Page 46 of A Dance With Fire
16
Orna
They walked for hours without stopping. Until the sun drifted high into the sky and the heat beat down on them in the late afternoon.
Throughout it all, Clay tried making inconsequential conversation that Shula couldn’t bring herself to follow. She knew what he was doing. Knew he was trying to appeal to her better nature, to bring her into the fold. She should’ve taken the bait, gotten him to trust her, but her heart felt too heavy, and she couldn’t.
Eventually, he gave up and gently pulled her deeper into the crowd of Fae, depositing her next to a Fae woman and giving her a glance before stalking forward to go whisper in Valerio’s ear.
Unfortunately she couldn’t hear what was being said, which she knew was deliberate.
“Hello,” the Fae woman next to her said with a smile.
Shula almost startled and looked down at her. She was a few inches shorter than Shula and a bit thinner, too. Her expression was open and friendly, her dark hair was braided down her back, and she wore dirty clothes; pants, boots, tunic, and jacket.
“I’m Orna.” She held her hand out and Shula shook it.
“Shula Azzarh. You lent me your clothes.”
Orna’s smile widened as she dropped her hand back to her side. “I’m glad they fit! I wasn’t sure they would. Your body is curvier than mine.”
Shula’s face heated.
Orna gave her a pat on the shoulder. “I’d kill to have curves like yours. But I know that if I had them, my husband wouldn’t keep his hands off me. He already has trouble enough as is.”
“Oh, you’re married?”
Orna’s smile brightened and as it did, something in the air around her shimmered. Shula’s eyes narrowed and she stared harder.
“He’s over there.”
Shula forced herself to look away from the strange magic that surrounded Orna to where she was pointing and Shula jolted.
“He—he’s human…” The sight baffled her. He was a human man. Without pointed ears, without canines, or the fierce elegance the Fae possessed. He was… normal.
She turned back to Orna, her head whipping so fast that the air that surrounded the little Fae woman shimmered and was torn away like a curtain being ripped down.
All that smooth white skin turned blue, a bright color that seemed to shimmer with glowing specks, and the dark tumbling hair was a light shade of periwinkle. Eyes were midnight black like marbles, and her teeth were sharp points.
Shula’s heart beat faster and faster.
She’d never seen a Fae like Orna before, and the survival instinct she had deep inside her made her want to recoil, but she managed to blink away the surprise.
Not fast enough, because Orna frowned. “Oh, shoot, my glamor fell.” She closed her eyes, brows pulled together with fierce concentration. A moment later, the air shimmered once again, and she looked human. Fae, but normal.
“Why use a glamor at all?” Shula found herself asking, “I mean, if you’re among trusted Fae…”
The glamor dropped and Orna’s blue skin glowed purple, making Shula wonder if it was a blush. “It’s nothing like that. It’s just… I’m learning to better control my powers, and I need as much practice as I can get.”
“So your powers are glamor?” She immediately thought of Valerio and inside, she recoiled in fear.
Orna’s head whipped back and forth. “No. It’s basic Fae glamor. Hiding your appearance doesn’t come with a price. The High Fae like you and the others look more beautiful, so you don’t have to use it often. We Unseelie are, you know,this.” She waved a hand down at her body and she said it with such sadness that something in Shula ached.
She knew what it was to be ashamed of what she looked like. Of what she was. “What are you talking about? You’re beautiful.”
She flushed a deeper shade of purple. “Thank you,” she whispered demurely.
“So, you’re an Unseelie?”
