Children of Blood ✔️

Chapter One

I grip the waxed string of my bow and draw it back before quickly releasing it. The arrow zips through the air before smacking the centre of the target which I had put up only weeks ago. Walking up to the beaten and splintered wood I pull on the arrow before the wood gives away abruptly, making me stumble back. The arrow rolls in the palm of my hand as I walk to my spot on the grass. I sit down as the tiny green blades part away from my weight, the dew still cool and shining on tips of the plants.

I close my eyes and rest the arrow and bow at my side as my head falls to my knees. I sigh and listen to the quiet birds chirping and let my mind wander as I twiddle a the grass in between my fingers.

"Jean! Stop!" Izzy calls out to me as I walk away spinning a blade a grass between my index finger and thumb, "you need to be patient."

"It's been three weeks Iz," I shoot back as I finish packing my quiver with arrows, "I'm going back to see the Immunis and mom."

"Stop lying to yourself, you're going back to see Luke."

"Even if I was what does it matter to you?"

"You're my sister," Izzy rests her hands on my shoulders and forces me to look into her eyes, "I can't let you make rash decisions because you want to."

I pull away and hoist my bag over my shoulder, "I'm not staying in this dungy cave in enemy territory like a sitting duck because my know-it-all sister says so." I whip around and burst out of the darkness into the cool air.

"Jean," James sighs as he walks towards me, "listen to your sister. You are being stupid and rash. Roxy isn't coming back and you can't take it out on your sister forever— she's the only one you have left."

I shake my head and push past James, "I don't care. I'm leaving this stupid place."

"This stupid place is keeping your ungrateful ass alive," Adam growls against a tree.

I turn to look at him, hate churning in the pit of my stomach which projects in my cold eyes. "Get out of here Adam. Let me spell it out for you, I. Don't. Care." I snatch the bow which rests on the side of the stone, vine-covered cave. It was once a building or monument out in the middle of nowhere, and now it's harbouring fugitives.

"Fine Jean!" Izzy yells as she breaks through the vine curtain over the cave entrance, "let Roxy die for nothing because of your stupid ideas. Don't avenge them because you are too caught up in yourself."

My determined walk stops and I turn around, "Don't talk about them. You don't know what I went through with her."

"I was her friend too," Izzy tears up and walks towards me, "I know how you feel, but doing this isn't going to help." I look away from her intense eyes as her hands find my arms, "We are all hurting, but we aren't training every hour of the day and pushing the ones we care about away because we think that's going to help with the feelings. Just let us in."

I feel the tears working their way to the surface so I push Izzy away from me, "I'm fine. I don't hurt, I want to hurt someone—to kill Lady and I will do exactly that with or without you." Turning around I walk away from the strangers behind me, "I'll kill her if it's the last thing I do."

I raise my gaze and shift my shoulders. They ache from sleeping outside. It isn't like it is in the movies, everything is tense and I can't help but let the hate and vengeance consume my heart. I stand up and pull my bow out before loading it with an arrow. I walk a bit before spotting a few fat grouse in a tree, pulling my string back I let it roll off my finger tips as the arrow strikes the bird underneath its wing. The rest fly off in a swarm, the thump of their wings only encouraging me to pull another arrow out. In the end two lay on the ground and I walk over to them, wringing their necks so their bodies finally stop twitching and convulsing as they try to resist the persistence of death.