Page 25 of A Dance With Fire
He was the most beautiful man Shula had ever seen in her life.
Bright eyes shone with what could have been equal parts mischief and flirtation. Shula wasn’t sure, because she was lost in his smile for the briefest of moments before she shook herself out of whatever glamor he wore. She blinked, realizing that it wasn’t a glamor at all. He was just that gorgeous. But she wouldn’t let his beauty distract her. He was like a parlor trick. Bright and flashy to hide the secret mischief underneath.
It made her instantly alert.
“That’s not how you treat a lady.” The new Fae man stepped forward and Shula stepped back. She was surrounded at all sides.
It was one thing to escape from humans and another entirely to escape from Fae. And she had no doubt that the one still cloaked behind the beautiful one was a Fae, too. She caught glimpses of him, flashes of a feral looking face and wide, sharp smiles that looked more malicious than friendly.
“It’s okay, Fire Dancer. We aren’t here to harm you.” The beautiful one held his palms up, a gesture of surrender that Shula didn’t buy into. He was Fae, after all. He could have powers of any kind that he could use against her. “My name is Clay.”
“We don’t have time for this.” Another Fae stepped forward, lowering his cloak with an annoyed flick of his wrists. Silky dark hair cascaded over his shoulder, grazing his cheekbones. He was all sharp angles with a razor-pointed chin, straight prominent nose and glaring, dark eyes. He looked familiar to Shula, though she couldn’t place where she’d seen him before. “We have to go. Now. Humans lurk in the shadows.” He stared intently at Shula. “Let’s go.” He turned, his cloak a swish of dark fabric against a lighter night.
It was as he was turning that Shula realized what he was, where she knew him from. “You’re from thewantedposters. You’re the wanted Fae.” She remembered stepping on the portrait of his face. The angry, slashing lines of a monster. “You’re a criminal.”
His body went taut at her declaration, as still as a predator hunting for prey. He didn’t turn around as he answered, but his voice carried malignance. “So are you.”
She jolted. Of course, she’d known she was a criminal just by being Fae, by hiding her true nature. She’d lived all of her life on the edge, wondering if she woke up, would it be her last day? But something about him saying it made an ache build in her chest. It dropped her from the perch of adrenaline she’d found herself on earlier. She suddenly felt exhausted and a thousand years old.
“We’re all criminals, pretty little Fire Dancer,” the Fae named Clay said, a sad but understanding smile curving his mouth. “That’s why we have to stick together. Let’s go.” He held out his hand.
Shula didn’t want to take it.
Despite her exhaustion, despite feeling like her head was lolling where she stood and her arms dragging nearly to the floor, she tilted her chin up and stared Clay in the eyes. “No.”
He blinked. “No?”
She knew what would happen if she went with them. The dark haired one was on a WANTED poster, for Mana’s sake. If she went with them, that would be the end of her peaceful life. She wouldn’t be able to start fresh. She would be living on the verge of danger and death, hunted at every turn.
She wondered if Clay could read minds, because he seemed to understand every flicker of emotion she’d tried to keep hidden behind a mask of furious indifference. “They know your face now too, Fire Dancer. They’ll find you, regardless of where you hide.”
A distant bark sounded, and the hiss of the demon-eyed cat followed. She didn’t even have time to absorb Clay’s words like the blow they were because everything after happened very quickly.
“They’re coming,” the Fae from the poster spat. “We are out of time. Let’s go.”
“I—I’m not going with you!” Stubbornness was something she knew well. Only the stubborn survived, and while Davina had said that the demon eyes led to freedom, Shula wasn’t sure anymore if this was what she meant. How could she go with complete strangers? What if the Fae were worse than humans? “I don’t even know who you are!”
Perhaps she’d been living as a human too long, that she’d let herself fear the Fae, too. And she was scared. She was terrified that her parents’ fates would befall her.
The one name Clay puffed up his chest with obvious pride. “We are the Resistance.”
“Stop calling us that.” ThewantedFae sighed impatiently from behind him. “We are wasting time. We must leave.”
The Resistance.Those words rang no bells through Shula’s mind, but it didn’t matter what they were. They could have been sent directly from the Fae courts and she would not go.
“No,” she repeated. “I’m not going.”
She stepped back and rammed into Ryker’s chest. Scarred palms came down on her shoulders and she shivered.
“I’m sorry, Fire Dancer,” Clay looked at her apologetically. “But you don't have a choice.”
Shula’s scream was lost in her throat.
And a moment later, her body gave in to its exhaustion and lethargy.
And she welcomed the darkness.
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