Page 86 of A Dance With Fire
Ryker tried not to give his prince a pointed look. He’d told him to speak with Orna and Des. Because they decided to get romantic in the woods, they’d died.
Rage surged up inside him. On their behalf, but also at them. How could they have been so stupid? Mated couples had no sense.
He dared not turn his gaze on Shula to see how she was reacting to all of this.
“Who killed the Fae woman?” Valerio asked.
That question seemed to suck all the air from the room.
The human took too long to answer because Valerio’s fist shot out, landing a punch straight into the human’s side. Ryker heard the ribs crack, heard one of them pierce a lung.
“How did you kill the Fae woman?”
These weren’t standard questions. Ryker knew this was getting personal for Valerio. Because Orna and Des had been under his protection. A young couple in love that heshould’vespoken to about wandering off. But he hadn’t, and now they were dead. As much as Ryker wanted to blame Valerio for it, he couldn’t bring himself to do that. He wasn’t the one who’d killed them. That had been the humans. And for that they would pay.
“I—I d-d-don’t—”
Valerio’s fist struck against his cheekbone, and it shattered.
Fuck. Ryker tensed, already anticipating the pain.
“Did you take a shot at her?” Valerio’s eyes almost looked manic now. “Did you slice her up? Put her in the cage? Do not lie to me. A pretty Fae woman, I bet all you little soldiers wanted a shot at roughing her up. What. Did. You. Do?” Each word was accentuated with a punch over his body.
The human jerked, hanging his head.
“Valerio!” Ryker snapped.
The prince whipped around to glare at Ryker. He hated interrupting his prince, especially when this scum deserved everything that was dished out to him, but… The Fire Dancer was present, and Ryker didn’t think she needed to know the sordid details of what had happened to Orna.
Ryker didn’t even want to know them. Unfortunately, hedid. Because he’d felt the pain of the wounds left behind on her lifeless body.
But Valerio nodded in understanding and stepped away, letting Ryker step forward. He held out his hand and let his magic loose. He was still a bit sore from the wound he’d received, though after a night’s sleep, it was already healing.
All at once, Ryker absorbed the human’s pain into himself. He gritted his teeth against it, but it was an overwhelming force. Pain exploded on his cheekbone as he took in the shattering, the slice of the knife, the scars.
He couldn’t remember a day when he hadn’t been covered in scars. Small ones, at first. Tiny, silver, they crisscrossed against his tan skin until the war. Until Mairin. He’d made it his mission to save every Fae he could, as if that could distract him from the fact that he couldn’t save the one Fae woman in his life who really mattered.
So, he took the scars so others didn’t have to wear them, and he didn’t complain. Even when it weakened his body and he felt his knees wobble. He was already tired, his magic already weak, but he had a duty to his people, and he’d do it even if it killed him.
He dared to lift his gaze, and like an addictive force, his eyes went to her, and it was the look in her eyes that crippled him. It caught him off guard and he almost fell. But then she was moving towards him, like her body was just as addicted to him as his eyes seemed to be of hers. He couldn’t fathom why it was so hard to stay away from her when he despised everything she stood for.
Then she was next to him, and he felt the strength in her touch. Heard the softest of gasps push from her lips. He knew what the sound was for. He felt it, too. Felt the rush of her skin against his like something foreign and forbidden.
Her strong arms held him up, one wrapping around his waist and the other gripping his wrist. Their pulses pressed together, and it felt as intimate as a kiss, and more painful than anything he could ever absorb.
The torture of her touch was too much. The compassion in her eyes was too much.Shewas too much. Like she was in his system, tattooing herself into his soul whether he wanted her there or not. And while his body told him that this was right, that she was right where she was supposed to be, he knew how wrong it really was.
Because him and Shula Azzarh?
They didn’t fit. They couldn’t possibly.
They were too different, too far apart on the spectrum that made them Fae.
But despite all that, his body leaned closer towards her, and Ryker found himself relishing in the warmth of her skin, in the way her body seemed to mold to his side.
Like she truly did belong.
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