I quirked an eyebrow. “Why do I get the feeling this is a reprimand and not a compliment?”
“Because she’s great at those,” Chaz interjected.
Shooting him a look, Lark continued, “Sometimes you need to be selfish, though. I’m worried you’re going to look back on your life in thirty or forty years and realize you lived it for everyone but yourself.”
Chaz added, “If she even makes it that long.”
“Not helping.”
“Just trying to bring some levity to the conversation.”
I took another drink, listening to their banter as Lark’s wordssank into me. I lived for myself, didn’t I? I’d done things forme, because I wanted to and for no other reason.
Hadn’t I?
I let my gaze wander with my thoughts. At the window next to the corner table we occupied, a small sliver of light twisted through a crack in the glass. I leaned forward in my seat to get a better look. I thought it looked like Lightbender magic—thin, bright strands of light that could go through solid matter. Some drunk Lightbender must be showing off for their friends. I brought my hand up to the windowsill and smiled, letting the thin thread wrap around my fingers. It was so lightweight, I could hardly feel it, almost like a piece of hair tickling my skin.
Then an arrow whizzed through the hole in the window and embedded itself in my hand.
6
Clarissa
Icried out in alarm and staggered backward as pain radiated up my arm. Chaz was instantly on his feet, and Lark’s shadows swirled at her hands beside him. Several patrons nearest our table had noticed the commotion. Drinks clattered and chairs screeched across the wooden floor, gasps filling the air.
Growling and biting back the sting, I ripped the arrow from my hand. My quick healing was already kicking in, thanks to my Shifter half. Blood trickled slowly from the closing wound as I held my hand as steady as I could, when something stuck at the base of the arrowhead caught my attention.
you can’t run
A small note in a barely legible scrawl, its edges ripped and splattered in my blood.
“You need to get back, Rissa,” Chaz ordered, pulling me away from the window.
I crumpled the note in my uninjured hand and shoved it in my pocket. “I’m fine; it’s already starting to?—”
I heard the softswooshof another arrow coming from outside the tavern and called on my Shifter instincts, spinning to catch it.
But before I could, a dark wall of shadows appeared before me, enveloping the oncoming arrow. Lark flicked her wrist, and it clattered to the ground.
Mumblings and quiet screams broke through the laughter and clinking of glasses as more patrons jumped to their feet.
“What was that?”
“Is someone shooting at us?”
“We’re under attack!”
Their questions and exclamations rolled over one another, tension mounting. Chaz pulled me to stand behind a wooden pillar, then glanced back at the window. “I’m going to check the perimeter. I’ll be back.”
I didn’t have time to protest before he vanished into thin air. “Striders,” I muttered. He was from Celestria and had the ability to transport himself from one place to another faster than I could stop him. I hated when others were put in danger because of me. WhenIcouldn’t be the one to take action. If anything happened to my friends?—
Lark wheeled herself to face me. “We need to get you out of here. Now. Those arrows were meant foryou. I can’t believe I let you talk me into coming out without more guards!”
I scanned the faces of the patrons scrambling in confusion, flexing my injured hand. I could feel the tissue repairing itself. “These people are frightened, Lark. I can’t leave them when there could be danger nearby.”
She threw her hands in the air. “You are theirempress. Don’t give me that provisional period nonsense. Youare. If something happens to you, this entire empire devolves into chaos. We’ll send a battalion out once we get back to the palace, and they can watch over the area.”
My lips set into a thin line. “It’sbecauseI’m their empress that I have to stay. I have to keep them calm.”
