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“Get down.”
Kicking Scott in the knee, the lead bandit forced him to the ground. Within a second of his knees hitting the ground with a crack, there was a knife braced to his throat. The cold metal pressed into his skin. Taking a slow breath, Scott looked at Jimmy.
Standing across from him, Jimmy yanked his hands free of the men holding him. He stared at Scott, terror in his eyes. Something was tearing at him. What, Scott didn’t know, couldn’t parse out. Frowning, he kept looking at Jimmy helplessly.
“Look, sword boy,” the man holding Scott at knifepoint began, “we don’t want to cause any trouble. Come on, you can’t say you’ve never wanted to slice through him. Look at the way you’re standing.” Panic crossed Jimmy’s face at that.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jimmy replied, voice flat and emotionless. His eyes betrayed him, though. The lines of his mouth and eyebrows betrayed him.
“Oh, please. I’ve seen the way that you stand. We all have. You’ve got some extra weight on you that no one else sees. Something that’s…not normal extra weight, if you get what I mean.” The knife pressed deeper to Scott’s skin. Swallowing hurt a bit. Staring at Jimmy, Scott held his breath for a brief second. “Why even be in the castle, anyways? It’s just full of stuffy, magic-hoarding people who love to keep it to themselves and never share it. That’s not right.”
“You’re threatening the wrong person, then.” Jimmy replied sharply. “This isn’t the way to go about things. Someone else would be better.”
“Who, then? The king? The queen? The very same people who are going to replace this one?” A finger traced along the underside of Scott’s jaw. “Look at him. As soon as they think that he’s not controllable enough for them, they’re going to kill him. Look at that pretty face, golden boy. I might as well just kill him here.” The man leaned way too close to Scott’s face, lips peeled back in a grin. Apparently, this man decided not to brush his teeth, because his breath stank. “Although maybe we should just take him off your hands for you.”
Jimmy’s eyes narrowed, and he struck.
Nails sharpening into claws, thin and black and curved like crescent moons, he slashed a line from the first bandit’s stomach to his throat. Blood spattered the air, copper flooded Scott’s nose. Then, Jimmy turned. Wings unfolded from his back, razor-sharp edges gleaming in the moonlight. His eyes flashed, sparks of bright blue, and he lunged again.
One of the bandits struck, sword slashing for Jimmy’s shoulder. Reaching out, Jimmy wrapped his fingers around the milk-white blade. He drove his hand into the man’s stomach, twisting and tearing back. Before the man had even fallen, Jimmy turned and fanned his wings out, shooting off to strike at the next bandit.
The battle took moments. Scott watched in horror the entire time, staring and unable to move as Jimmy struck down one bandit after another. One man took a single razor-sharp feather from Jimmy’s wing to the stomach, pinning him to the tree. Turning, Jimmy tore through another’s throat with a flick of his claws. He kicked off the ground, silhouetted against the moon like a dark angel, before landing on a third’s shoulders with a devastating crack-crack.
After striking down the lead’s allies, all of them lying dead or dying on the dirt, Jimmy turned his head sharply to look at Scott and the man holding him. Taking a breath, one hand dripping with scarlet, he tilted his head to the side. His wings were spattered with blood. There were droplets on his face.
His eyes were not his own.
They were glowing, shining like brown tiger eye stones in sunlight. The yellow in them had been heightened, brown shining like it had been polished. It was handsome in the way of the statues of the gods, cold and deadly and too pretty. Lips peeling back into a bit of a snarl, Jimmy spoke, “Let him go, or I’ll tear you apart just like I did them.”
The bandit’s blade shuddered where it lay at Scott’s throat. Still, he didn’t waver. “Please. Did you think about how Princey here would react to you revealing this? How long have you been keeping your magic a secret from him, huh? You know the rules. Either you die, or he does.”
Jimmy’s eyes narrowed more. He let out a low growl, one bloodied hand curling into a fist by his side. The other still dripped blood to the earth at his feet. Taking a slow breath, wings flexing as he did, Jimmy held the bandit’s gaze.
The man pressed the metal into Scott’s throat even more. It cut into his skin. Sting racing across his skin, Scott stared at Jimmy in terror.
“It might just be better if I slit his throat here, you know.” The bandit began, shifting the knife and pressing deeper. In front of him, Scott saw Jimmy holding his breath. “You wouldn’t have to worry about consequences. I bet the King and Queen will be perfectly fine making another replacement for him, I certainly think that he—”
He cut off with a choked, strangled noise.
Jimmy was at Scott’s side now, having lashed out at the man. The knife dropped from Scott’s throat. Something hot and tacky showered down on him, and the lead bandit dropped to the side. His body hit the ground with a thump.
Turning, Scott stared up at Jimmy. More blood spattered his hand, all the way up to his wrist. No. No, no. He turned to Scott, eyes still glowing in that unnatural way.
Scrambling away, Scott held a hand up to protect himself. Jimmy stared at him, a wounded expression crossing his face. Then, a mask of sorts washed his features, and he turned away to look at the body of the lead bandit. Scott followed his gaze. His stomach flipped. Then, he turned away, cupping a hand over his mouth and squeezing his eyes shut.
Eventually, there was a flutter of feathers.
When Scott opened his eyes, Jimmy was gone.