It didn't pierce but it hurled him backward. The guard crashed into a tapestry of some long-dead Arcanum headmaster, tearing it from the wall with a sound like thunder and vanishing in a tangle of velvet and dust. For a heartbeat, everyone froze just long enough for Velka to shoot me a savage, satisfied grin.
"Well, that's one way to redecorate," she said, flicking another knife of shadow between her fingers. "Anyone else want to try their luck?"
The guards did not hesitate. Three surged forward at once, their movements eerily synchronized, like puppets yanked by the same, invisible string. Elira leapt to meet them, blades flashing, her ponytail whipping through the air in a streak of obsidian. Steel rang against steel, a sound so sharp it seemed to cut the very air.
