Page 39 of A Dance With Fire
Fuck, he should have just let her suffer. He rubbed his hand across his chest to ease the ache. Taking deep breaths, it was minutes before the pain finally passed. When it did, he pushed himself off the bark of the tree he was leaning against and started towards the sound of shouting voices.
He would have stayed to hear the entire conversation, but he loathed to show this weakness in front of her. The others had already seen him at his lowest. They’d known him from before, before he’d been this monstrous thing he was now. He hadn’t always had the scars, and he wasn’t ashamed to look in the mirror now that he had them, even when he knew how others cringed upon first seeing him.
Many wore the scars of battle proudly, and while Ryker hadn’t been in many great wars, living in the present day Illyk was war enough. The raised flesh along his skin were his own proof of valor.
Not that he expected her to understand. He noticed the way her eyes traced the pattern of his scars, the questions burning in her eyes. He knew he repulsed her as much as she repulsed him.
It was a mutual feeling.
Leaves crunched under his boots as he stomped back into the small clearing. He’d gathered bits and pieces of the conversation, but the closer he got, the more he gauged what was happening. So when he stepped forward, it was just in time to catch the Fire Dancer as she tried running away.
She rammed straight into his chest and staggered back. His hands shot out to hold her in place. To keep her from falling or to keep her from leaving, he couldn’t be sure. But he kept his palms on her arms and glared down in her face.
He could see the tears glossing over her eyes. Tears she was too stubborn and furious to let fall.
“You again?” she demanded. As if he’d been the one to run intoher. “Get out of my way!” She pressed her delicate palms to his chest and shoved.
He didn’t move an inch.
“Prince,” she sneered over her shoulder. “Tell your brute of a bodyguard to stand down!”
Bodyguard?
Gods, he missed her sleeping form. It had been quiet then.
“No,” Valerio replied coolly. “We are not finished here.”
She jerked out of Ryker’s hold and whirled around so quickly the ends of her hair slapped across Ryker’s skin. “I am finished here. I’m leaving.”
“The Brotherhood is out there searching for you. If you leave, you will not get very far.”
“And if I stay, I’m as good as dead with you people,” she spat. “You claim to be helping the Fae, but you’re just going to get them killed. All of them.”
Valerio’s eyebrows rose, and Ryker could tell he was battling to keep his expression stoic, to keep the laughter from there. “And why is that?”
“You think the emperor won’t realize what you’re doing? Your face is plastered all over themost wantedposters, for Mana’s sake! The more you gather, the easier you all will be to detect. You will lead them straight to you.”
Ryker could hear the fear trembling through her words. He glared at her back.
“Fear is no excuse for cowardice,” he muttered, low enough for only her to hear, but he knew Valerio, Uric, and Clay were paying attention, so they heard it, too.
The Fire Dancer whipped around, her chest straining against the tight restrictions of her shirt. For a moment, he swore he caught the flare of fire in the depths of her brown eyes.
“Call me a coward, then,” she gritted out from between clenched teeth. “But all I want is to stay alive.”
Ryker snorted. “You think hiding among those who would turn you to the authorities the moment they find out what you are is life?”
She flinched at his words, and in the back of his mind, he wondered if that’s what had happened. If that was how she'd been caught?
“It’s surviving.”
“But it’s not living.” Ryker took a step forward, so close that he could feel the heat emanating from her body, as warm as a bonfire, this little Fae. He lifted his hand and pushed aside her hair, exposing her rounded ears.
Just looking at them offended him.
She jolted away, but they’d already caught sight of her treachery. The ultimate betrayal to their race.
“Do not think we haven’t noticed what you’ve done to your ears.”
