Page 128 of Blade of the Nightking

Slowly, as though moving underwater, I took it. The fletching brushed whisper-soft against my fingertips.

Rìan frowned faintly down at me before gesturing toward the target. “Try.” He stepped aside and folded his arms across his chest.

My heart hammered as I faced it.

I nocked the arrow. Drew the string back. But when I aimed at the painted red center of the target… all I saw was blood.

Father’s blood spraying across the snow.

I released the arrow. It dropped uselessly at my feet.

“Pick it up.”

Fighting the sudden urge to vomit, I bent and retrieved it.

“Again.”

My fingers trembled violently as I nocked another shot.

Drew. Released.

Again, the arrow barely traveled before clattering harmlessly onto the floor.

“Again.”

I couldn’t move.

Blood.

All that blood.

The snow blooming red around his body.

I missed…

Rìan strode forward abruptly, snatched the arrow from the floor, and shoved it back into my hands.

“Pathetic.”

I said nothing.

“Shoot the damned arrow.”

I wanted to run. Gods, I wanted to run.

But there was nowhere for me to run to. Not from him. Not from myself. Not from what I’d done.

My throat tightened painfully.

Rìan stepped directly into my space, looming over me. “Do you enjoy being useless?” he hissed. The roaring in my ears intensified. “Or is warming Aedric's bed the only thing you're good for?”

Something inside me cracked.

I hurled the bow to the floor at his feet and turned sharply on my heel. “I’m not doing this again.”

I stalked away. As I shoved through the doors, another emotion welled beneath my anger, heavy and sickening.

Shame.