Andhewasannoying.
“Alright, looks like we have our first volunteer.” Liam waved Sophia forward and slid the bow into her hands. It wasn’t the kind of bow that you’d see in any kind of modern hunting shop. Instead, it looked old and weathered, as if made from ancient trees. Hell, it probably hadbeen.
“There’s the target,” Liam said, pointing at a bulging sack at least a hundred yards away. “You’ve got three shots. Goodluck.”
Sophia wrinkled her nose. “Aren’t you going to show me how to use this thing? I’ve never shot an arrow in mylife.”
“Nope.” He crossed his arms over his chest and stepped back. “The challenge is to see how well you can shoot without any training. That means no demonstrations from me.Yet.”
She shrugged and slid an arrow into the bow. At first, she fumbled a bit. The arrow slid this way and that, but after a few minutes of wobbly trembling, she finally managed to get it to stick. With a deep breath, she raised the arrow and loosed it in theair.
And then it sunk into the sack with a heavythump.
My mouth dropped open, and Sophia pounded her fist in theair.
“That was awesome!” She whirled toward me with sparkling eyes, and I couldn’t help but grin back. “Maybe this whole fae thing isn’t so bad afterall.”
Her next two arrows hit the mark, but that wasn’t much of a surprise after the first. Lila went next. She managed to get her first two shots within a couple of feet of the sack, and the third finally hit the edge of the mark. With every second that passed, the more my palms began to sweat. I’d never been particularly good at anything but dancing, and this seemed about as far away from dancing as something couldget.
Up next was Sam. She was a little better than Lila but didn’t reach the same heights as my new roommate, and she huffed and muttered underneath her breath. Clearly, she wasn’t used to not being at the top of theclass.
Finally, it was my turn. Liam stepped forward and slid the bow into my hands. As he gave me an arrow, our fingers brushed. A jolt went through my body from the connection of our skin, like a static shock times ten. I sucked in a sharp breath as his eyes locked onto mine. Those eyes that were as bright and as brilliant as a red-and-gold summersunset.
His eyes slightly widened, and his lips curled up into a devilish smile. “Somethingwrong?”
I blinked and stepped back, dropping my hand away from his. “No. Of course not. I’ve just never handled a bow and arrowbefore.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “None of the other Manhattan recruits haveeither.”
“Right.” My cheeks burned with embarrassment. He’d clearly caught me sucked in by his impossibly orange-red eyes, and the tremble my body had instinctively made when his hand had brushed mine. And Liam, I was quickly understanding, was the kind of person whose ego relished in even the slightest ofcompliments.
Not that I was complimentinghim.
Sucking in a deep breath, I forced my gaze away from the Summer fae and fumbled to fit the arrow into the slot thingy. I mean, who was I kidding? I didn’t know any of the terms for a bow and arrow. So, a slot thingy itwas.
“By the way,” Liam suddenly spoke up, his lips only inches from my ear. In the few seconds I’d had my attention turned away from him, he’d snuck up on me, and the cloying scent of summer rain and sunflowers swarmed into my nostrils. “Whoever loses this first test gets Watch Duty tonight. Which means you’ll get very little sleep, and you’ll become intimately acquainted with what goes bump in the night.” He gave me a wink. “And there are many things that go bump in the night, including me. Goodluck.”
Chapter Ten
Needless to say,I sucked. My first arrow went flying off into another origin’s section of the garden. I blamed it on Liam. It almost felt like he’d purposely been trying to make me screw up my shot by distracting me with his annoying manliness. And, annoyingly, it had worked. I was too distracted to focus on launching one of these things. Plus, the bow was a lot heavier than it looked, and my arms trembled as I tried to hold itsteady.
The next two arrows didn’t fare much better. They stayed in our lane, but they were about as far from the sack as I could get. It was as if my arms and hands were playing a different game than everyone else: get the arrow as far from the target aspossible.
Liam was still lurking over my shoulder when I was done. He’d been standing like that the entire time I’d been attempting the shots. I’d felt his breath whispering across my neck, and I heard the laugh I swore that no one could hear butme.
When I lowered the bow, I whirled on him, my own eyes as fiery as his. “You did that on purpose. You wanted to see me fail, so you made melose.”
His grin widened. “I did nothing of the sort. And, don’t forget, I’m one of your instructors. You need to show me the proper respect. Otherwise…” His eyes sparkled. “I might have to add some more punishment on top of your WatchDuty.”
My mouth dropped open, and anger curled in my stomach. “Oh, so is that how things work around here? Women mates get punished if they don’t obey theirmen?”
“Oh, you’re not my mate yet, darling.” His voice was deep and dark as he curled a finger underneath my chin. “But I see that fire in you. Maybe you will end upmine.”
* * *
“Sorry about what happened out there,”Sophia said as we strolled back into our shared apartment. I only had an hour to “unpack” and settle in before I had to meet up with the other losers who had been assigned Watch Duty for the night. All the changelings who had come in last in their groups were suckered into a long night of watching the dark forest for any sign of dangerous creatures. Since we sucked so bad at the whole bow and arrow thing, we weren’t there to fight. Instead, we would waste away our sleeping hours by keepingwatch.
I shrugged and slumped down on the bed in Sophia’s room, watching her unzip the first of three massive suitcases. A twinge went through my gut. I wished I had a chance to pack my things. Instead, I was here with nothing from my past, except Mom’s necklace which dangled from my neck. Nothing else to remind me of who I reallywas.
