My stomach dropped as I stared at their faces, lifeless as corpses, their eyes hidden by dark shades. The air around me was silent; the entire party held its breath. At my back, my sister made the faintest noise, a squeak like a mouse caught in a trap. I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t move as they stepped forward to take me.“Gabriel,” my mother gasped, but her words could do nothing to stop them, nothing to save me. I was powerless. We all were. And I’d made a fatal mistake.I’d trusted the wrong people. THEN “YOU’RE LOSING, little brother.”I ignored Korr’s mocking tone and drew back the bow. I inhaled a lungful of the damp autumn air and took aim at the target, a paper pinned to one of the hedges at the end of the jewel-green lawn. The target fluttered limply in the breeze.From the house, my sister called for me. “Gabe! Where are you?”Startled, I released the arrow, and it went wide.Korr laughed.I lowered my arm and blew the hair from my eyes, stung by my failure.
