There was a loud smack as the Handmaid hit stone. It would have been a much more devastating impact had she not used her abilities to soften the blow, levitating briefly before she fell forcefully into it. Even with the buffer, the kerfluffle left her scratched up -- a large cut on her elbow where she had tried to catch herself and a bruised lip with just a peck of maroon blood dribbling down it from where that ultimately hadn’t worked and she had faceplanted into the chessboard.

She rubbed her jaw, staying put where she had fallen, eyes flashing red and blue. “Or what, ASSHOLE? You’ll KILL me?”