Chapter 18
Chapter eighteen
The thud of the arrow made Mara wince as it buried its head in a tree trunk. I went completely still as I listened for any sounds of footsteps or flying arrows but could only hear the pounding of my own heart.
The ring stopped buzzing, giving me a shred of faith that the danger had been avoided. I crawled off of Mara, gazing cautiously over the bushes to find the source of the shot. There were no animals to be seen, so whatever they were shooting at must have escaped before it hit.
Mara stood too, her legs still trembling as she followed my gaze, the two of us spotting the archer at the same moment.
Sybil.
Her bow was still raised, a second arrow drawn as her dark eyes slowly drifted toward me.
“Be careful!” Mara called over to her, pressing a hand to her chest with a short gasp. “You almost hit us.”
Sybil pulled back the arrow, and my ring buzzed again.
“That’s the point.” I barely uttered the words, my body moving on its own as I jumped out of the way just as a second arrow came flying past my ear.
I could hear the fletching cut through the air close enough that I felt the urge to check for blood.
No sting followed. I acted quickly, nocking an arrow and returning the attack with a ruthless shot toward her head.
She was fast, dashing out of the way as silently as she’d approached.
I tried to peer through the trees to keep track of her, but her camouflage skills could rival a black cat at midnight.
I stepped in front of Mara, keeping my bowstring tight and my eyes peeled as I scanned the trees for even the slightest rustle.
“W-what’s going on?” Mara squeaked, pressing tightly against my back. “Why is she attacking us? We’re supposed to be hunting animals.”
“The king never said it had to be an animal,” I said grimly. I took a step back, nudging Mara to move with me. We needed more cover, quickly. “The king instructed us to secure any prey of our choosing, and I’ll bet Sybil wants to trade my head in for a feast.”
And I’ll bet I know who encouraged her to target me.
I lowered my bow long enough to grab Mara’s arm and drag her back into the brush. With two of us, we wouldn’t be nearly as fast as Sybil. The forest was too unfamiliar, my weapon not my own, and the silence too concerning. This must have been what the deer felt like before it met Avalyn.
My ring started vibrating, breaking up my thoughts enough for me to piece together what it was spelling out.
“N.”
He repeated the letter at least three times, clearly trying to convey something quickly without taking the time to spell it out. A split second later, something changed in the pattern, and I noticed he was cycling between two letters.
“S. N.”
Sybil?
Could he see her? Was he trying to tell me where she was going?
Or what direction she’s coming from…N…North!
I took the gamble, running south in an attempt to escape the bloodthirsty hunter. My ring buzzed more, repeating N until another change caught my attention.
“E.”
I shifted my direction, running west. Mara huffed and puffed behind me, barely keeping pace over the icy ground. I hardly felt the cold with all the hot blood coursing through me, but I wasn’t immune to the ice threatening to slide my boots out from under me.
As if prophesying our downfall, Mara slipped on a patch of ice and toppled into the snow.
Her arm was ripped out of my grasp, and I ran two more steps before my stiff legs caught the command to turn around.
Mara looked horrified, her legs betraying her as she struggled to get back on her feet like a newborn deer.
“I-I’m sorry, I’m coming,” Mara’s lip wobbled, either from cold or the urge to cry. She’d made it to her knees, nearly up on her feet, when my ring started shaking my finger like mad.
She was here.
I strung an arrow, but preparing for a ranged attack did me little good when I was tackled. A blur of black hair and a gritted frown sent me toppling to the ground, my eyes catching the glint of an arrowhead that she was plunging toward my neck.
Mara screamed, but it was hardly a distraction as Sybil’s panting breaths smothered my thoughts.
I grabbed her wrist inches before the arrow pierced my throat, my other hand catching hers as we wrestled for control.
She had me pinned, her full weight pressed against my legs as she pushed all of her strength into the back of that arrow.
Is that all you’ve got?
I tapped into my reserved strength, pushing up from my core to sit up and shift the weight until I could roll over top of her.
To her credit, she adjusted quickly, using the momentum to roll further and wrestle me onto my side.
I dug my heel into the snow, holding my ground as I continued to push the arrow back from my neck.
Her strength was no match for mine, but she was quick-witted and could adapt to my counterattacks with ease.
I just have to get some distance from her.
I shifted my leg to press my other heel into the snow, only to feel my soul try to leave my body as it kicked in the open air. I risked a glance behind me, feeling the arrow skim my throat as I stared down the sheer cliff that marked the edge of the forest.
Not good.
My ring was rattling off messages like wild, but I couldn’t focus on any of them as I struggled to keep my distance from both the arrow and the cliff.
Sybil was intently focused, her gaze locked only on the arrow as she inched it closer to my flesh.
Mara was still screaming somewhere behind her, crying for her to stop and some other things I couldn’t make out through her sobs.
I slid another inch, my other heel teetering dangerously close to the cliff’s edge. I needed to think fast. My strength didn’t do me any good if I couldn’t get any leverage on her. There had to be a way to catch her off guard, to take out her arrow…or to fight back.
The hair pin!
I attempted to reach for my hair with the hand that wasn’t occupied with saving my neck, but Sybil kept too tight of a clasp on my fingers to let me free. Right when I was about to attempt a desperate move to use my other hand, an unlikely hero jumped to my rescue.
“Get off of her!” Mara joined the battle, reaching her frail arms around Sybil in a hopeless attempt to pull her off of me.
She was nothing more than a nuisance to the trained assassin, but she was enough of a nuisance to warrant a minuscule amount of attention. Sybil released her grip on my hand to push Mara back, and the second I was free, I made a move for my hair pin.
The action didn’t go unnoticed, and the second I had the sharpened end flying toward Sybil’s chest, she emitted the first human noise I’d heard from her in the form of a soft gasp.
She jolted back, dodging the pin but leaving herself vulnerable to my wrath.
I flipped her over me, kicking her in the chest to send her rolling off the cliff.
Mara screamed again, the ear-splitting sound rattling me as I watched Sybil’s hands claw for something to grab on to. For a terrifying second, she grasped only snow, but the terror vanished when she snagged a solid tree root that halted her descent.
That wouldn’t stop her for long.
I grabbed Mara’s arm, dragging her along once again as I put as much distance between us and that cliff as possible.
“Wait!” Mara gasped. “She’s going to fall!”
“Only if we’re lucky!” I said, refusing to slow for even a second until I was certain that Mara couldn’t take a single step further.
We must have run across half the hunting grounds before we slowed to a stop.
Mara collapsed into the snow, her cheeks flushed as she gulped down the icy air like she hadn’t tasted oxygen in days.
I tried to ignore my exhaustion, but without having eaten breakfast, it was getting increasingly difficult to push onward. I tapped on my ring, praying for an answer from my guardian devil who watched from above.
“Safe?” I asked him, looking up toward the castle tower that I could barely spot through the trees.
“Safe,” he repeated, and my heart dropped back into my chest after pounding in my throat for so long.
I took his confidence as an excuse to sit down, my bones feeling like lead as I paused to join Mara in sucking back the precious air. Mara pressed a hand to her forehead, her breathing starting to settle while her cheeks turned from red to a ghastly white.
“She…she tried to kill you,” she breathed. “I can’t believe she would try to take another competitor’s life for points in some game.”
“I doubt she cares about the points,” I said grimly. “I’d bet her only mission here is to terminate me.”
Mara looked like she might be sick, arms wrapping around her torso like she was desperate for some form of comfort. “Could the king really do that?”
“He can do anything he likes,” I said, rising from the snow to keep my pulse from dropping too much.
I still had a task to complete, after all.
“But he’s smart enough to know that killing me in the wrong context won’t deliver the desired results.
A public execution would anger those who respect me, but having me die within the parameters of the games will kill any respect I’d gained with me.
If there was anyone left to still be angry, they’d have Sybil to direct their hatred at. ”
I couldn’t tell if Mara was impressed or appalled, but by the way she gripped her arms, I would gamble she wasn’t loving her lesson on politics. An aggressive shiver ran through her, shaking her from her head to her toes.
“Everyone in this castle truly is set on destroying you, aren’t they?” she asked, her tone heartbroken and raw.
Before I could answer, my attention turned to my ring, my heart skipping a beat as two quick letters drew my eyes to the sky. “Up.”
“Not everyone,” I said, drawing my bow only seconds before a flock of geese blocked out the sky. Mara jumped to her feet, and I felt a pang of relief echo with the thud of my arrows.
I downed two geese, not having enough time to pull another arrow before the flock was out of reach. The fowl crashed down only a few feet from us, and Mara clasped her hands with a glorious cheer.
“You did it!” she applauded, her sad face eclipsed by a joyous smile. “You’re amazing, my lady!”
A shrill bell echoed through the trees, pausing Mara’s applause as her eyes widened. “Oh, and right on time too! It sounds like the event is over.”
Already?
I looked down at the two birds, my heart sinking as I wished I’d been able to snag just one more.
It wasn’t nothing, but it wasn’t enough.