Adrenaline pumping, my heart in my chest, not sure whether I was going to be quick enough, I dropped the sacrificial dagger then knelt down, yanking my own dagger from my boot, going for his leg with the blade.
But it wasn’t his leg in front of me. The blade plunged into his shoulder, his face twisting as the air rushed out of my body, the dead stare of Elias right in front of me.
He was grinning. He was meant to be standing, but he was knelt down in front of me.
I looked down between us, gasping as the pain of his blade registered. He had cut down my arm with the sacrificial dagger as I had stuck his shoulder with mine. I hadn’t been quick enough.
Blood spilled from the cut as long as my forearm, and I fell back. Elias stood up over me, smirking as he licked the red from the blade.
I
