Page 49 of A Dance With Fire
Shula startled. It was so odd to see them like this… Laughing, bantering. They’d been stoic before, glaring. She knew what they were doing now, though. They were trying to include her, make her feel welcome. Make her forget she was anything more than their captive.
The remembrance hit her square in the chest. Her feet skidded across the ground as she jerked back. She knew for a split second, her expression betrayed what she was feeling, and she schooled it a second too late.
Clay’s smile fell and he reached out for her, but Shula was already turning away. It was hard, she thought. It was too difficult to pretend like she could be friends with these Fae; she’d barely even tried.
But she couldn’t. How could she be friends with those who were keeping her prisoner?
She couldn’t be. That was the answer.
She couldn’t and wouldn’t.
Whether they were Fae or not, Fanny had broken something inside her. Torn her soul beyond repair so she couldn’t accept anyone else into her life, her heart.
She’d been a fool to try.
She wouldn’t do it again.
17
A Dream
“She will not accept us so easily.”
Clay tore his gaze from where Shula walked away. She all but stumbled in her rush to flee from them, and he didn’t want to admit it was… confusing. Usually women were running to him, not from him, and he was a bit offended that he couldn’t convince her to even be his friend, no matter how hard he tried.
He didn’t even want to get between her thighs. Which was odd. But he had a feeling that—
“You aren’t even trying, are you?” Clay was torn out of his thoughts by Uric’s angry accusation.
Clay’s temper flared as wildly as his nostrils. “Do you want to try it, then?” His gaze flicked to Valerio, to Ryker, and there they stayed on the scarred Fae’s face. His gut roiled about what Valerio was proposing. It just didn’t sit right with him.
He wasn’t a piece of shit, and he wouldn’t take advantage of her. Because despite what she felt about him, he was starting to consider her his friend.
“You kidnapped her then used your powers on her,” Clay went on. “How do you expect her to feel? She feels fucking violated. We took away her free will, so what makes us different from that fucking Brotherhood? From the emperor?”
Clay saw Uric coming in moments. Protecting himself was instinct. He dodged the blow aimed for his throat, slapping the dagger from Uric’s hand with a strike to the wrist. Uric retaliated by swinging another knife towards him.
Clay jerked back, his hand snatching out to pull Uric with him. Soon, they were little more than a scuffle of fists and dodging bodies and flailing limbs.
Clay was a good warrior. He hailed from the Sapphire Court, powerful Seelie warriors.
But Uric was from the land of Obsidian, and he was better.
A knife pressed against Clay’s throat and Uric loomed over him. His nostrils flared, and those black eyes were like a demon’s, holding in them the promise and whisper of death.
“How dare you make such a comparison?”
Clay smiled widely at him, and he knew he looked a little manic. “You know it’s true. We might have saved her life, but we took away her free will. No wonder she’s eager to get away from us.”
Uric snarled, snapping his canines close to Clay’s face.
“Uric. Stop.”
At a single command from Valerio, Uric shoved Clay away with a snarl.
Clay scoffed and straightened his tunic, spreading his palms across the front. His glare didn’t falter, and he didn’t look away from Uric even as Valerio spoke.
“Clay is right. She won’t trust us.”
