The Weight of Blood (The Half-Orcs, #1)(58)

The elf staggered back, swiping at Harruq as the half-orc charged. A thin line of blood appeared on the half-orc’s forehead, but he was oblivious to it. His hands were around his enemy’s throat and his strength at its greatest. The crunching flesh underneath his fingers was all that mattered. The elf behind him retrieved his sword and attacked, his right arm hanging useless, his left stabbing desperately. Harruq flung the dying body around by the neck. The sword buried up to the hilt in the makeshift shield.

Harruq dropped the dead elf and lashed out. His backhand broke the elf’s jaw. Reeling, the elf staggered back, only able to raise his meager arm above his head. Harruq smashed an elbow into his chest, followed by knuckled fists atop his skull.

“Stay down,” Harruq said. He retrieved Salvation and Condemnation from the dirt, and then stomped over to the beaten, bloody elf warrior.

“Mercy, I am beaten,” the elf gasped as Harruq lifted his head by the hair.

“No such thing,” he said. Salvation tore out his throat. Condemnation hacked off his head. He sheathed his blades, breathed in deeply, and then let it all out in an ecstatic, primal cry. As the last of it left his lips, he saw an elf’s shocked walnut eyes from a nearby alley. His gut lurched. The fire in his veins sputtered.

“Why so surprised?” he asked Aurelia, shame draining the thrill of his kill.

“How could you?” she asked him. “What harm have we done to you?”

Harruq shrugged. “You think you know me, but you don’t. I kill, Aurry. It’s what I do. It’s what I do best.” He drew out his swords, still dripping with blood. “Perhaps you didn’t believe it, but this is me.”

“Don’t do this,” Aurelia said softly. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Please, Harruq. I don’t want to fight you.”

“I didn’t want you to fight either,” Harruq said, his eyes leaving hers for an instant. He took a step toward her and raised his swords, just as when they sparred.

“Stop this,” Aurelia said. Her staff remained at her side. “Will you kill me, too?”

“I asked you not to fight, but here you are. Qurrah made it simple, Aurry. Either I love you or I kill you.”

Sparks rained down as he clanged his swords together.

“Is that how you feel?” she asked. The tears in her eyes ran down her cheeks, not to be replaced by any more. “So be it.” She took up her staff and held it defensively. “You are a fool, Harruq. May you die as one.”

Harruq charged, his black blades gleaming. Every nagging doubt, every tiny part screaming for him to sheath his blades, he channeled into his mindless rage. His swords hacked chunks out of the staff, which held together only by Aurelia’s powerful enchantments. She blocked several attack routines but one finally slipped past. her dodge too slow, a black blade cut across her cheek. She paused, rubbing her cheek as Harruq smirked.

Blood. It was as she feared. Harruq’s weapons were enchanted.

“Your spells won’t save you,” he shouted. “No elf will save you. No one!”

“Why this hatred?” she asked, smacking away a dual thrust. “When have I shown you anything but kindness?”

Harruq gave her no answer. Instead, he stabbed with Salvation, a higher thrust of Condemnation trailing behind it. Aurelia turned her staff horizontal and pushed upward. Both swords stabbed high above her head. A quick turn and one end of her staff rammed the half-orc in the gut. The blow knocked the wind out of Harruq.

“For what reason do we fight?” she asked. “For what reason do you harbor this hatred?”

He glared. “I told you. I’m fighting elves. You’re one of them. No simpler than that.”

“Liar.”

Harruq snarled, the elf inside him all but invisible. He charged, recklessly hacking at Aurelia.

“Why do we fight?” she asked again, desperately trying to block every swing. Blood covered her arms, and another swing cut through her dress, slicing into the beautiful flesh of her leg. “Why, Harruq? Why!”

“I don’t know!” he cried. Strength surged into him, dark and unholy. In the blink of an eye, he twirled both swords, knocked Aurelia’s staff from her hand, and then looped his right arm all the way around to bury Condemnation deep into her stomach.

Everything, all fighting, all arguing, all bleeding, living and dying halted at that moment. For Harruq, there was only the sight of Aurelia doubled over, her eyes filled with sadness. His arm yanked the blade out of her, without any thought on his part.

“Harruq?” she gasped. She fell on her back, still clutching her bleeding abdomen.

That look of sadness tore through his rage. What should have been the exhilaration of the kill was instead the cold, biting emotion of guilt. His eyes lingered on the blood on his blade before something changed inside. He looked back to the elf, and again the words of his brother echoed in his head.

Do you love her?

No, he’d said.

Then kill her.

“Aurelia?” he asked, as if seeing her for the first time. “I didn’t mean to, I, Aurry, please…”

He knelt down, his blades falling from his limp hands. He pulled away Aurelia’s hand to see the blood, to see the wound.

“No,” he said. He rocked backward, the color draining from his face. “No, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t…I didn’t…”