Sparks fly from Kat’s sword as she deflects yet another parry from her nemesis. The clang of metal fills the air, and Kat discovers that Srina’s reputation is entirely justified. She is fearless and strikingly beautiful with flowing gold locks, piercing blue eyes set above high cheek bones atop a toned and slender body wrapped in unblemished porcelain skin.
But this beauty must die, or Kat will – for the ninth time.
Kat springs deftly and while looking for an opening in which to thrust her blade, she notices the golden orb embedded in Srina’s belt.
It can’t be.
It must be. Only one exists and Kat stole it from The Purpledom during her most daring raid ever. She infiltrated the perfect camouflage of a land comprised entirely of purple and would have added the mystical orb to her vast treasure trove but was killed trying to exit and thus lost her first life.
If only she’d ignored those who dared her to steal the sacred staff as well.
Now an empowered Srina knocks her down with a brutal blow. Rapid-fire strikes pound on Kat’s shield from the small blades in Srina’s nimble hands and Kat wonders how she acquired the golden orb. Mysterious, as well as fearless and beautiful.
Kat fells Srina with a swift leg lock and strips her of both blades, avoiding the razor-sharp thumbnails, before they tussle face to face in a desperate battle for dominance.
Srina rises first. Kat ably defends her right flank, accustomed to Dimity Dove defending her left. But not anymore. Her partner in crime and in the melodic pop duo Dove and Kate cited artistic differences then used her soulmate’s sheet music to compose the confessional hit single Dove and Hate, and this ended Kat’s second life.
Combatants lock arms and Srina’s crystalline eyes capture Kat the same way Prince Privilegio did after Kat stole his beloved stead Machisimo. Smarting from his loss, the prince had goaded her with claims he would tame and marry her because “…dangerous women are so hot…” Kat returned to the scene hellbent on revenge only to finish in a cell.
Desperate to escape, Kat created fantastical images of Srina in her vivid imagination and channelled this desire to lure the grotesque prince into the cell and whispered, “Hot enough for you?” before slitting his throat with a razor-sharp thumbnail.
A public execution was Kat’s third death.
Srina switches, climbing on top of Kat and taunting her with a grin from those soft, sweet lips and winks from her impossibly blue eyes. Kat is disarmed.
Has Srina found her flaw? She must know that Kat was losing her feline stealth, and that recent raids and voyages had mostly resulted in failure and led to multiple deaths including her eighth, by snake bite.
Kat can feel Srina’s arms trapping her, feel her breath on her cheek and her accelerated heartbeat. She can almost taste her lips.
Then, a razor-sharp thumbnail pierces soft flesh.
Image: Lance Reis
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