didn’t know a slight smile. “Don’t let her hear you say that. Blink doesn’t like being called a monster or a pet.”

She nodded quickly, backed up, and knelt next to the throne again. I shook my head. I didn’t know what her deal was, and I didn’t care right now what it was. After all, I was dealing with fixing Kasidy. But the woman had been right. It wasn’t my fault, but it also wasn’t just that man’s fault. It was the Merchant’s guild, and they were going to burn.

* * *