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‘Do you want me to shoot?’ he offered.

Thea hesitated.

‘It would be my honour, Thea. You saved my life. Twice now. Let me do this for you,’ he urged her, hand on heart.

There was no denying that Cal was the better archer, his skills were next to none with a bow, she’d seen him defy the odds, seen him make countless impossible shots, but…

Althea Nine Lives was not without her own abilities, and she knew that to own that totem with pride, she had to win it herself. ‘Thank you,’ she told Cal. ‘But I can make it.’

Nodding, he handed her the bow.

Hardly taking her eyes from her target, the glint of metal still glimmering in the sun above, Thea gripped the weapon, fitting an arrow to the bowstring and taking aim.

She centred herself.

One shot, that was all she’d have.

You could have Cal do it, the little voice said at the back of her mind, but she pushed it aside and drew her arm back.

Another voice filled her head then.‘You need to give it more power than that…’Wilder whispered in the shell of her ear.

Thea did, her arms, her shoulders, her back straining as she drew the arrow further back, her gaze narrowing in on that single black bird who held her totem.

‘Now.’ She whispered the word as Hawthorne had said it to her, and she released the bowstring.

The arrow sliced through the air, a perfect line.

A shriek sounded.

Then, the bird was falling from the sky.

It hit the ground with a thud a few yards away and Thea ran to it.

Dropping to her knees, she extricated the totem from the dead bird’s claws, holding it between her fingers, unable to quite believe she’d finally done it.

‘That was some shot,’ Cal said from behind her.

Thea looked up at her two friends, both now wearing their totems on their arms. ‘We did it…’ she whispered.

Both young men knelt beside her, arms wrapping around her.

‘We did,’ Kipp said, grinning.

They stayed there for a moment, as though they needed a minute to let the reality sink in. Thea felt emotion thick in her throat and she scolded herself, now was not the time for tears.

‘We’re all okay,’ Kipp was muttering. ‘We’ve all got totems…’

At last, they broke apart.

‘Good,’ Thea laughed, strapping her warrior totem to her arm. ‘Now let’s get the fuck back to Thezmarr.’

The trio gathered themselves and went to the edge of the isle to survey their options. They had travelled several islands out and the distance between them and the Bloodwoods on the other side was now considerable.

‘How do we want to do this?’ Thea yearned to be back on Thezmarrian soil, longed for their victory to be solidified before the Guild Master.

Kipp grimaced as he peered over the ledge. ‘Well, we could go down and find a way across the rocks below…? It’s low tide now, the waves aren’t hitting as hard.’

Thea didn’t overly like the sound of that. Low tide or not, the seas beyond were unpredictable, they’d seen as much themselves only a few nights before.