Page 17 of A Dance With Fire
They walked in silence after that, Shula’s vision threatening to blur. She just wanted to sleep. It had been a difficult day and her body was protesting all over. Sleep was threatening to claim her mind, and she was trying very hard not to fall under.
“We’ve been walking for forever.” Shula blinked rapidly, trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind. She looked around. They’d gone too far away from their encampment. “Wha—”
“Do you want others to see your scars?”
“No.”
“We need privacy.” Her grip tightened around Shula’s waist to the point of pain. She let herself be guided without further comment until they finally stopped. “Here is good.”
Shula pulled away and grabbed the hem of her skirt and slowly glided it up the length of her legs. “Can you see in the dark?” she asked Fanny. “Will you be able to see my wounds to clean them?”
“I don’t want to see your stupid scars, fucking Esses. Demon blood!” she spat.
Shula paused, dropping her skirts. Her eyes were suddenly alert, the pain on her back momentarily forgotten as Fanny’s words chased away any dizziness she might have been feeling. She sobered, straightening.
“Fanny?” Confusion sliced up her mind. Her eyes adjusted well in the dark, and she could make out the sudden distorted expression on her friend. An expression she’d never seen her wear before. One that spoke of hatred and revulsion.
And fear.
“Don’t speak my name, Fae! Don’t you dare speak my name!”
Shula’s mind was too slow to catch up to what was happening. “Wh-what’s going on?”
“You really thought I could be friends with you knowing what you are? Fae scum!”
“Fanny—”
Shula didn’t get the rest out. Figures burst from the shadows on silent feet. Had she been sober, had she been paying the slightest bit of attention to her surroundings, she would have noticed them. But Shula had placed her trust in Fanny, and when the emperor’s soldiers surrounded her, she knew she’d been betrayed.
They swarmed around her, blocking out Fanny’s figure as she stepped away. Not before Shula caught the malicious smile curving her mouth.
You will be betrayed, Fire Dancer.
And she had been.
In the worst way possible.
Shula had fallen for the lies. She had really thought that Fanny would accept her Fae heritage. Before she could give into the hurt, survival instinct kicked in. Too late. She turned and ran, but her legs wobbled. As if… as if she’d been poisoned.
The soldiers blocked her path, but she fought. Limbs shot out, fists connecting to steel breastplates and helmets. They barely felt the pain as her mind panicked, and all she could think about was escape. Like an animal backed into a corner, her mind went savage with the thought of freedom. Her legs kicked out blindly and her arms were nearly yanked from their sockets as they hauled her back, restraining her.
And inside her body, deep down to her soul, something stirred to life and rose. Smoke swirled in her lungs, and she inhaled it like oxygen. Heat prickled beneath her skin; it boiled her blood.
“Shit! Restrain her! Now!”
The voices were far away when a roaring suddenly appeared in her ears, like the rushing blaze of a wildfire. Someone cursed, and the stench of singed flesh filled her nostrils.
The backhanded slap came next and her eyes shot open—when had she closed them?—just as Captain Brannon came forward.
Chains of iron dangling from his fingers.
Shula barely had time to scream as the manacles were clasped around her wrists. The pain came immediately. It was like nothing she’d ever felt before. Worse even than the marks down her back. It was like a shroud had been thrown over her body, dulling her senses, her magic. Something that had lived inside her for so long, that she herself had suppressed and hadn’t realized had even been there at all changed in a single instant. It dimmed, left her feeling hollow and dead inside.
She crumpled in on herself as the energy inside depleted. She sagged in their hold, but their grips remained shackled around her arms. They hauled her up unkindly, even as her legs dangled uselessly beneath her. The smell of singed flesh reached her nostrils, and it took but a moment to realize that it was her own skin burning against the touch of iron.
“Please...” The word cracked out of her throat.
Through dark lashes, she stared up at Captain Brannon. She hadn’t bothered to memorize his features before, because she’d known she’d make it out of the situation and never thought to see him again. She’d been cocky, too confident in her own humanity that she’d forgotten what she really was. She’d misplaced her trust and now everything she’d built had crumbled apart.
