Page 97 of A Sword of Ice
Iona resisted the urge to reach for her and offer comfort. This was just another thing besides their Mana-given gifts that tied them together. An experience no one else could fathom. Good things could bring people together, but more often than not, it was the bad that was easiest to relate to. It was in tragedies where friendships were born.
“I was only twelve,” she continued. “But I can assure you they are dead.” She said it so coldly, though she noticed her bottom lip fought back a tremble. Grief was never as simple as a few spoken words. It always went deeper than that. As deep into the threads of things you could not see.
“How do you know?” Iona countered.
“Because no one who goes into those camps comes back out alive.”
“But how do youknow?”
“I tasted their ashes that day. The remnants of them clung to my cheeks. They weren’t special. They weren’t gift-given. What reason would they be kept alive? What reason could your sister have been kept alive all this time? The Emperor of Illyk mounts Fae on his walls like trophies. Your sister might have outlived her usefulness.”
The words weren’t spoken cruelly but they had the same effect as if they had been. She held back the sob that wanted to claw up her throat but pushed it down because she knew Shula did not mean the words to harm.
Shula must have realized the bluntness of her words because she fumbled with the cloth, dropping it to the riverbank. She took a step forward and drew in a shocked breath. “Sorry,” she said. “I—I think I’ve been with them too long. They have a blunt way of speaking, but that was rude. I just…” She looked up at the sky as if the words would somehow magically fall onto her body so she wouldn’t have to say them herself. “I was upset because of what you inadvertently did to Ryker. I was also upset because no one listens to me.Valeriodoesn’t listen to me.”
The hurt in her voice was real. It made Iona observe her,reallyobserve her. Just like it made her realize she didn’t really know her. She didn’t really think about what things were like before Iona had been accepted into the fold. There seemed to be a tension among Shula and Valerio. Not just because of what was confessed earlier; there was more to it.
“Why?”
“Because I’m a coward.”
Iona blinked, too surprised at the words for a moment to come up with a coherent response. “Who the fuck thinks that?” she demanded.
“Everyone.”
Her own problems forgotten, she felt a steady anger rise. “Did they not see you fight on that island? Did they not see you melt iron or incinerate about a dozen humans? Who the fuck thinks you’re a coward? I will freeze the head from their shoulders.”
Shula chuckled but the sound wasn’t in amusement. “I gave them an image of me when I arrived and I think it stuck. I was always running away andyourun towards trouble and I think sometimes they resent me for that.”
Suddenly Iona understood the hostility between Shula and Valerio. She understood why Shula looked a bit self-conscious when they first spoke. Her wariness, the way she was looking at Iona now.
Iona had come and suddenly they had someone to compare Shula to. Iona had made things worse with what she’d done, putting both Julius and Ryker at risk. It gave Shula grounds to be pissed at her. Because they’d listened to Iona and she’d nearly gotten them killed. If they would have listened to Shula, none of this would have happened.
But she didn’t want that to be their relationship. She didn’t want the two of them in a competition set up by the Fae males in their group. She didn’t want them to be compared because of their faults or what they lacked.
The world was shitty enough, and Elementals needed to stick together.
Like friends.
Like sisters.
Her throat tightened as she stepped towards Shula and took her hands in a firm grip. “You are the bravest woman I know,” Iona told her, and she meant it. “I am in awe of you. You can melt iron and I don’t even have that kind of control yet even though I’ve been using my magic for far longer than you. We don’t have to be divided, Shula. It’s not you or me, or my magic compared to your magic, or your bravery compared to mine. We are as different as the elements we wield. We aren’t meant to be the same but to complement one another.”
Tears glistened behind her amber eyes. She tilted her chin up. “You’re right.”
“Good. And I really am sorry for what I did.”
“And I’m sorry for the crassness of what I said.”
Iona squeezed her hands lightly. “It’s what everyone’s thinking. I don’t blame you. I know it’s far-fetched, but I have hope enough for all of us.”
“Then I’ll try to have hope, too.”
“You’re a good friend, Shula,” Iona confessed. “The best friend I’ve had in a hundred years.”
And between them, their bond strengthened. Like those were the words it’d been waiting to hear this entire time.
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