Page 14 of A Dream Shrouded in Fury
And I couldn’t find the courage to bring it to my lips.
Instead, I flipped it through my fingers, peered through it to the world beyond, and waited for Kalla.My choice of distraction had become a torture in itself, leaving me within easy reach of my once greatest passion and unable to stomach using it.
Footsteps moving lightly over dried leaves made me snap my head towards the sound, and I released a breath when Kalla came into view.
“Did I scare you?”she asked.
“Hardly.Just took me by surprise.You move quickly.”
“Vampire perk.All the better to sneak up on our prey.But I didn’t mean to stop your heart when you’re recovering.That was rude.”
I chuckled, and again the sound surprised me.
“Why do you do that?”Kalla asked as she dropped into the grass.Her eyes were bright and her skin flushed from her recent meal, and I stared at her mouth, eager to catch sight of those fangs.
I forced my gaze to the flute in my hands, reminding myself why it was better to feel nothing.“Do what?”
“Look startled every time you laugh.Does it hurt when you do?”
Her teasing rattled me, how quickly and easily she saw through me.Since joining the Coynfare, my fellow rebels had often upbraided me for being too serious.I’d wrapped myself so carefully in the void that I never allowed any emotion other than anger to show.I’d worked to keep my expression blank, my soul empty.For six years, I’d been untouchable.I wouldn’t have thought the habit would fade so quickly, but this woman made it impossible to stay locked down.
My throat strained with the force of my swallow.“I guess I’m out of practise.”
She nodded, shifting over so she leaned against the rock beside me.Without her penetrating gaze on my face, I relaxed again.
“That’s too bad,” she said.“You have a sexy laugh.It’s rough and grumbly.I bet if you did it more often, you’d have all the rebels spreading their legs for you.”
And just like that, I stiffened, more that one part of my body too hard for me to sit comfortably.“Excuse me?”I sputtered.
She turned her head towards me, and her eyes were filled with laughter.“What?Are you Soldarans prudes?I never would have guessed that about the fae.”
“I—I—no, we’re not—we’re pretty relaxed about sex.I just—”Had been working hard not to think about sex withyou.The words were there, but I didn’t say them, not wanting to add to the awkwardness.Instead, I huffed.“I understand now why we’re taught to kill vampires on sight.You’re too much trouble.”
“Just as we’ve been taught to kill fae on sight.You can’t be trusted.”
“I guess we’re destined to be enemies, then.”
I said it with a smile, and Kalla’s answering laugh danced through the darkness and up into the stars, where I swore it sparkled among them.She’d been trying to set me off balance with her comment, and listening to her glee, I didn’t resent it.I tightened my grip on my flute, old habits setting aside notes I might once have played to accompany the sound.
Unfortunately, the movement of my hands drew her gaze to my lap, and interest flickered to life in her eyes.“You play?”
My chest squeezed.“I used to.”
Such an understatement.There had been a time when I couldn’t pass a day without playing something.A day without music had been a day without sunshine.Without air.Music had been my entire life.
“It sounds like you used to do a lot of things.”Her voice had lost its teasing edge, gentled into something that wasn’t quite sympathy but skirted the edge of compassion.As though she’d deduced more than I’d told her.
I should have been upset about that.I didn’t want pity—or strangers guessing my secrets.But somehow I found it easier to be in her presence knowing she’d put some pieces together and hadn’t pushed me on them.It felt less like I needed to hide.
“I imagine Soldara is full of music,” she said softly as her attention shifted once more to the sky.“The fae strike me as a people who enjoy a good revel.Feasts and galas, dances, concerts.”
“We do,” I agreed.“Those with the good fortune to enjoy them, anyway.I remember many days spent idling, playing music that people danced to.Lots of laughter and light.”Not wanting to follow that train of thought, I turned the conversation.“What about vampires?Are you musical?”
Kalla laughed again, joy transformed into sound, so real I could almost believe happiness was tangible.“No one wants me to play.My best friend told me if I ever came within walking distance of a fiddle again, he’d smash it over my head and garrote me with a string.But yes, some of us play.We don’t have access to a lot of instruments in all ourignorance”—she narrowed her eyes at me, and I couldn’t help the quirk of my lips in an unpractised smile—“but every once in a while, someone comes home with a drum or a flute.”Her gaze swept down to the one in my hands.“None of us are skilled enough to make them out of nothing.For the most part, we talk, we tell stories, we fuck.Some of us knit.When you’re outlawed, you don’t have the luxury of a wide variety of hobbies.”
I was only half listening and processing the fact that she wasn’t alone out here in these woods.The rest of me was trying to hide the fact that my cock was so rigid that I needed to shift my weight to avoid the press of stiff flesh against my borrowed breeches.Was this woman intentionally toying with me, or did she not notice the effect she was having?
“Is it hard?”she asked, and I shot her an incredulous look before she added, “Being a rebel?We must share a lot of the same problems.Always hiding, keeping our heads down, never letting ourselves be recognized for what we are.You can go out in the daylight, at least, but still.”
