Page 108 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
Not anymore.
“It is. Now go train. Or destroy it. Chuck it in the fire, start another smoke alarm that shakes the city, I don’t care. Just do something.”
I pursed my lips together. I hadn’t imagined I’d send the entire city into a frenzy with my distraction.
“Or do you need me to carry you outside in my arms again?” He tilted his head to the side, gaze travelling up my body like it had no business doing. “All you have to do is ask, Huntress.”
There he went, stealing all my clever words and the breath in my lungs, all in a few words.
“I–” The color in my cheeks must have been blood red, because they burned. “No, of course not! I can walk just fine, thank you.”
“Then show me. Show me the fire they wrote odes about back in Aquila. The one I saw in the maze.” He pushed himself away from the doorframe. “If I have to come after you again, I’ll be carrying you out, kicking and screaming if I have to, but I won’t let you fade into nothing.”
Chapter
Twenty
ALLIE
Igripped the bow tight enough that the wooden waves and flowers dug into the meat of my hand. I felt the marks sink into my skin, calling out to my blood to pull the string and feel that familiar flicker as the arrow slashed through the air.
Beckoning me to be dangerous again.
I stared down at the quiver of arrows, perfectly aligned, their fletchings white and crisp. Unused, just waiting to soar.
A perfect round target waited over one hundred yards away, the snow softly falling down upon it, as if daring me to strike the bullseye and shake it off.
But, for the life of me, I couldn’t.
Especially not when I had a nosy audience in this small little clearing, so close to the fortress that its shadow loomed over me.
“I thought she was some expert archer,” the boy with the shaved head who’d been training with the Commander whispered clumsily from behind.
“I’ve seen her running, she’s nimble,” the girl said. We’d been expertly avoiding each other since the hounds had hunted us down, but it seemed we no longer could.
“I can hear you two, you know,” I said, not bothering to hide the edge in my voice. I turned, narrowing my eyes at them standing to the side, watching me with less mistrust than the first time we met. But the hesitation was still there, in the way the girl held her hand on her hip just above her ax and the way the boy’s shoulders bunched, wide eyes tracking me. “And I don’t need babysitters.”
I barely had enough strength to stand. I didn’t need an audience if I collapsed.
“The Commander disagrees,” she said at the same time he quipped, “The Commander told us to come watch you train and learn.”
Their heads whipped toward each other, gazes and eyebrows having a silent fight like I did with my cousins when we got caught after stealing apples from the orchard.
That simple display tugged at my heart painfully. I still felt the protection spell I cast on Evie pulsing through my veins. At least I knew she was safe. But Dax, Dara, and Clara’s locations were still one big mystery, so setting up palaver discussions was difficult. I had to trust theVegheara bratswere strong enough to survive and live to get our vengeance.
“I’ve seen your warriors, I’m sure one of them can teach you archery better than I can,” I said. “You don’t even trust me with your names, I doubt you’d trust my teachings.”
What was it with everyone wanting to learn things from me? Evie wanted to learn how to control her Protectorate powers, these two wanted to watch me hit a target which suddenly felt too intimidating.
Was this the Commander’s way of pressuring me?
After he’d delivered the bow, I finally left my room to keep him from coming back and confusing me with threats that sounded too much like promises for me to dwell too much on them.
All I knew was the thought of him carrying me in his arms pulled something inside of me that had always felt fragile.
Which meant it was dangerous.
“No other archer is The Huntress,” the girl said and crossed her arms in front of her chest, working her jaw. “And my name is Nadya.”
