Page 55 of Marked

A man yelled out in the distance, followed by a low snarl. I stood to face the direction of the sound when something whizzed through the air.

Pain ripped through my arm and an arrow sunk into the bark of a nearby tree. An arrow had sliced through my skin, grazing my arm just below my shoulder.

As the pain exploded in my arm, numbness spready over my body. I was already spinning toward the source of the shot. The archer had to be behind me. In one fluid motion, I drew my bow, and let the arrow fly.

A garbled sound responded, an echo through the night, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the ground. Before I could calm my racing heart or slow my breathing, branches snapped and cracked. Large shapes emerged from the woods all around us.

The darkening skies above made it difficult to catch certain details, but the men were large, and they ran toward us with weapons in their hands.

I notched my arrows, one after the other, and let them fly.

The men stumbled and fell to the ground, but more ran out from the bushes. I was almost out of arrows.

Ace pulled his dagger and leaned to the side, narrowly missing a vicious attack. He countered and ran his blade over the man’s throat. Without pausing, he met the attack of the next assailant, dancing out of the way before following up with a flurry of strikes that left his opponent staring down at the gaping wounds in his own chest before he toppled over.

I lowered my bow. My heartbeat still raced, and my breath was stuck in my throat.

Ace was mesmerizing to watch.

He became a whirlwind—slashing and stabbing and slipping past defensive maneuvers. When he cut down our remaining attackers, he stood still, breathing, heavy, his hand with the dagger lowered to his side.

“Ace…”

He turned slowly, his face cast in shadows. Suddenly, he jerked upright. Holding his hand out, he yelled, “Em.”

An arrow flew by my face and struck something behind me. I spun in time to watch another attacker fall to the ground with a loud thump. His arm had been raised to strike me down from behind with a knife.

And I would’ve fallen.

I’d been so distracted by Ace’s fighting I had dropped my guard.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I wasn’t one of those damsels in distress. I wasn’t one of those people who made too stupid to live decisions. I was better than this. I was smarter than this. And I somehow had lost sight of my own bad-assery in the presence of a pretty smile and fancy fighting moves.

Thankfully, Ace wasn’t looking at me to witness what must’ve been a comical transition of emotions across my expression. Instead, he had positioned himself toward the section of the forest where the arrow had come from.

And the person stumbled into the clearing.

“Onion,” Ace muttered.

Orion’s hand holding the bow shook and his face was paler than usual. “I can’t leave the two of you alone for five minutes.”

I scoffed. “You were gone for at least ten.”

“How did you know to come back?” Ace asked.

Orion frowned at him. “I heard the shouting and came right away.”

“Geez, Ace. What does it matter?” I asked before I stepped forward to close the distance between us. My head swam. I stumbled and careened to the side.

22

The world tilted as I stumbled. My feet sluggishly moved underneath me, not quite getting the message. With a few jilted steps, I staggered into a tree, catching myself before I toppled over. My head spun, my stomach turned, and my arm ached.

It hurt so much.

I pressed my face into the rough bark of the tree trunk and breathed in its earthy scent.