Page 27 of A Touch of Poison
“See?” His grin wasn’t even smug. “There’s a reason we don’t sell our bows to humans.”Nowit was smug.
“Wouldn’t want us using them on you.” It was meant to be a joke, but even as I said it, I remembered what he’d told me about how close fae had come to being wiped out by war with humans and how slowly their population grew.
His grin disappeared.
“Sorry, that was in poor taste. I didn’t mean—”
He waved off my apology. “You need to hold the bow horizontally.”
It seemed our lesson had begun, and he’d leapt to the assumption I was a complete beginner.
What would be the best moment to tell him he was wrong? Maybe I’d wait and see how long it took him to realise.
When I obeyed and tilted the bow, he handed me an arrow. “The string goes in the notch, fletching upmost.” He moved behind me. “The fletchings are the feathers on the end.”
“Really?”
“Mm, that’s right. Now, take these three fingers.” Coming close, he folded in his thumb and little finger. “Forefinger above the arrow, the other two below. Place them on the string.”
I was already standing side-on to the targets yet he still didn’t realise, so I continued with the charade. “Thenwhat, Bastian?” I turned my face away so he wouldn’t see my grin.
“Bow upright”—his arm came around me as he guided my wrist—“and draw.” He “helped” and I tried to ignore the press of him against my back. “Elbow—oh, it already is up.Good.”
That word. Fuck.That word.
With my hair braided and coiled around my head, he had to see the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I couldn’t summon an overly enthusiastic reply. Not when my stomach was doing odd flippy things like a swallow in the summer sky.
“Make sure you’re not locking your elbow.”
I wasn’t.
“You should feel the pull here.” He released my wrist and his palm landed between my shoulder blades. “Then you just need to aim and—”
I let my arrow fly.
It thrummed into the target on the edge of the inner bullseye.
I nodded and rolled my shoulders. “A little rusty. But you’re right, that was easier to draw than I remembered.”
The air huffed out of him. “You’ve used a bow before.”
I flashed him a grin. “Only a few times. When did you realise?”
“Too late. That’ll teach me for not asking, won’t it?”
I raised my eyebrows.
He jerked his head towards the quiver mounted to a stake in the ground. “Fire another.”
I nocked another arrow and drew. This next part wasn’t so different from pistol shooting. Aim, exhale, adjust aim, fire.
Dead centre.
He returned my wide smile like it was infectious. “Another.” There was a note of playful challenge in his voice that eased the tension I’d been carrying in my jaw and shoulders since waking in Elfhame.
I could almost forget everything that had happened in Lunden.
Almost.
