Samuel tried to stand but couldn’t secure his footing. “Please. Leave her alone. She’ll kill you.”
“She?” The foreigner laughed. “This is neither male nor female. Only an abomination.” The foreigner crouched lower, his body positioned to attack. “Hungry, are you not? Then please. Let me whet your appetite.”
Zei flicked the hatchet slightly, the blade nearly touching her toes. Her expression was mostly unreadable, but Samuel could sense Zei’s annoyance with the foreigner. She raised her stub to him, almost as if it were a loaded weapon.
“Don’t,” Samuel pleaded, although he wasn’t sure whom he was talking to. Perhaps both of them. He opened his hands, holding them out in surrender. He hated seeing her like this, because this was how the mayor wanted her. “Zei. You’re not a demon. I know you’re not.”
“Demon?” the foreigner forced out. He glanced at Samuel’s father. “What nonsense has that holy man—”
Zei rushed to the foreigner and made the first swing. The foreigner jumped back, knocking the blade away with one of the knives. He spun around and took a swipe at her legs, but she was well out of the blade’s reach. Zei hopped on top of the blacksmith’s table. She hurled the hatchet at the foreigner’s chest, but he knocked it away.
“Stop!” Samuel yelled. “Don’t do this!”
The foreigner lunged at his attacker with both blades. Zei leaped off the table. She swiped a pick from underneath the table and slammed it through the foreigner’s boot. He yelled as he rolled away, into Samuel’s father.
“You are fast,” the foreigner labored to say. He pulled the pick out from his foot, wincing and grunting. “How many human lives have you taken, Halyre?”
“Stop it!” Samuel managed to get to his feet. He took two quick steps, then tripped, falling back to the ground. “Zei. He’s going to help me. You don’t have to kill him.”
Zei darted out from under the table as the foreigner got to his feet. When she came up, she took one of Samuel’s throwing knives and held it. The foreigner lunged toward her, swinging both knives in a way that would cut anything to shreds. She was too fast, hopping backward and to the side after every swipe. She darted behind the foreigner, dropped down, and swiped the blade across the back of his ankles. The foreigner yelped as he fell to the ground. He dropped one blade and swung the other madly, warding her off as long as he could.
Zei stayed back, spinning the knife around, then tossing it into the foreigner’s belly. The foreigner grunted as he halted his defense, dropping his weapon as he struggled to remove the one inside him. Zei casually scooped the hatchet back up. The foreigner plucked the knife from his gut and threw it at her. The blade sank deep into her right shoulder near the collarbone.
Zei twisted her neck, her eyes examining the new injury. She reached up with her good arm but couldn’t secure her grasp of the knife’s handle. Blood spilled down her shoulder onto her black dress.
“Stop.” Samuel got to his knees. Using the wall behind him for support, he rose to his feet. “You don’t have to fight!”
The foreigner grabbed one of the blacksmith’s spare knives next to him, and he rolled himself up to his feet. He cocked his legs back as his knees bent, preparing himself for a vicious launch at Zei. Before he could leap toward her, Samuel grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back. Together, Samuel and the foreigner crashed to the floor.
Zei came forward. Without time to prepare for the next attack, the foreigner made a desperate swing to his right, but Zei brushed it aside. He made another swipe left, but he was too slow. Samuel scurried to the wall as Zei jumped on top of the foreigner. Without hesitation, she pulled back and smashed the hatchet into his neck. His body went limp as the blood splashed out.
Zei sat still over the foreigner’s body, the blood touching her knees. She looked to Samuel, her eyes hungry.
Samuel pressed himself against the wall. Zei was no longer a captive prisoner limited by shackles. Some way or another, she’d gained her freedom, and she’d shown no restraint. He hoped she wouldn’t harm him, but a part of him felt he deserved it. He was pathetic, weak, and unable to protect those he cared for. He was the reason his father was dead. She’d proven herself much stronger than he could ever hope to be. He wasn’t fit for this world.
Zei stood up. She turned her bloodstained face to Samuel. He tremored, his lips searching for words. He pressed himself closer to his father’s body. He was going mad. He knew he was. The foreigner called her something. Halyre. Forbidden ones. A legion. A “they,” as if she were more than one entity.
Zei came closer, her hand fumbling to get the small knife out of her shoulder. Samuel’s breath halted, his lungs unwilling to give him air. Perhaps it’d be best for him to die here. He could close his eyes, and Zei could take his life. Make the pain stop.
“In the bag,” he said. “Near the corner by the pail. It’s your machine arm. I found it in the sheriff’s house.”
Zei stopped before making her way to the bag. She got on her knees as she unzipped it. Her head tilted with amusement as she pulled out the mechanical arm. She lifted it and grimaced. She went back to Samuel and extended the claw portion of the arm forward.
Samuel’s body shook as he took hold of the prosthetic. Zei slid her stub inside. A humming noise rose from the metal arm, and its visible gears began to rotate. Zei strapped the first buckle around the base of the holster, then draped the larger strap over her left shoulder. She leaned down and lowered her body.
Samuel’s hands quivered as he tightened the strap over her shoulder and buckled it. The two hooks that formed the claw moved in and out, the motion causing a light squeak. Samuel moved his hands to her right collarbone, his fingers touching the knife’s handle. As gently as he could, he pulled his throwing knife from her flesh. More blood gushed from the open wound, black liquid bubbling down her flat chest.
Zei loomed over Samuel. He put the knife in her hand.
“Do it.”
He really did want to die. He knew that now. He didn’t want to live in a world where he was the reason his father was dead. He didn’t want to have a burned mark on his arm. He didn’t want to face the mayor or the sheriff ever again. He wanted to be nothing. Like her.
“I know that you want to. Maybe you can’t even control it. So it’s okay. I want you to do it. Just do it, Zei.”
Zei squeezed the knife’s handle, pulling it up to Samuel’s neck. He swallowed, waiting for the press of the blade.
“I’m sorry.” It was the only thing left to say. He closed his eyes.
He waited in darkness, but nothing happened. He heard what sounded like the soft shifting of dirt next to him. When he opened his eyes, he saw Zei turn to the open door. More people were yelling outside the shed, the volume of their voices growing. She looked back at Samuel, her green eyes studying him. He couldn’t make out what they were trying to tell him, but he knew it wasn’t the answer he wanted. And then, as if nothing had happened, Zei dropped the knife into Samuel’s lap and ran out of the shop.