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Evie lifts a book from the shelf and examines it before tossing it onto Levi’s bed. “If you’re committed to each other, they won’t happen anymore. We’ll all see to that.” She walks over to the door and pauses. “You coming?”
“I think I’ll stay here for a while.” I snatch a book from the shelf to show her I’m serious about my alone time. “Been meaning to read this one.” I glance at the cover: Hiking the Elmridden Range. “It looks riveting.”
Evie smiles and motions to the living room. “I’ll be in here if you need anything.”
“Ok,” I say, opening the book. “And, Evie?”
She turns back to me. “Yes?”
“Thanks.”
After the door is closed, I place the book back on the shelf and fold my hands behind my head, staring up at the ceiling. Despite Bastian’s comments when we arrived at the cabin, tonight is the first time I feel like I belong. I draw in a deep breath, hold it for several seconds, and release it.
Twenty minutes pass before the door opens again and Levi enters carrying a tray of food. He places it on the ground beside my bed and sits next to me.
“He feels bad.” There’s a slight frown on his face as he signs the words. “It was as much a dig at me as it was at you. I think he’s jealous of my good looks and massive form.” He holds up his arm and flexes his bicep.
I smile before tossing my pillow, hitting him square in the face. Rather than retaliating, he hugs it to his chest, lunges for his mattress, and places it behind his head.
“Come on, Levi.” I pout and cross my arms.
He flings it back to me, reclines on his own pillow, and crosses his legs. “I wish things could stay like this forever.” Tears glisten behind his glasses, making me want to bridge the short expanse and comfort him, but I stay put. “There’s a lot of talk about taking down the cities with the saviors and freeing the wilderness, but the idea of doing it and the actual task are two totally different things. I’m worried about putting you in danger with Cirrus. I can’t imagine what going against Avren and the First City forces will be like.”
“We can only tackle one thing at a time.” I snuggle into my pillow but keep facing him so he can read my lips. “If we think about the big picture, we’ll all go crazy from the magnitude of the task.”
“For being so young, you’re an amazing woman.” He rubs his eyes. “Now, eat your dinner so we can both go to bed.”
By six the next morning, Bastian has me in the meadow, aiming my arrow at a yarn doll he’s propped on a fencepost. Our walk from the cabin was silent, and we avoided eye contact. With my arrow pointed at the chest of the doll, I feel his stare, and how, more than anything he wants to apologize, but his pride holds him back.
The bowstring shakes between my thumb and forefinger as I spend too long trying to hit my target. With a choice curse word, I send my arrow flying into the leaves of a tree high above the fencepost.
“Concentrate, Mari.” He goes to retrieve my arrow. “I can’t take you to Cirrus if you can’t defend yourself.”
“Like they’d let me waltz into the Unseelie Court with a quiver full of iron-tipped arrows on my back.” I retrieve another arrow, this time focusing on a tree on the other side of the meadow from Bastian. I draw back and hit my target. “Knowledge of the fae is much more valuable. If I know what to expect… how Cirrus might trick me…”
“You’re leaving with us.” He grips the arrow in his hand, his knuckles turning so white, I’m afraid he might snap the shaft in half. “I’ll burn the place down before I let them have you.”
I lay the bow on the ground and place a hand on his chest. “You’ve got to trust me. You’ve got to trust Levi.” I slide my hand to his cheek, running my thumb along his stubble. “He’s your brother.”
He closes his eyes, his lashes impossibly long as he leans into my palm. “This is new for me. I’m afraid if you fulfill your purpose written within the prophecy, I’ll lose you. Control’s important to me. Having my battle plans laid out on the table, each scenario thought through using stratagem, pieces on a map.” He pitches forward and touches his lips to mine. “I don’t want to reduce your significance to a wooden token on my map.”
“It’s not your job to protect me.” I could get lost in those eyes—in his pain. “We’re a team. All of us. We go in together and come out together. And as far as Levi is concerned…” I trace his lip with my pointer finger. “Besides Gray, he’s the only one who accepted me when I first arrived.”
He winces.
“I understand the reservations you had, but it doesn’t change that he’s become my best friend.” The truth must hurt him. In Avren, they teach us to always portray everything with honesty, not the deceit the Council uses regularly. “It’s easy to love Levi.”
He averts his eyes, staring intently at his boots. “It is. I won’t pretend that I don’t want to be the one you trust the most. I also know I need to earn it.” His attention draws back to me as he takes my free hand. “It doesn’t help if I act the way I did last night. I’m sorry about what I said. I’ll make it up to both of you by having you home early for Levi’s training today.”
I smile, peck him on the cheek, and release his hand to pick up my bow. “I’m sure he’d like that. He’d like you to acknowledge that his time with me is just as important as what you’re teaching me.”
The morning wears on. I shoot so many arrows, my arm shakes when I hold up my bow again, but Bastian is insistent. Competency isn’t the goal. It’s perfection. My body’s exhausted, and the commander’s demands are impossible.
“Again,” he says, arms crossed, feet spread. “I need you to hit the bullseye every single time.”
“Why?” I slump my shoulders and let the bow fall beside me. “So I can hit a Miscrete in the left eye instead of the right?” I sit on a stump and rest my elbows on my knees, face in my hands. He might get me back to Levi early, but my mind’s too jumbled to learn a thing.
“Because you’re the savior.” Unlike other times, he says it without a smirk on his face as he sits on the stump beside me. “And I’m your trainer. Your performance reflects on me. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”
