Page 11 of Marked

But I refused to let fear overtake me. I was the guardian of this forest, and I would not back down. I would make them pay for their insolence.

Taking another deep breath, I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on slowing my breathing. I needed to find that place of stillness, the calm centre within me where I could access powers unique to my lineage.

A sense of serenity washed over me.

Time slowed.

The warm band of magical wind wrapped around me. My focus narrowed to the sounds of the forest surrounding me. Branches and dried pine needles snapped behind me. The gentle fall wind teased the leaves of thick underbrush. The hunters breathed heavy and spread out to surround me, getting closer.

Now.

With swift motion, I spun away from the tree and let my arrows fly in rapid succession. One. Two. Three.

They each found their marks with deadly accuracy.

Three more hunters fell to the ground in tandem, blurs of green wool and tan leather. One. Two. Three.

I had one arrow left.

Tightening my sweaty grip on the bow, I notched my last arrow.

I was the guardian of the forest.

And I did not fail.

Turning, I found myself facing another hunter, his bow already raised, and the arrow notched. Before he could release it, a dark blur launched from the bushes.

Nala clamped her powerful jaws onto the man’s face, knocking him to the ground with a blood-curdling scream. She snarled viciously as she tore into his throat, her coat getting splattered with his blood and staining the nearby tree trunk. It was an unsettlingly familiar sight, reminiscent of my previous encounter with a hunter.

As adrenaline coursed through my body, I took stock of the aftermath. This wouldn’t be the last time Nala and I faced danger in these woods, but we would always survive—because we were fierce, and we were unstoppable.

Nala was okay. I was okay. Everything was?—

Eerie dread spread over my skin, raising each individual hair along my neck and the magical band of air tightened around me in warning again.

Even as Nala straightened, ears pinned back, I was spinning around with an arrow notched. Time slowed to a standstill. I released the shaft. My arrow flew true, striking another hunter about twenty feet away. Unlike his arrow that flew wide, mine hit him straight in the chest, slicing through his green wool sweater to puncture his heart. Death was instantaneous.

The man fell to the ground, but not before I saw his expression. He didn’t appear shocked, or surprised. Not even horror or pain spread across his expression. Instead, the unknown man died with a smile on his face.

Pain shot through my stomach.

I looked down seeing no injury. I patted my flat belly and found no wound from where the pain radiated.

No.

I spun around.

Nala.

My familiar lay on her side, an arrow protruding from her abdomen.

“Nala!” I ran to her side, throwing myself on the ground to kneel beside her. She lifted her head and whined before dropping back to rest on the forest floor. Her chest rose and fell, but a rattling made each breath sound painful, the same pain that echoed in my own body.

I swung my bow over my shoulder and reached for my familiar.

“It’s okay, girl,” I told her, carefully scooping her off the ground. Wet dirt and blood caked her fur.

My muscles screamed in protest.