Devil's Cut: A Blade Master Chronicles Novella

Chapter Two

Kat made a strangled cry as the nightmare chased her awake for the third time that night. Sitting in bed in a cold sweat, she lamented not having asked Spencer to spend the night. She threw off the covers and sat on the edge of the bed. Her heart still pounded as she gripped the edge of the mattress. Staring at nothing between her dangling feet, she willed the frantic beating of her heart to slow. She was scared. She had never had an object affect her so violently. Without another thought, she grabbed her laptop and started researching. This blade was different from any other antique edged weapon she had dealt with. She set specific search parameters and started to whittle away some possibilities. The hard part was finding any documentation from anyone like her.

There were others out there just like her. People who used their abilities to advance themselves at the expense of others, but her grandparents had been clear with her growing up. She could never give in to that temptation.

She set up her laptop to conduct her searches and went back to bed, hissing in pain when she rolled onto her bandaged shoulder. It was throbbing, another reminder. Shaking her head she pulled her blanket up to her chin, rolled over and closed her eyes tight, determined to keep any more nightmares at bay.

It was the insistent vibrating of her cell phone that woke her up a few hours later.

"'lo?" she mumbled. Her throat was raw having woken up screaming two more times during the night.

"Kat?" Concern in Spencer's voice brought a smile to her face even with the lack of sleep.

"Spence? It's 7:00 in the morning."


"Well good morning to you too. You sound rough. Bad night?"


Kat swung her legs over the side of the bed and rubbed at her face. "You could say that."

"Well I just thought you might like to know what I found."

"Hold on." Kat got up and checked her laptop for search results and cursed at the number of possibilities that were displayed. Disgusted she sat back down. "Go ahead."

"Your sword is on the lookout list."


"What?"
That was impossible she thought. The lookout list was a list of objects that had been sought after for centuries. They were often items that had some mystical property and some had been lost to history, falling into the realm of myth.

"That's impossible, this thing is from the mid-to-late 19th century at the most."

"Yeah, that's its appearance now."

Kat tried to bite her tongue and failed. "Spencer it's too early for your mystery crap. Give me an hour and bring over what you found." she hung up before he could answer and she immediately regretted her words.

Hey, sorry about that, really bad night, bring bagels and I'll make some breakfast. Kat re-read her text and hit send.

She was relieved when she got an immediate response.


You are not a nice person in the morning. Be there in an hour and don't touch the blade!

Of course she wasn't going to touch it. Though to be honest, she couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Stop it Kat," she grabbed her robe and heading to the bathroom, hoping a shower would clean up her disposition before Spencer got there.