Page 69 of A Dance With Fire
They reminded her of the soldiers that rushed at her parents and took them from her forever.
She screamed and the flames responded. They shot out and caught against every human near her. The sparks of the flames jumped and caught against the tents, causing the night to blaze up.
The humans were burning, just like she’d promised they would, and yet she still didn’t see Orna.
Shula ran, leaving a blazing trail behind her. The night ignited, and she ran and ran until she came upon an iron cage.
Her feet skidded to a stop as she beheld what was inside.
Orna lay in the corner of the cage, curled into a ball and unmoving. Naked, her blue skin had lost its star dust shine. Her body looked bloody and bruised over every inch.
The sight broke Shula.
She stumbled forward and wrapped her fiery hands around the bars and they began to glow. Slow and steadily at first. The first touch of iron brought the smallest twinges of pain, but it didn’t matter. Nothing did except for getting Orna out of her prison.
And in doing so, it felt like Shula was breaking out of her own prison as well. That’s what fueled her. The violence and cruelty she’d known for years now. The need to protect her friend… To protect herself.
She dug deep into her well of power and ripped it out with all her might. She’d never used so much fire and didn’t care that it suddenly made her weak in the knees or that her whole body trembled. All she could think about was getting Orna out.
She didn’t stop the rising swell of power. Even when she felt those first drops of blood drip from her nose to her mouth. Even when her limbs eventually gave out and she dropped to the ground, still gripping tightly to the bars.
They began to melt into pools at Shula’s feet until the bars disintegrated completely, leaving a gaping hole in the cage. Shula fell back to the ground with a gasp, her chest heaving as she rasped in painful breaths. Like a cord snipped inside her, the fire rushed back inside, and the stench of smoke settled in her lungs again.
She coughed, feeling blood and spit spew from her tongue. With lethargic movements and shaking limbs, she got up to her knees and crawled through the hole, her fingers grazing Orna’s skin.
She was cold to the touch.
“Orna…” Shula’s voice wavered, and her friend did not stir. “Orna, wake up.” Her fingers fumbled against the slick blood on blue skin, but she gripped Orna’s arm and tugged. Cold. She was so damncold.
With aching muscles and using all the strength she had, Shula reached for her friend and tugged, feeling the muscles on her neck strain as she pulled Orna’s body out of the cage.
Perhaps it was just the iron, she thought desperately as she rolled her onto the charred ground. Her body rolled to her back, and Shula couldn’t hold back her sob at the sight of Orna’s lifeless, black eyes, staring up at the night sky.
“Orna…” Shula’s fingers trembled against her body. “Orna!”
But the Unseelie Fae did not respond.
It was in that defining moment that Shula’s heart cracked into a million pieces. She’d thought losing Fanny had been bad? This… this was worse. Orna couldn’t be gone, she tried to deny. The Unseelie Fae was a force of nature, a light in the dark, stars streaking across the sky to provide hope to those who had none. And to see the dark, lifeless way she lay on the ground broke something inside Shula.
She searched for the fire inside herself, but she felt drained, hollow, with nothing but smoke where her magic should be.
She growled in frustration, screaming Orna’s name over and over again.
This couldn’t be happening. Another person Shula cared about couldn’t be dead.
Flashbacks plagued her, meshing in with this moment until Shula couldn’t tell them apart. The grief of the past became the grief of the present, and a sob wedged in her throat, threatening release.
So caught up in her grief, Shula didn’t hear the footsteps until it was too late. Until the cold press of the iron blade was against her throat.
She felt a slight sting against her skin and gasped as a hand snatched up her long hair and yanked her to her feet.
She complied, too weak to fight back. An armored arm snaked around her bare waist and tugged her close, but the sword didn’t lower from her neck.
“Elemental bitch,” a voice in her ear spat. “I’d kill you now except the Emperor of Illyk has ordered to keep you alive.”
Her blood went cold at the words. The Emperor of Illyk still wanted her? Of course he did, she chastised herself. He wouldn’t give up easily on what he considered his property.
She struggled against him, but he only dug the blade in deeper and pulled her away. Away from Orna’s body and towards the copse of trees.
