Isco [https://shadowsprey.com/wp-content/uploads/story-images/01_35_Isco-S6.png]

Isco thought the dark at Kanna’s feet was a trick of the light, or perhaps just her shadow being cast in an odd direction. He blinked it away, his dry eyes scratching against his lids, but it stayed.

It didn’t look normal. He couldn’t place what made it different, but he knew in the most base way that it was not right. The fear it inspired settled in the back of his teeth like an ache.

The dark stayed with Kanna, churning beneath her feet as she stalked across the sands.

The earth loas began their assault anew, with Adalbar taking the lead. A rock wall rumbled in Kanna’s direction, but her skulking stride didn’t break.

She swept her arm and a sickle of black sliced through the wall. Then she held her hands out to her sides and the remaining pieces rose from the ground, bolstered by the shadows gathered beneath. With a shrug of her wrists, they crashed harmlessly to the side like rejected toys.

The screams of the crowd were different. There was a sharp note of panic that Isco knew too well.

The remaining two loas joined Adalbar, gathering their tricks into one place. The earth rolled toward Kanna, rising in a serpentine path and gaining speed.

Kanna held her palms forward and the darkness gathered before her. When the waves collided with the wall of shadow the earth blew back on her attackers.

The loas ducked, shielding themselves from the debris that rained down on them. They continued to ready attacks, but they were far too slow.

They were far too late.

The loas’ movements were wide and ungainly, exaggerated in a near comic relief to Kanna’s easy control. The shadows shifted with her slightest movements, eagerly racing to follow her command.

Kanna’s right hand slid in the air and Adalbar’s shadow rose around him. She flicked her wrist, and the darkness carried Adalbar screaming into the arena wall. He hit it with a sickening crack and slid to the sands.

The two remaining loas attempted to work together. Pillars of earth jutted up from the ground to block Kanna’s advance, but she couldn’t be stopped. She leapt on the first and caught it, dangling from the side as it rose. She dropped to the next and moved from pillar to pillar, the darkness at her feet making each jump effortless.

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When she reached the loas and stepped down on the last pillar the shadows sharpened to a wedge. The rock split and the darkness carried her down in a hail of stone until she was back on level ground.

Kanna rose from a crouch. A coil of shadow detached from those gathered near her and lashed out, catching Roka around the neck. The loa tried to claw at it but scratched her own throat, unable to grasp the unrelenting darkness. Kanna twisted her wrist and Roka’s neck snapped, the sound bright and clear. Her head lolled to the side, her body hanging suspended until the shadows released.

Galman had attempted to flee, seeking the safety of the gated entry.

He jerked to a stop.

Finished with the other two, Kanna's focus narrowed on Galman. Her head was cocked in a curious tilt, her fingers playing a soundless tune. The darkness around the arena grew as her fingers twitched, searching, seeking.

Galman dropped to his knees and howled, the screams echoing.

There were no shadows around him that Isco could see. There was just a man alone with his terror.

Her hand stilled at her side. Galman continued to scream, his cries rising in a mad crescendo even as she straightened and turned away.

Kanna retrieved her knives from where they had fallen in the dirt. She weighed them in her palms, carefully turning them over in her hands.

Kanna stalked back to where Galman lay. With the tip of her boot, she turned him over. His hands grasped her ankle. He was weeping, begging in a jumble of sounds that weren’t quite words.

She lifted both of her knives high and drove them down into his neck, his scream cutting off into a gargle.

His hands released her ankle, falling to his sides. He stiffened, his splayed fingers hovering over the dirt and his legs jerking straight before his body settled into death with a sigh.

Kanna wiped her knives against the outside of her thighs, the blood sluicing off the thin blades.

She stepped back and looked up, her eyes closing against the sky. Her body relaxed, her shoulders sagging and her arms falling loose at her sides.

Above, the panicked crowd had thinned, the bodies cramming close together at the back of the Theatre.

Isco gathered his feet beneath him and ran across the sands, instincts calling him to action. He dodged around the half-standing pillars, leaping across the chasms that cracked across the stage’s floor from Kanna’s battle with the earth loas.

The sound of the ground rumbling again caused him to start. Yassen and Astar leapt from the stands, riding the earth down to the stage and falling in a heap.

Kanna looked to them.

The black of her eyes bled out around them, veins of darkness creeping up her collar like an invasion.

A soft smile crept its way onto her lips. It looked like relief.

It looked like a farewell.