Ullysa’s voice jerked my mind back to the present.
“Are you going to try?” Ullysa said, exasperated. “Or will you simply stand there? With all respect, I have other things that need doing, Esteemed Bridge.”
I raised the gun half-heartedly, aiming at the dark human outline in paper hanging from a clip attached to a mechanized pulley about twenty feet away. Forcing my mind to a blank, I steadied the gun with my other hand and fired off three shots. Each one threw both of my arms back into their shoulder sockets.
When the sound died, I refocused on the target, lowering the gun.
Only one bullet had even hit the white paper, and that was a tear in one corner that even I had to admit was likely dumb luck.
Clicking at me, seer-fashion, Ullysa held out her hand.
“Give it to me.”
I handed over the gun, swinging my arm to get the kink out of my shoulder. Something caused me to glance back as I did it, and my breath caught.
Revik stood by the door, his long body leaning against the frame. His eyes narrowed, focused on mine, then shifted to the paper target.
He raised an eyebrow.
I felt my face flush. Wiping a few strands of hair out of my eyes, I found I didn’t know what to do with my hands. I finally stuffed them in the pockets of the jeans Ullysa had lent me. I focused back on her, trying to listen.
“Watch,” Ullysa said, raising the gun. “You are closing your eyes...and jerking every time you squeeze the trigger. You are not even looking at the target, Allie! There is no way you would hit it like that.”
I nodded, feeling Revik’s eyes on me still.
“Revi’ told me your father taught you to shoot—”
“Rifles.” I heard the defensiveness in my own voice. “...And I was a kid. I never took it up as a hobby.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Well, fine. But with a rifle you also must aim...with your eyes open. And it is normal to flinch, but you must train yourself not to jerk.”
I nodded again, then glanced back in spite of myself.
Revik had vanished from the doorway.
I felt a pang that made it hard to breathe.
I’d never been the mooning type, not even with Jaden, so it made me crazy how I found myself reacting to him. Worse, it felt completely outside of my control. He was even starting to look different to me...and definitely not worse, unfortunately.
Maybe I really did have Stockholm Syndrome.
I felt Ullysa watching me, a curious look on her face. I waved the weapon away with a grimace when the beautiful seer offered it.
“Forget it. I don’t think guns are my cup of tea, ‘Llysa.”
“You must learn, Alyson.”
“Maybe some other time.”
Ullysa frowned, glancing at the door. For an instant, her eyes slid out of focus. When they clicked back, she frowned again, muttering under her breath. She indicated toward the target with her free hand.
“Once more. Please.”
Sighing, I caved, taking the gun. Once more. Right.
I raised it to eye level, pointing it resignedly at the target.
As I concentrated on aiming that time, however, a grid appeared behind my eyes...not dissimilar to the grid I’d seen while driving, the one Revik had shown me. I felt him with this one too, and flinched...but he held me in place, almost as if he stood behind me, gripping my arms.
Just watch, he sent. Trust me.
I bit my lip, but forced myself to relax.
In the middle of that grid, a sharp spot of light hovered near the target.
I fought not to react as his presence retreated, leaving me standing there, shaking and a little sick-feeling, staring at the grid and that sharp spot of light. Once I relaxed a little more, I saw that the grid originated from one of the geometrical shapes above my own head. I aligned the grid and the sharp bright spot with the silhouette on the paper.
“Gently,” Ullysa said.
I glanced at her in surprise. I’d forgotten she was there.
I started to pull out of the Barrier, but a faint pressure told me to stay.
So he hadn’t left entirely.
Aligning the grid once more, I forced a deep breath...and squeezed the trigger.
Inside the Barrier, there was no need to flinch.
Without clicking out of that calm state, I aligned the grid over a different part of the silhouette, firing again. I fired a third time, and a fourth. It all seemed to happen slow, like in a dream, but when I opened my eyes, the corridor between me and the target still drifted with smoke.
Ullysa laughed aloud, clapping her hands.
I stared at the target. Four neat holes punctuated the head, chest and abdomen of the shadowy outline. For a bare instant, I flushed in elation, tinged with a near relief that I’d finally managed to hit something, and that I might even be able to repeat the trick on my own.
Then I found myself really looking at the outline of the silhouette. My excitement faded.