I stepped forward, my voice calm but clear. “I accept.”
Just like at the restaurant when she hadn’t expected me to call her bluff, Celeste’s composure slipped, surprise flickering in her eyes before she quickly smothered it.
The attendant reset the targets with swift efficiency.
Celeste lifted her bow first. Her posture was impeccable, her smile vainglorious.
She fired three perfect shots, each one splitting the bullseye with precision that drew gasps and applause.
I wasn’t surprised. Her archery skills truly had always been formidable.
My turn. I matched her arrow for arrow, bullseye for bullseye.
But while the crowd applauded, I could feel the skepticism in the air-expectation that I’d falter eventually, that Celeste’s dominance was inevitable.
By the third round, Celeste was glowing with satisfaction, drinking in the murmurs of admiration.
So I decided to kick it up a notch.
“Blindfold me,” I said.
The attendant blinked. “A-are you sure?”
I nodded.
The crowd stirred, whispers rising in disbelief. Celeste’s smirk widened, certain I’d overplayed my hand.
The cloth pressed against my eyes, shutting out the world. Darkness enveloped me.
But in that darkness, my breathing steadied. My heartbeat slowed.
I felt the weight of the bow, the whisper of chilled air across my skin, the faint creak of wood beneath my fingers.
I didn’t need sight.
I had done this before, in secret, when I was younger-testing myself, pushing boundaries. Because accuracy, to me, had never been about sight alone.
I inhaled deeply. Released.
The arrow flew.
Thwack.
Dead center-I didn’t need to look to know.
The silence was deafening.
A second shot. Thwack. Another bullseye.
Gasps erupted. Disbelief, awe.
I nocked the final arrow, pulse steady as stone. When it struck-splitting the shaft of the first-an explosion of applause erupted, wild and unrestrained.
I slipped the blindfold off my face, and I blinked into the brilliance of the chandeliers. Cheers filled the hall.
Celeste’s expression was pale fury, her lips pinched, her hands trembling on the bow she was gripping too tightly.
“Extraordinary!” someone shouted. “Incredible!”
The admiration wasn’t for her anymore. It was for me.
Emma’s voice sliced through the noise. “Celeste, you can’t let her overshadow you! Show us something more dazzling!”
But Celeste didn’t move. Her composure cracked, and for once, she knew-she couldn’t top this.
Her voice was sharp, brittle. “How did you do it?”
The crowd hushed, leaning in.
I stepped closer, my voice low but carrying. “Do you remember when we were young, Celeste? When we played in the garden, throwing darts and arrows at painted boards?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I always won.”
“You always won,” I affirmed softly. “Or so you thought. But the truth is, I let you. Because Mother told me once: ‘Let Celeste shine, it makes sense. It keeps everybody happy.’ So I held back. Over and over.”
Gasps rippled around us. Celeste stiffened, her fury clear.
I lifted my chin, meeting her eyes evenly. “But we’re not sisters anymore. I have no reason to keep holding back. Not tonight. Not ever again.”
I stepped past her, leaving her trembling in the silence that followed. “So if you’re humiliated,” I said quietly, ” it isn’t me doing it. It’s just you finally facing the truth.”
The crowd erupted again, this time in thunderous applause that rolled through the hall like a storm. My name rose above the din-admiration, respect, awe.
And for the first time in my life, I stood tall while Celeste burned beneath the heat of the spotlight she loved so much.
130 PART OF THE STORM
SERAPHINA’S POV
Maya practically launched herself at me the second I stepped out of the hall’s cordoned-off space.
Her arms wrapped tight around me as she squealed in my ear before I could even catch my breath.
“Seraphina Blackthorne!” she gasped dramatically, shaking me as if I might have somehow forgotten who I was. “Do you even realize how utterly insane that was? Blindfolded! I swear, you could’ve walked straight out of some myth.”
Her words tumbled over each other in excitement, eyes sparkling with pride that almost rivaled the applause I’d just walked away from.
I laughed, a little breathless still, patting her back. “It wasn’t as spectacular as everyone thinks. Just a few tricks I practiced when I was bored.”
“Tricks?” Maya pulled back, mouth falling open. “You make it sound like you taught yourself card shuffles, not splitting arrows blindfolded. That was more than a trick. That was fucking legendary!”
Her conviction made pride bloom in my chest, but I shrugged anyway, trying to deflect. If I let myself stand too long under the heat of praise, I’d feel my skin burn.
Movement caught my attention, and my eyes reflexively sought it out.
Across the crowded hall, standing half in shadow, was Kieran.
His eyes were fixed on me-sharp, searching, and layered with something I couldn’t quite decipher. Surprise? Pride? Regret?
Whatever it was, the weight of it pressed on me, too fucking familiar, too fucking complicated.
I turned my head deliberately, ignoring the knot in my stomach. He had no right to look at me in any way. And I wouldn’t waste a single brain cell trying to understand him.
Not anymore.
“Come on,” I said softly to Maya, nudging her toward the corridor. “Let’s get out of here before someone decides I need to juggle flaming swords next.”
She giggled, looping her arm through mine, and together we slipped away from the swelling crowd.
The noise dulled behind us, replaced by the cool hush of the side hallway. Finally, I could breathe.
But I hadn’t taken five full steps before Ethan appeared, leaning casually against the wall as if he’d been waiting all along.
“Ethan!” Maya gasped, leaving my side to go to his.
His arms wrapped around her waist with a natural ease that teased a smile to my face. She leaned against him, her grin wide. “Did you see that?”
He nodded, his gaze on me, intense in a way that made my throat tighten. “I saw.”
And then, quietly, he asked, “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“Tell you what?” I asked, though I knew exactly what he meant.
“That you could shoot like that.” His voice wasn’t angry-more bewildered, a little wounded. “That you weren’t just a passable shot, but… extraordinary. All this time, you let me believe-” He shook his head, cutting himself off.
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