Page 85 of Shadow Queen
“End me!” Soren begged.
“Norah, get out of the way!” Alexander yelled.
“Don’t shoot him!” she cried back.
“Bear!” Soren begged again. “Kill me!”
“Alexander! No!”
“Salara!” Mikael yelled from behind her.
Soren strained against the unseen force. “Bear—do it!”
“I said no!” Norah screamed back.
Alexander snarled through his teeth, but he held firm.
No arrow pierced the air. From either of them. A quiet came again.
Caspian put himself between Soren and Norah, and as Alexander moved closer to the lord commander, his bow still drawn, the force released him. The crossbow fell from Soren’s hands, and he dropped to his knees. His head hung low as he gasped for breath.
Norah turned and ran to Mikael, helping support him as he sank to the floor of the forest. She gasped at all the blood. “Are you all right?”
He grabbed her arm and pulled her close. “Why would you do that?” he hissed through clenched teeth. He held her tightly, his eyes glistening in a raging fear. “You’ll be the death of me before any arrow!” He released her arm and reached up to clasp her cheek. “You can’t ever do that again. You can’t risk your life for mine.”
But she couldn’t promise that. “Are you all right?” she asked again.
He groaned as he pulled the arrow from his flesh and held his shoulder tightly. “I think so,” he panted. “How did you make it release him? How did you make it stop?”
“I don’t know, but I think I’m safe here.”
“Safe from what?”
“From you,” a voice answered him, startling all of them.
A woman stepped out from behind a tree. She was small, but not a child. Her dark hair hung long, with a few tendrils braided with forest greens. She wore earth-toned fitted layers, delicately woven with beautiful but subtle embroidery. Norah had seen this before—on her dress when she woke in the Wild. But she didn’t have time to reflect on it, for what she found most shocking were the small, elegantly curved horns that sat atop the woman’s head.
“Princess Norah,” the creature said.
Did she know her? “Who are you?”
“Why do you protect the Shadow King? And what power do you bring here?” There was a sharpness to her tone.
“Are you the Wild?” Norah asked her.
“All around you is the Wild.” The woman tilted her head curiously. “This is unexpected, Princess.”
“Queen,” Norah corrected her. “Queen Norah.”
The woman’s eyes widened, and she pursed the slightest of smiles. “We knew you had made it home.”
To Mercia? Norah didn’t know how to respond to that. Surely, a longer conversation would follow. In the meantime, she looked back at the men. “They’re with me,” she told the creature.
“They’re not welcome here!” a voice called from Norah’s right, and she turned as another woman emerged from the forest. She was slightly taller than Norah and looked as if she had been formed from the earth, with a soft hue of green to her skin. More striking were the thin roots that grew from her head, weaving back into the mane of flowers and ferns that fell heavily around her shoulders. She was beautiful, and she moved with grace, making no noise as she drew closer. But there was a pain in her eyes and a rage in her tone.
She brought her hand up as if clutching the air. Roots sprung from the earth and seized Mikael.
“No!” Norah screamed.
