Elara pov
"Run faster," Liora gasped somewhere behind me, "I see torches, they're getting closer."
My lungs were burning, my legs screaming with every step; we'd been running for hours since the village fire, Kael stumbling beside me, barely keeping pace, his wounds reopening with the strain.
"I can't," he breathed, his hand pressed against his ribs, "leave me, both of you, just go."
"Shut up and keep moving," I said, grabbing his arm to haul him forward.
An arrow suddenly whistled past my ear and embedded itself in the tree trunk right next to Kael's head. We all froze, weapons ready, expecting more arrows, expecting soldiers or Shadow Guards or worse.
But nothing came, just silence and that one arrow vibrating in the bark.
"That's a warning shot," Liora said, moving closer to exam
