A tendril of shadow caught her wrist. She severed it. Another caught her ankle. She severed that too. A third wrapped around her forearm and she cut through it with a crescent that left her fingers bleeding from the mana burn, and when she looked up Vespera was only five meters away and still walking.
"No!"
Selena cried out and threw everything she had. A barrage of crescents, each one a line of white light that carved the air between them, and for one second the ridge was bright with the fury of her Severance cutting the darkness to pieces.
Vespera walked through it.
The crescents hit her shadows and split them. But the shadows reformed around her without slowing her stride. She walked through her daughter's best attack and the darkness closed behind her like a wake.
Selena's hands dropped.
Her mana was gone. Her arms hung at her sides, trembling. The shadows pooled around her feet and climbed her legs. They tightened against her chest.
Vespera was right in front of her.
