Monolouge on arrow timing

A WITCH ASSASSIN needs to be fast. I have that speed. But will it be enough against master archers at such close quarters? And what of Thorne, who is some years short of reaching her full strength?

All these futile thoughts race through my head while my limbs act instinctively.

I have trained my body so that it is a weapon: every sinew, muscle and bone is coordinated; in such a situation it does not need the brain to command it.

Thought is too slow.

I am diving forward, going into a roll. I stop my heart. I lift the blade in my left hand and deflect an arrow with it. Time seems to be passing very slowly. I think of Tom Ward, who has the power to slow time, and I laugh! A witch assassin can do it too – but in a different way. An assassin moves so quickly that it is the movements of others that appear to have slowed down.

It is not dark magic. It is the magic of my being; the magic of who I am; the magic of how hard I have trained. I am Grimalkin!

I exist in the ‘now’ and I deal out death.