Catch & Hold-Legend (Legend series) by Claudy Conn Page A

at my human heart.
    Blinking, with only a fraction of a second to spare, I shifted behind him, but he had already turned as though he knew that was what I was going to do. His sword slashed through the air with as much finesse as deadly precision. It was only the air he sliced through and not me, because I had accomplished what I wanted—I had tricked him. I double shifted, or jump shifted if you prefer, and landed right beside him!
    I was so close, and my Death Sword was in position yelling in my head, telling me to plunge it into him, but he shifted away before I could. I wanted to scream and stamp my feet. He had been mine—once more nearly mine for the taking down, and somehow he had slipped off and I had lost my chance.
    However, Gais, being Gais, reappeared on the other side of the room, and he said, “Here to avenge your father, Daoine? He was weak … forget him. You I seem to have misjudged. You have certain abilities that might be useful to my new order. Join me, and we can make a new world.”
    I went into a fury. I mean rage took over my mind and body, and all at once I was on him before he knew what I was doing; Ninja-style, just like my dad taught me, I kicked him in the balls. It wasn’t death, but I was so damn pleased because I could see it hurt like hell!
    He bent over with his pain, and I aimed my sword, which was oddly quiet, no longer telling me where or how to kill him, while Rolo whispered for me to shift out and away immediately. I frowned over the problem, but having already anticipated what Gais would do when he recovered from the pain between his legs, I immediately (human style) jumped away from where I was standing.
    That was not what Gais expected. He had expected me to shift. He wasn’t expecting the kick, and he wasn’t expecting the jump. He had expected me to behave like a Daoine princess, so once again and, only for a moment, I got the better of him.
    I smirked at him as I stood ready with my death sword, about to plunge it into his chest and end his miserable existence, but all at once, he did an unexpected thing just as I lunged: he threw some powder my way.
    Rolo whispered in exasperation, “Did I not tell you, Princess, to shift!”
    It was iridescent, and it clouded my vision for the fraction of a moment before I called on my Fae senses and cleared my eyes enough to see. But by then it was too late. I found myself in what I thought was another dimension.
    Shit! I mean, shit, shit, shit!
     
     

 
    ~ Four ~
     
    WHERE THE HELL was I? What kind of world was this? Everything was ice … blue ice. There was nothing else.
    I poked my sword into the frozen earth and leaned on it, heartily sick and berating myself over losing my chance to kill Gaiscioch. I had been so close to plunging my sword into Gais’s withered heart—well, he didn’t quite have a heart or equivalent, but he had a chest, and that’s where I would have plunged it.
    My death sword has been (like Rolo) a constant companion, and when I get tired of holding it, I lean on it, but I never let go of it. However, because a prick from its deadly edge or tip could kill me, it is always sheathed, a thing that happens (it seems) automatically when it is not in fighting mode—meaning even if I forget to sheath it, it seems to have the power to sheath itself when it isn’t needed.
    It will only speak to give me advice when it perceives an enemy, and then it will tell me how to use it and where to thrust its lethal blade. Lately, I thought I’d heard it sighing impatiently, but I was not certain.
    All at once, the sword said my name. “Radzia! N ow,  Radzia!”
    Evidently it had perceived a threat. Rolo joined in, and both began screaming in my head so badly I couldn’t think. I gasped as I tried to focus through the icy cold mist at the frigid tundra.
    “Breathe—breathe,” I told myself, if only to quiet the fear that had sprung up in my head. You see, I have this human element in me, which is very much a part of