Page 133 of A Dance With Fire
“Uric, open the portal.”
The air shifted immediately after Valerio’s command, and he could feel them passing through it one by one.
For a moment, Valerio stared, memorizing their faces, and they did the same to him. He wondered if they’d hate him in their last moments, for what he brought to their lives. He’d known Imogen for years, and he could have never predicted the end would come like this.
“Go,” Imogen urged.
So Valerio did.
And he didn’t look back.
Even when the sound of hounds grew louder and the women screamed and the portal closed behind him.
44
Declaration of War
Shula’s nails tore through parchment on the other side of the portal. Shadows and forest greeted her. The world smelt like fresh, crisp air; earth and pine and grass. Just beneath that, the sharp tang of fear and the salt of her own tears.
“We left them.” She didn’t think anyone could hear the words she whispered into the night. The parchment crinkled as her hands smoothed out the crumpled edges. She stared down at her own face. At those damning words that changed everything.
WANTED: Alive and Intact.
She’d wondered what lengths the Emperor of Illyk would go through to get her, and now she had her answer.
He would send his soldiers after an innocent young woman, have her beaten, killed.
Her screams filled Shula’s mind and seemed to slide down her back. Like Orna’s broken body, those screams would haunt her forever.
So why hadn’t she turned and grabbed them? Why hadn’t she turned and pulled them into the portal behind her?
“Don’t,” a rumbling growl cut through her thoughts.
She blinked up at Ryker. Expression cut into stern lines, he reached out and brushed aside her tears with the backs of his scarred knuckles.
“Don’t fucking think it.”
How he knew what she was thinking, she didn’t know. Were her feelings so easily read from her face?
“They made their choice. They could have jumped through with us, but they bought us time. They stayed.”
She heard his words, maybe even a part of Shula could understand them, but they didn’tregister. “We left them. They’ll be tortured or worse—” Her breath caught, a pained sound coming out of her throat. She looked down at the paper, knowing this was her fault.
If she hadn’t been caught by the Brotherhood, if she hadn’t told Fanny the truth, her face wouldn’t be plastered on these wanted signs, Filomena wouldn’t have had to lie to the soldiers, and she wouldn’t have been attacked.
“I think it’s finally time we talked,” said Valerio. Shula turned and saw him nod once at Weylyn. “The human emperor wishes to use Shula to eradicate our race. My father needs to know about it. Tell him everything, Weylyn.”
Shula observed as Weylyn’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and his whole body stilled. Just like the first time she’d seen him, there was nothing but the occasional twitch of his body. She remembered what his power was, reading minds and communicating telepathically. She tried to clear her thoughts, her fears.
For a few minutes, Weylyn was still, his long black braid tugging with the breeze. Then he blinked, inhaled, and turned to Valerio, wearing a feral smile.
“Find the Elementals before he does.” He spoke the words with command, like they didn’t come from him but from the King of Seelie, and Weylyn was using the tone to match the formidable Fae’s. “We have lived in the shadows for too long now. We have taken his abuse for the last time. The Emperor of Illyk wants a war with the Fae, then we will give him one.”
“We don’t have the numbers.” Clay stepped forward. For the first time since she’d known him, she saw worry there.
“It matters not,” Weylyn answered. “The King of the Seelie has made his declaration of war, and to battle we will ride.”
The words were like a knife down her body. They were everything she’d ever tried to avoid. Danger. War. Death. Destruction.
