Page 13 of The Heartless Archer

“I’m not, I told you I’m just sore. I can keep on going.” She tried to reach for the leather belt around his narrow hips, which seemed to fuel his anger. He brushed her off and got to his knees.

“How can you even think of that? How can you come here when you’re hurting?”

She got to her feet as well, sighing. “Lukas, if I would only come here when I was not hurt, I’d never be here, you know that.”

She scoffed at the look on his face. His hazel brows were drawn in, tan skin pulling into a frustrated grimace.

“Don’t look at me like you just found out about this. You know how they treat me.”

“But you told me it was better.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. Noora could not believe him at this moment. Why did he make it sound like she was the one responsible for the way the townspeople treated her?

“Well, now it is worse. Lukas, please can we just spend the little time we have as resourceful as we can.”

“I hate this.” His voice cracked as he stepped forward, catching her face in his hands. She closed her eyes at the soft strokes of his thumbs, leaning upward. This time he let her catch his lips but only for a few moments. She was always drawn to him for the way he could make her forget the cruel things. Her back pulled less when it was surrounded by his arms and her mind came undone by the soft pressure of his lips.

He lowered his forehead to hers. “If you would stay here with me I could make sure you’d be all right.”

“We talked about this,” Noora whispered. She didn’t want to talk about it again. She wanted to kiss him and get lost in their heat, their bodies. To somehow forget the sound of the flying whip and the clinking the tin box made when she drew it open. She could wind down when she was with him, for one moment she could forget where she was and who she was. It was the only thing she yearned for.

“I know. But I want you to think about it, Noora. A life here at the farm. I have talked to my parents they would let me inherit earlier if I was genuine in my intentions. If I had a partner at my side and was bound—“

“What?” Noora stepped out of his hold, her cheeks growing cold at the loss of contact.

Lukas's blue eyes searched hers desperately as he took a step forward. “Don’t look so surprised, sweetheart. You knew it was going to end like this, I always wanted it. And if you marry me we could—“

“I am not going to marry you, Lukas.” Noora drew further away. How could he just drop this onto her? She was seventeen years old and ironically, that was not even the first thing that came to her mind as an obstacle when considering marriage with Lukas.

“You’re not?” he asked unsure.

Noora couldn’t help herself but release an acidic laugh. “Why would you even want to marry me, are you mad? It was not supposed to go like this. You were supposed to marry a girl from church who would gift you with five children and live happily ever after.”

“I don’t want a girl from church, I want you, Noora. The farm—“

“Would you stop about the goddamn farm for one second! I do not care about the farm, I do not care about this town or this godsforsaken kingdom.“ She started to button up her blouse in haste. “The moment I turn eighteen, and have enough Gulls I will leave Oy Frossen.”

“Leave?” Lukas’s voice croaked.

Noora stopped buttoning and looked up at him. “What did you think I would do?”

His brows furrowed. “I thought you loved me, but apparently I am wrong.”

“I do love you.”

He did not understand. She could not stay here, where she was only defined by her heritage, where she was spat at, hit at, and undermined by everyone who surrounded her. The people ofOy Frossen were far from welcoming when it came to treating people from outside the kingdom, though this was different. It was not just angry looks, it was violence and deep-rooted hate that Noora could not escape if she did not leave the kingdom.

He grew angry at that, his once kind eyes blazing in a black fire. “So let me get this right, you love me but you do not want to marry me, instead you want to leave Oy Frossen.”

She shook her head. “You don’t understand.”

“Well, finally we agree on something.”

She took a few steps towards him, taking his hands in hers.

“It is something entirely different when I love you than when you love me. You are not allowed to love someone like me. I am an orphan.”

They both knew that it was not only her lack of parents that stood in their path.

“I don’t care about that.”

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