Adam was unsure how to judge the night. There had been successes; he was still alive. There were things that he was pleased with. But he was not entirely pleased. Certainly, there were elements that were less than ideal. The knife to the heart, for one.

That had come as a shock. The movement too fast to see, the advantage taken from his instant of distraction. The feel of steel in his flesh, of it breaking his chest plate. The feel of it as it sliced his heart in two. The agony ...