a Queen of Butterflies

Chapter 19: I hate prophecies

"Oh shoot!" Lucas voice rings out through the sparring room I'm still sitting in. "Were you... meditating or something?"

I turn to face him and chuff out a laugh. "Meditating?!"

That devious smile of his creeps up on his face, along with - I realize with no small amount of satisfaction - a blush.

"I come up here every evening," Lucas clarifies, "Archery practice you know." He fists the bow that was slung across his shoulder moments ago.

"You haven't answered my question," I laugh, "meditating?!"

Lucas grins too. "I'll admit, that was one of my weaker guesses."

I watch him put up some archery targets and begin shooting. He is a sight to behold.

I look at him - though I suppose staring or gawking would be a better description of how intensely I'm studying his every move. I watch the powerful muscles on his shoulders and back bunch every time he shoots and see how he keeps his breathing even and steady as he releases round after round of arrows.

"Can you teach me... How to shoot?" It's a careful question, I make sure to let him know that he doesn't have to. Even though he annoyed the crap out of me during my time at school.

gods, it feels like that all happened an eternity ago.

"I can try." Lucas extends the arm that holds his bow towards me. I get up and grab it - the wood is soft against my skin and still warm from where he was holding it just a minute ago - it feels strangely comfortable.

"How does you being good at this actually work? Are you actively calling on the magic?"

Lucas shrugs his shoulders. "Hades said me being good with a bow and arrow and at playing music is a bit different because I can't call on the magic, it just happens."

I think for a minute, it's almost like a blessing of some sorts. I suppose that's also how part of Alex's magic works.

I attempt to pull the bowstring taut, and miserably fail. I think the string shifts around ten centimetres before I can't stretch it any further.

Lucas huffs a laugh. "Yeah, that's not quite how you're supposed to do it." He positions himself behind me and wraps his fingers around mine. His breath caresses the side of my face. "You need to pull using your shoulders and your back, not using only your arms." He easily pulls it all the way back and then carefully guides my hand that is holding the bowstring back.

"You should probably also wait until I gave you some arm-protection. If you like the skin on the inside of your arms that is."

I look at my very exposed left arm. "I think I would maybe like some arm-protection."

Lucas runs away and starts rummaging through some lockers on the far wall and tosses me something I presume is meant to protect the skin on my arms from being scraped off whenever I let go of the bowstring. 

"So, shoulders and back?" I shift my shoulders and act as if I aim the bow to shoot at something. 

"That's much better." Lucas inspects my posture with a tilt of his head. "The only thing you need now is a lot of practice." 

He gently takes the long bow from my hands and replaces it with a smaller one. "It's probably best if you practice with this one first, it doesn't require as much strength. Aiming will be easier with this one too."

I grab the smaller bow and take one of the arrows he hands me. "Okay, and now?" I have the urge to laugh, I have no clue what I'm supposed to do now.

He grins back and guides my hands again. "Put the bowstring in this little indent, right here." He guides the back of the arrow to the string. "Then hold on to the front of the bow like this." He folds my fingers over the wooden part of the bow. "And place the arrow on your fingers. Now stretch the string."