Page 64 of The Heartless Archer

“Of course, Your Majesty.” He turned to leave when Noora spoke up. “One of them is already dead, they can’t get rid of its body. I will do that.”

Raphael’s eyes flickered to Nikolai for confirmation and with a defeated nod the latter agreed. Raphael left the office. Nikolai rounded his wooden desk, going for the third drawer on the left, when he felt his lungs finally ease up a bit.

“Just to be clear, I will not let you see the wolves before I have at least checked your hand.“

He found the small satchel stuffed in the back of the drawer,although when he looked up, he saw that Noora was gone.

Nikolai straightened fully and that was when he saw her. Her form was crumpled on the floor, her right hand drawn protectively to her chest and her skin so pale she looked like a ghost slumbering on his blue ornament carpet, with no care in the world.

Chapter 26

Noora

Noora dreamed of wolves chasing her through a dark forest. Little stones, fallen bark, and treacherous tree roots dove through the ground. Reaching for her, in an attempt to slow her down or worse, make her fall.

Noora whipped her head around at a high-pitched howl, seeing that the pack had gained on her at an alarming speed. If she wanted to make it out of here, she would need to be faster.

Her legs burned as she pushed forward, her muscles straining at the unnatural speed she was gaining and then she missed a tree root growing out of the ground in front of her.

She stumbled over it falling and falling…

With a choked inhale, Noora sat up in her bed, her vision blurry as she blinked away the fear she felt from the dream that occupied her mind only mere moments ago.

When the fog in her brain cleared and she could feel the soft velvet material clutched in her hand, she realised that she was not in her bed at all, she was in a chamber that looked fairly different from anything that existed in the orphanage.

Almost every wall of the chamber was filled with dark ceiling-high bookshelves, which were stuffed to the brim, and a few towers of stacked books even residing in front of the shelves out of lack of space.

The windows on the right side of the chamber allowed her to see the already setting sun, beaming its rays onto the wooden desk scattered with multiple papers, a small paperweight shaped like a crescent on top of thick envelopes.

Noora tried to get up from the velvet green settee, someone must have placed her on when a sharp sting drove through herright hand. She looked down to see it wrapped in a layer of gauze, it looked a bit wonky if she was being honest.

“I had to stitch the wound up myself.”

Her head snapped to her right, a leather armchair occupying the place beside a small round side table that was filled with more knick-knacks and unnecessary miniature chess pieces. Slowly, her hazy brain realised that she was still in the office of the prince. Her injured hand was bandaged up so thick, she wasn’t sure she could feel her fingers anymore.

Nikolai put down the book that was covering his face a second ago. He looked like he was sitting on a throne rather than lounging in a plush leather armchair.

“Do you want a gold medal for that?” Noora asked, referring to his words as she swung her legs over the settee, her head spinning for a moment.

When she zeroed in on him she realised that her words were a mistake. His voice was just a disguise of calm which stood in contrast with the blazing rage that took hold of his usual pale eye colour.

Nikolai got out of his chair and slowly stalked over to her, stopping only when his legs bumped against her knees.

Noora tipped her head up to keep staring at him, taking his anger straight on, like a wave crashing against the shore.

When he spoke up again his voice was unearthly deep, sending a shiver over her skin as if her body knew that she was in dangerous territory. “Do you know how utterly stupid, childish, and irresponsible it was of you to just strut around with an injury like that? Did you even take one second to think of the consequences you and other people would have to carry if the bite got infected? You should know better than anyone how serious this was. The wolf was not even going at its hardest. I can only imagine how that would have turned out.”

To Noora’s surprise she saw his body trembling with rage, she watched him curl his gloved hands into fists, trying to compose his anger.

“It is my body and I think I am the only one entitled to make any decision about it.”

“Not if you are so careless with protecting it!” His voice boomed through the small chamber, the sound carrying against the walls which threw the sound back at them.

Without hesitation, she stood up, misjudging her wellness and she got dizzy, her body swaying to her left.

Nikolai’s hand shot up, grasping her elbow to steady her before he bit out, “careful.”

When she was steady enough, she yanked her arm out of his hold.

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