Page 110 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
The Huntress inside me rebelled.
Allie bowed her head in shame.
The sting to my vanity quickly dimmed behind that icy barrier.
How fearsome could I be if I’d needed to be saved from my own people?
I plucked the string. Another arrow pierced the first, wood splinters and feathers bursting free.
“Wow,” Geryll said.
Nadya whistled, impressed.
“We’ll see about that marriage,” was all I said.
“The Commander said it’s inevitable,” she said. “Didn’t seem all that thrilled about being married with someone he’s just met.”
“That makes two of us,” I grumbled.
That was the maddening truth.
We were strangers.
Complete and total strangers being herded for an altar both of us wanted to avoid like the plagues of the past.
“A lot of things can happen in a short time.” I’d lost my Clan, family, and will very quickly. I clenched my jaw and yanked another arrow from the quiver. “Your precious Commander isn’t my first would-be groom.”
The difference was I’d chosen the first one and I’d been fully committed and deliriously happy at doing so.
At first.
“Who had the guts to face the feared Huntress in blissful matrimony?” she asked. Her voice had softened in tune with the bow’s string.
The Blood Brotherhood respected power above all else, after all, according to my spies. It seemed my little show of skill had done more to warm Nadya’s tongue than me saving her from the hounds.
Or maybe she’d caught a glimpse of the mark still marring my neck and felt sorry for me.
It didn’t matter and it didn’t change anything. At least she wasn’t asking me where The Huntress had gotten her bruises.
I flexed my jaw. “Waden Pillion.”
I hadn’t spoken his name since that heinous day. It still tasted rancid on my tongue–but the bastard didn’t deserve me protecting his name.
Another arrow joined its brethren, this time slashing the line of wood violently clean in two.
“Pillion, Pillion,” Nadya muttered. “Wait…as in the Pillion family from the Fair Isles?”
I turned around, surprised. The Fair Isles were a long way away from everything, especially this frozen crater. “Yes.”
“Those little merchants who traded their way up into lordship?” Nadya raised her brows and scoffed. “Profiting bootlickers, all of them, I hear.”
I slashed a look toward her. “Where someone comes from is irrelevant, lord or not.”
“My biggest crush was a stable hand, I don’t need convincing on that subject. But don’t tell the Commander that, he still thinks I dream of bunnies at night.” Nadya cocked her head to the side. From the way Geryll turned to her, eyes wide with surprise, he thought the same thing. “It’s just strange.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re The Huntress.” Nadya gestured at my woolen coat, my bow, and my wild hair. “I expected you to tie your fate with some legendary warrior or a general or–”
