Page 110 of The Heartless Archer

“I have barely used—”

“I am talking now,” he interrupted her darkly. “Whether you claim to have used your magic or not, I know that you have. You were able to escape a trained Sosye. Pinned Kekoa down, and made him stay where he was for hours, rotting in the forest. If it wasn’t for your magic, you would have not been able to escape him.”

Noora felt rudely discredited, though the situation demanded for her to stay focused on the important things.

“Pika was followed by a shadow singer indeed. I summoned one of them with a little help, which was easy enough, though I trained it to hunt you down as well.”

Noora narrowed her gaze at him as he trailed off into a tangent. He was getting distracted, she needed to keep him talking. Just one arrow. She needed to be fast and precise for it to work. Sören was stupid for letting her keep her bow. But with arrogance its shadow always followed; carelessness.

“Do not look so surprised, witch, you know exactly why it did not follow you. Tell the people why, Noora.”

“They are repelled by the magic that inherits witches, it is an underlying mechanism inside us, a form of a protection spell.”

He nodded, satisfied. “Exactly. Luckily, I was smart enough to protrude a backup plan and sabotaged all the skates of the contestants.”

Noora’s gaze flitted towards Lulva who was watching her, terrified to her bones. She held her gaze for a long time, tryingto make her understand and the younger girl nodded almost imperceptibly.

“I do not understand. Why do all of this just because you want to win the prize?”

Sören bellowed a laugh, the knife in his hand moving again. He needed to stay still or else Noora would accidentally hit Lulva.

“I do not give any bollocks on that stupid prize. What I wanted was you and those filthy witch hunters dead,” he seethed.

Noora blinked in confusion and stepped forward which made Sören press the knife harder against Lulva’s neck. “Stay. Where. You. Are. Filthy half-blood.”

Noora hesitated, sheer rage was drawing a fire in his cold eyes. He despised her, no he despised witches.

“You and those abominable witch hunters are anomalies in our world, you should not even be allowed to be alive! I was hoping the shadow singer would give you the rest but your dirty magic got in the way. And then the stupid dragon!” He was shaking with rage now and Noora felt it coming. The air was filled with electricity. It was driving higher and higher until it would unload itself on all of them. Until it would tip the world and rip it apart at its seams.

“I wanted it to rip you apart! I would take care of the witch hunters later but then Dainslief, if it weren’t for that cursed sword you would be dead now. The former wielder would be ashamed to know that a creature like you was in possession of it, you do not deserve it.”

“And you do? You are holding a knife to an innocent child, you want to kill people because of what they were born into, you must be mad not to see how little sense that makes. I saved your life in that cave!”

Sören glared at her. “YOU DID NOTHING BUT CURSE ME BECAUSE OF YOU MY LIFE HAS BEEN DESTROYED!”

His voice echoed around the arena and Noora could feel that this was it. The moment he moved his hand her eyes met Lulva. Her tear-stained face looked scared but she raised her foot as high as she could and slammed it down on Sörens foot.

The boy howled in pain and withdrew his hand slightly and the next moment Noora’s arrow flew. The arrow hit its goal, eliciting another scream from Sören as it burrowed deep in his hand. He did not let go of the knife as he glared at her, spit flying with his words.

“You missed.”

“No I did not, do you know the effects of wolfsbane, Sören? I heard you were very familiar with the poison.” She turned to Lulva, “Run.”

Lulva charged and Noora threw her bow to the side and ran towards her, drawing a knife from her right boot.

“NOO!” Sören roared and charged at Lulva, the girl had a head start and was rather quick. Something soared in Noora’s chest as she urged her legs to move faster, her arms already opening but then Sören took hold of Lulva’s scarf.

No.

Noora finally reached them and toppled Sören to the ground, her knife pressing against his neck. Her heart pounded as his lips spread into a small grin. “You should have gone for the heart, Archer.”

Still pinning him down, Noora turned her head to see Lulva on her knees, her mouth slightly agape, dark liquid spilling past her lips. Noora was on her feet a moment later, her knees like jelly as she sprinted over to her sister. Her knife clattered to the ground, her knees and left calf protesting as she caught Lulva’s body in her arms.

The ground caved in beneath her.

“No, no, no.” She did not know if she was screaming or whispering as she took the dagger out of the girl’s heart. “Lulva.” She barely was able to say her name.

The girl blinked, her pupils flitting around in fear.

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