The Dragon's Scale [COMPLETE]

14.1 || The Past's Hold

It didn't matter how fast Mara moved. The courtyard followed close behind, its suffocating tendrils reaching for her, whispering words that penetrated the roar in her ears.

"Only one person has a connection to the Paladins, the Michaels family, and the Shadow Knights."

She made a sharp turn. Only a couple more minutes and she would find her safe place.

"It's gotta be her. She's working for the darkness, just like her Shadow Knight loving parents."

Mara gritted her teeth. Energy surged in her hands, begging for release. Just like it had begged for release there, in the middle of the courtyard, staring at the man who had the audacity to accuse her of betraying her home.

It would have been so easy to put an arrow in his gut. He never would have been so foolish again.

A freezing wave collided with the white-hot anger as a familiar voice weaved through her mind. A woman who had always spoken with venom and hatred dripping off her words, her mind focused only on one goal, never on Mara.

Her mother.

She blinked away the stinging in her eyes, but it didn't make the churning in her stomach cease. The same voice had been there after the accusation, whispering the thought. That dark, horrible thought.

Mara, Kidron said, his deep, calm voice a shocking contrast to the others plaguing her mind.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat as she found her destination. The training field spread out before her. I'm fine, Kidron, she said as she went to fetch a bow. She was too angry to craft her own.

I have yet to figure out why you still insist on lying to me, Kidron rumbled. The words of a fearful man do not decide who you are.

Mara found a bow and returned to the field. She stood in front of a target and raised the weapon. Willing ice into existence, she placed her fingers on the arrow rest. Her ice trailed behind her fingers as she followed a path to the arrow knock, then the bowstring. She pulled the string back, still creating the ice. By the time she fell into a proper shooting position, she had a full-fledged ice arrow.

Deep breath in. Slow breath out. Aim. Release.

Her arrow slammed into the far-left corner of the target.

With a huff, she created another arrow. She pursed her lips. This one was thinner than the last. Kidron's presence lingered in the back of her mind, waiting for her to speak again. She forced herself to focus on the center of the target. She'd made this shot countless times. It should be simple.

"She's working for the darkness, just like her Shadow Knight loving parents."

The shot went long, completely missing the target. Mara's hand trembled as she formed another arrow, worsening with her shaking breath.

I thought about shooting him. Even now, as she took aim once more, she could almost imagine the target as Harrison.

You thought about what your parents would have done, and you are not them.

Her vision blurred as she readied the next arrow. She squeezed her eyes and tried to will away the tears. Will away how her own ice seemed to seep into her fingers and freeze her veins. Will away the nagging thoughts of all the things that she could do to teach Harrison who he was insulting.

She released a bitter scoff. Yes, because punishing him was exactly what a good, pure Paladin would do.

Eyes still closed, she focused on Kidron's presence. If she did it hard enough, she could almost feel him standing behind her. As much as she loved Kidron, she wished he didn't have to always be in the Arctic with the other ice dragons. She had already run away from the courtyard. Leaving the Sanctuary for a far-off Sanctum would only further suspicion.