Page 124 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
Nadya’s gaze slashed from the arrow to me. “You used your weird Protectorate magic! That’s an impossible shot.”
Gods, doing what others thought impossible had been one of my biggest pleasures back when the world hadn’t tilted on its axis.
“I did not and it isn’t impossible. It’s just fucking hard. Same asthis.” Caught in the moment, I pulled out another arrow and rushed forward.
I jumped and propelled myself against the nearest tree, kicking it just like I had back in the alley. With rehearsed movements, I vaulted into the air, my bow and arrow not moving an inch in my hands.
I landed right behind Nadya, the tip of my arrow aimed straight at the underside of her chin. She yelped and I fought to keep my breathing in check. I didn’t know if the tremor in my hand came from strain or a flicker of excitement at moving my body like it used to.
But this whole display had exhausted body too much. My lungs shuddered, but I refused to let them gulp in the air they desperately wanted.
If I showed how much this had cost me, it would undo everything I was trying to instill in them.
“Never let someone use your pride against you,” I muttered, for Nadya and me both. “That’s how you end up with a blade at your neck.”
Maybe, just maybe, I’d believe all these words myself.
I was a very hypocritical teacher.
“She got you.” Geryll hollered, the loudest sound I’d ever heard from him. “She got you good.”
Nadya crossed her arms again. “I didn’t know she could dothat.”
“Now you do,” I said.
“That was bloody glorious!” Geryll hollered.
Glorious.
That wretched word my former fucking fiance used.
Chills constricted my chest.
“Don’t use that word around me ever again,” I bit out. When Geryll’s smile fell, I sighed. “Please.”
He nodded, looking confused.
Goddamn it. I’d been doing so well, too. But the ghosts didn’t care–they wanted to wreck my present like they’d wrecked my past.
Just as I began to retract my arrow, a rustle from the hill up ahead caught my attention.
My entire body seized as a haggard breath finally loosed from me.
I stared at the snowy bank as if an entire army was about to descend upon us.
“It’s not him,” Nadya said lowly, only for my ears. “He left the city this morning, The Dragon called him to the Capital.”
He’dleft?
It wasn’t like I was giving the Commander details about my days or whereabouts–I’d escaped his crater, after all–so it shouldn’t have surprised me that he’d seen to his business, like he usually did.
But it did surprise me, for some forsaken reason.
“I–” Godsdamn it, I’d been obvious. Like a lovestruck youngling fretting over her first crush. I’d never stressed over seeing someone in my life. “All the way to the Capital?”
From the little Evie had told me of that blasted place, it sounded like the Blood Brotherhood stronghold had been built on the other side of the continent, where soft ocean breezes ruled.
That meant the Commander would be gone a long time.
