"I bet you didn't see this," the voice, thick with malice, hissed behind us, freezing the air between us with its venom. I felt it before I saw it—an immense, crushing pressure that bore down on my senses, more powerful than anything I'd faced before. Time slowed, or at least it felt that way as my heart lurched into my throat.
"Your Majesty!" The words spilled out of me in a panicked gasp before I could stop them. Instinctively, I whirled around, my twin blades flashing as they met the incoming strike. Steel met flesh with a deafening clang, but even as I deflected the blow, I knew something was wrong. The force behind the attack was overwhelming, a tidal wave of raw power. My body buckled under the strain.
And then, the pain hit. Searing, blinding pain shot up my arm, and I felt it—felt the snap, the tearing of muscle and sinew. My arm was gone. Not just injured, gone. Torn from my body in an instant.
