Page 4 of A Dance With Fire
Knowing.
Because sheknew. Davina knew exactly what Shula was, what flowed through her veins.
The same thing flowed through hers.
Davina was Fae, too.
Shula remembered the first time she’d ever laid eyes on Davina. The impact of seeing another Fae that made her stagger back. The shock that rippled through her. Electricity had cackled between their bodies. An awareness that sent her every nerve into haywire, made every hair on her body stand on end. It was like her blood had hummed, her heart beat faster in her chest. And when their eyes met, they knew deep down what the other was.
Shula had promptly fled afterwards. She ran and didn’t stop until her lungs burned and begged for rest. Fae were rare. With them being hunted for years, they’d all but gone extinct. The emperor’s soldiers still actively looked for any Fae they could find. So to see anther one of her kind at the circus had rocked Shula on her feet. Out of pure instinct, she’d avoided the other woman. It was better to separate herself from her. So she did. She stayed as far away from Davina as she possibly could.
And now they were face to face and something uncomfortable stirred in her stomach. The longer she stared at the woman, she could just make out the press of her pointed ears beneath the turban.
“You’re nervous.” Davina smiled, revealing the elongated state of her teeth, a sharp smile that reminded Shula of razor blades.
Canines emerged at will, or when feral instincts aroused. Teeth elongated into sharp points at the scent of blood or fear, only to slide back into the gums afterward. It was an instinct Shula had always tried to keep firmly at bay, especially in anger. One that Davina obviously had no qualms about hiding, even in the dark.
“I’m not.” Shula kept her voice firm, even while her heart pounded in her ears. She tried to keep her emotions steady, her body still.
“Care for your fortune? A glimpse of your future?”
Shula’s eyes flicked to the sign beside her small, purple tent.
Davina’s Fortune and Tarot Readings, it read.
“You can’t lure me in with promises of love.” She started to walk away but Davina’s hand snapped out and restrained her. As strong and as cold as iron, her fingers dug into Shula’s wrist painfully.
“You are not like the humans who come running to me at the first sign of a broken heart. No, you are different.” Her white teeth flashed. “Just one reading. I sense your future. I know what looms around the corner.”
She knew what one reading would mean. It would lead to a second, and a third, and another, and another. It was the price seers paid for the magic of the future. It would make Shula crave another glimpse, another hint at what was to come. It created madness and rotted the mind entirely.
“You are afraid of being captured. You fear, but you cannot hide from your true nature, just like the moon cannot hide from the sky.”
Davina was already smiling triumphantly, and Shula knew it was because she’d already seen the future, the seer already knew what her answer would be.
“Fine. One reading.”
“One reading is all I need.” Tugging on her wrist, Davina pulled her behind the dark flaps of her tent. “Come. Sit.” She pushed on Shula’s shoulders and Shula obeyed, letting herself be guided onto plush pillows.
The smallest of tables sat in front of her, covered in a silk cloth that depicted constellations, astrology, and other things that Shula couldn’t really make much sense of. She watched warily as Davina took a seat at the table across from her.
“Bones or cards?” Her long fingers held up two little bags, presumably with the objects she said.
Shula shivered at the thought of bones. She wasn’t afraid of them, for the dead could not harm her, but it seemed morbid, and she figured it would be best if she pretended to be human, anxious to get a reading on a long-lost love. It would keep the madness at bay.
“Cards.”
Her sharp teeth flashed again, and Shula wondered why the woman even bothered asking her, if she had all the answers already. She drew open the drawstrings of the bag and pulled out a stack of cards. Shula watched as Davina methodically shuffled them with quick snaps of her wrists and fingers. When she finished, she slid the cards in front of Shula in a line.
“Choose your cards.”
“Why? Aren’t you supposed to do that?”
“We all forge our own destiny, Fire Dancer.” Her voice was low and strict. “The cards you choose is the path you pave.”
Sighing and deciding it was better to get this over with, she swept her hand down the line of cards, stopping and picking those her instinct told her to claim.
Davina slid the other cards away. Shula had chosen six total.
