Page 94 of A Dance With Fire
Clay smirked, the dimple in his cheek prominent, flirtatious. “Why do you say that, Fire Dancer?”
“I can hear the water. When I used to travel with the circus, we would walk along these pathways. They were always populated. Further that way will take us away from people and soldiers.”
“Of course.” Valerio’s lips pressed into a thin line, and Shula swore it was to keep himself from laughing.
“So smart.” Clay sauntered over to her and threw his arm around her shoulder, the sword sheathed at his waist bumping against her hip. They’d brought a pretty heavy artillery for the journey. It made her feel more nervous than safe, though. “Though we already knew that, it’s nice to see you aren’t clueless, Fire Dancer.”
Shula rolled her eyes and shoved him away. “Then we should get moving.” She began walking past their little huddle. “The sooner we move, the quicker we make it to The Seer.”
What she didn’t say was that she wanted answers. Desperately. But she didn’t have to. Because she could tell they were just as desperate for them as her.
Shula shed her jacket as they walked, feeling suffocated in its girth. She paused merely to shove it into the pack she carried and continued walking.
For a moment, she felt all eyes on her, watching as she walked further and further from them. This could have been her chance to run, toflee.But it wasn’t King Ashera’s warning that echoed in her ears preventing her from doing just that. Rather, it was her own doubts and desires for the truth that made her stop and look over her shoulder.
Brow raised, she smirked at the group of Fae men. “Well?” she demanded. “What are you waiting for?”
They moved quickly then, swallowing up the distance with long strides until they were next to her and walking as a unit.
They walked for hours in the silence, everyone lost in their own thoughts and paying attention to their surroundings. They didn’t stop once, not to rest or take in a breath. By the time night fell, Shula’s feet ached almost painfully, and the muscles in her legs and shoulders were screaming.
Valerio and Uric led them at the front, veering into the smallest clearing in the woods surrounded by a cluster of thick trees that dripped with sap. Stones had been placed around the space in a circle, and it looked like something out of a Fae story Papa used to tell her. Stone circles were magical and could transport anyone who walked through them to other worlds entirely, only to never return.
They were placed there by trickster Fae who liked to lure humans into the Feylands, make them drink the sap from magical trees, and keep them there, suspended in time forever.
“The little people of the wood,” Shula breathed, her chest hitching with memories and stories of her Papa’s voice.
Valerio pierced her with an indecipherable look. “We’ll camp here tonight.” The bag he carried slid from his shoulders. “Weylyn and Ryker, take first watch.”
Weylyn, after setting his bag off to the side, prowled away, disappearing through the trees without a word. Shula found herself staring at him as he walked. He was strange, eerie in a way that rivaled the silent and deadly Uric.
Not that any of these Fae seemed to have much personality.
Shula was used to the boisterous. While she had always been more reserved and quiet due to her Fae heritage, she enjoyed being around the humans at Piriguini’s Circus because they were everything shewasn’t.Their personalities were over the top, loud,fun.
The Fae were serious, brooding.
Assholes.
She knew it was because of their situation. That was why she was the way she was as well. She couldn’t fault them for being cautious. The only two of the group who were fun were Julius and Clay. Weylyn always looked like his head was in the clouds, Uric like he wanted nothing more than to snap Shula’s neck, Valerio like she was a conundrum he wanted to solve, and Ryker…
Ryker looked at her with heat in his gaze. It was searing, blistering to the point where she didn’t know if he wanted to murder her or… fuck her.
She shoved that thought aside.
There was no way in the human’s hell that he wanted to fuck her.
She ignored the tingling between her thighs as she thought of it. No, no, no. She didn’t need to feel the sharp sting of desire. Not when he was so close. Not when he couldsmell it.
She avoided Ryker’s gaze, looking everywhere but him while she got settled and as he prowled silently into the woods in a different direction than Weylyn.
Once he was gone, she breathed a little easier.
“I see you, Fire Dancer.”
Shula startled, dropping the blanket she’d just pulled from her bag. She snapped her glare to Clay, who wore a smug, knowing expression. Though what he thought he knew was beyond her. “Taking out… my blanket?”
His shoulder bumped her. “I see younotlooking at Ryker.”
