Page 69 of The Arrow and the Alder

Behind her, voices cheered. A few clapped. At least a dozen Weald kith had gathered on the platform above, including Rian and the lavender-eyed child named Rasia. Seph wondered how long they’d been standing there, but she was pulled from her spell as Alder strode across the training yard to gather his arrows.

“How did you do that?” she managed, dazedly following, frustrated that hehaddone it.

He plucked an arrow off the ground. “Each target is suffused witheloit. Your owneloitshould respond to it like it would respond to a real mark, and you don’t need eyes to sense that.”

Seph approached Alder and held out the arrows she’d gathered.

He didn’t take them but looked at her instead. His gaze cut straight to her soul. “If you are kith, you do not need eyes to see. Eyes deceive us most of the time anyway. You must see with youreloit. Feel the target’s position by how itseloitpushes against your surroundings. Aim at its heart, and you will strike truth.”

Seph did not think he spoke only of the arrow just then. “And whatisthe truth, Prince Alder?”

His jaw ticked. “I might hurry if I were you. You’ve got yourself an audience.”

“Right, thanks for that.”

“They were here before I showed up,” he replied, and he nodded at the little orb that had appeared.

Seph was still processing the fact that they’d been watching her when she caught sight of Rasia again. She thought she saw the girl smile, but she ducked out of sight before Seph could be sure.

And Alder was still waiting.

Seph studied the target and its pulsing crimson heart. How in the saints had he done it? Now she had to try. No excuses. If she was kith, she should be able to tap into hereloit. If she couldn’t, she had no business ever going to the surface with Alder.

Seph set her arrow, pulled, and?—

“Wait,” she said, lowering her bow. “Bind my eyes.”

The Weald Prince frowned.

“Do it,” she insisted. “That way there is no doubting. Not even for them.” Her gaze flickered to the kith gathered above, but she was not doing thisjustfor them or even for Alder.Sheneeded to know. Alder had shot blind, so she knew itcouldbe done, and if Seph possessed the abilities Abecka claimed she did—that she was somehow tied to the coat and Canna’s restoration—then Seph needed to do this for herself.

That way she’d have the courage for whatever came next.

Alder considered her before stepping around her. A moment later, he placed a cloth around her eyes, and then his hands were in her hair, and she did not wince as a few strands caught in his knot.

His hands lingered in her hair a moment longer before he pulled them away, and shefeltrather than heard him take a step back.

Breathe,she told herself.

She drew back the arrow and raised her bow. The world fell silent except for the thrum of falling water, but even that faded from her mind.

Feel the target’s position by how itseloitpushes against the fabric of your surroundings. Aim at its heart, and you will strike truth.

Someone softly cleared their throat, and another whispered, but Seph ignored them all. She shut out everything except for the feel of the grip in her hands, the arrow pinched between her fingers, and the weight of the bow upon her arms. She imagined the bow, every curve and every line. The way the arrow balanced upon her middle finger.

Breathe.

What dideloitfeel like? But even as she asked the question, she realized she already knew.

Because she felt it with Alder.

Perhaps it was the quiet, perhaps it was shutting down sight that allowed her tosee, as he had said. Whatever the reason, his presence was like a string attached to her body that tugged ever so slightly, but it had always been so, she realized. She’d thought it’d been the coat, but the coat was not here, and that tug persisted all the same. Which meant it could only behim—like a torch burning steadily in her periphery. Now if only she could expand that sensation to the world around her…

An errant breeze kissed her face with a thousand droplets of water, and when it left, her mind was clear. She tilted her head as Alder had done, listening.

Feeling.

Suddenly, it wasn’t a question of whether Seph had this ability. Sephwantedthe ability. She wanted to prove it to herself, prove that she was as kith as she was mortal. They had three months—three! And she refused to spend them hiding, waiting for anif.

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