Luna Junction 2 Forbidden Mate (W) Read Free Page B

offered. I knew
only that the hour of practice was in that scant time between the
first wisps of sunrise and the disappearance of the moon. And I was
never to discuss it with anyone.
    Fresh in my mind was how I had yearned
to hold a bow as my body sensed imminent danger just before Gideon
hauled me out of the café. I removed the bag of peas from my face
and tossed it in the sink. I’d had enough of being bullied. It may
be a meager weapon but it was the only one I knew how to use. Once
I’d been good. I wondered if I still was.
    Max still kept everything in the same
place. I shouldered a sleek bow and gathered a handful of arrows.
In my other hand I carried one of the homemade targets, pleased
that it was already covered with paper. I placed it at the far end
of the yard and counted thirty paces. The bow was stiff. I relaxed
my fingers and exhaled. The arrow sailed right over the target. I
frowned, lowering the bow. Instead of a bullseye, the target center
was shaped like a heart in the middle of a snarling animal shape. I
did not take my eyes from the stenciled red heart as I loaded
another bow. As I aimed with care, something clicked in my head and
my fingers released, sending the arrow straight into the heart of
the target.
    That same sense of fear traveled along
my spine and the hair on the back of my neck rose. I gasped as I
spun around. I didn’t know how long the man had been watching. He
stood a good hundred yards away and I couldn’t see his face but I
knew he regarded me intently and somehow I also knew he meant harm.
Carefully I lace another arrow into the bow, though I kept it
pointed down. I would not raise it unless he moved
closer.
    The man seemed to shake his head and I
squinted. There was something familiar about him. When he finally
turned and began walking slowly away I studied his shape and
realized I’d been staring into the hostile face of Michael
Casteel.
    He disappeared in a matter of seconds
and I stood there, listening to the sounds of summer and feeling
vaguely uneasy. The bow and arrows remained with me when I finally
returned to the house.
    My bedroom seemed pretty well unchanged
from the last time I saw it. The bed was still bare, having been
hastily stripped of its cover six years earlier. Scattered
possessions were strewn about, the things I had neglected to bring
with me.
    Carefully I set the bow down next to
the bed and lay my head down on the cool mattress. The springs
creaked mildly as my body settled heavily in and I closed my eyes.
It was the most comfortable I’d been in a long time. I slept and
this time it was dreamless.
    I sensed someone in the room before I
opened my eyes, though I didn’t feel that earlier kick of alarm. My
father’s silent figure was scarcely visible as he sat in my old
desk chair and stared out of the dark window.
    Yawning, I rose on one elbow. “What
time is it?”
    He ignored the question. “I’m sorry,
Artemis.”
    “ You know I only go by
Acie now.”
    “ In this house you’ll go
by your real name. Our mistakes began with your birth. We should
never have tried to raise you here.”
    The fatalistic tone of his voice was
making me uneasy. “Well, here’s as good a place as any, isn’t
it?”
    “ No. Artemis you just need
to listen now. When you were little we thought perhaps the calling
would skip you. Sometimes that happens. Even your mother isn’t
strong. We stayed here even through the troubles. Ah, that terrible
thing with the Landon woman still haunts me even though the guilty
party paid dearly. I made sure of it. For a while it seemed the
families and the hunters would never reconcile.” He sighed deeply.
“But there was you. You played with their children and ran through
their yards. The Council was keen on keeping the peace and demanded
that we stay.” His cough was hard and painful. “I knew on the
morning of your thirteenth birthday, when I caught you shooting in
the backyard, for once without being hounded to practice. You