Page 83
Story: A Fire in the Sky
The huldra obliged, placing her corpse-like hands on me now.
One of my hands went to my side, dipping inside my pouch, fumbling around, seeking even as I resigned myself to what was coming, even as I braced myself for her crooked body leaning into me, more bones than flesh and meat. Even as I accepted the cold press of her rancid mouth with its shriveled lips and rotting teeth to mine.
She kissed me.
It was her face now over mine. I could not unsee her. The faces of the others were blurry shadows.
I forced myself to kiss her back, releasing a cry of relief as my fingers wrapped around what I was searching for in my bag. Hopefully the sound was mistaken for passion, and she would not realize my intent until it was too late.
Clutching the fabric in my hand, I acted quickly. My only hope would be to surprise her. To deliver the unexpected.
I threw all my weight against her, slamming us both to the ground. She shrieked in astonishment but did not move for a full ten seconds. Time enough to seize my advantage.
Straddling her, I made quick work of the leather strap, gagging her and silencing that sweet voice holding the others captive.
That done, I reached for the other strips of leather and set towork, tying off her bony wrists and ankles, managing to subdue her even as she came to her senses and struggled wildly.
“Tamsyn!” It was Fell, blinking the last of the fog from his eyes.
The others were slower to shake off the huldra’s influence. They stood in a confused stupor, looking down at her, their eyes still glazed.
I beheld the huldra, so terrifying before but now only a pathetic creature.
Inhuman growls leaked from around her gag. She strained and worked and fought like a wild thing, a beast of the forest, and I supposed that was true. She was tireless in her struggles. As desperate as a bird’s wings, beating wildly, frantic to break from its cage, and I knew I would have to leave her like this. If she escaped, she would do everything in her power to kill me.
Suddenly she stopped her frenzied movements, her violent thrashing, her thin limbs quieting and going still as the grave as she caught sight of me watching her. Her milky gaze locked hard on me. Saw me for the first time. Those ancient eyes narrowed with comprehension. Sheknew. Recognized me as one monster recognized another.
I swallowed and had the sudden urge to run, to rush away from this thing that was holding up a mirror to me so plainly.
Fell advanced on me with long strides, his big hands closing around my arms and lifting me up on my tiptoes. Instantly I felt the brand of his touch through my clothing, the lines of the X clearly delineated on my bicep. It was pleasure and pain. Hot and cold. Heavy and feather-soft...
He said my name again, a breathy benediction. “Tamsyn... I knew you were alive.” His frosty gray eyes slid over my face, leaving a trail of fire in their wake.
I opened my mouth, lips working, searching for the words that would not convey my dismay at finding him when I was supposed to be on my way north. Alone. And yet that wasn’t entirely true. Not fully. Not really. Ididfeel dismay, but excitement hummed inside me, too.
He was like poisonous berries in the wood, so bright and colorful and sweet at the first taste, but bad for you. Toxic.
My body vibrated like the plucked string of a harp. Wrongly so. The blood rushed beneath my skin where his hands held me, smolder building in my chest in the most troubling way, and that was reminder enough. The crux of it all. The reason I could not be with him, the reason I needed to get far, far away.
“You beautiful, clever thing. How did you know what she was? How did you know what to do?” He sent a quick glance to the trussed-up huldra on the ground.
I shook my head and shrugged helplessly. How could I explain? Her magic simply had not worked on me. It didn’t work because...
Well. Because I was the same. In a way. Magic could not best magic.
He hauled me into his arms, against his warmth, holding me tightly... so close that I could feel the pounding of his heart against my ribs. It was exhilarating and good and right, when so many things lately had been wrong. But this. Him. Us...
Being in his arms felt like coming home. Even if it was false, a trap, another trick of the day, another veil to be ripped away sooner or later. Sooner. Or later. Sooner. Or later. Eventually, it would be taken from me.
For now, I surrendered to it, finally letting myself go, sagging against him, relenting, weakening, reveling in being with him again. Close to the flame.
Later, I would worry.
Later, I would figure out how to pull myself away without becoming permanently, inexorably burned.
His voice rumbled in my hair, reaching all the way down to the core of me. “What happened to you? Did you escape the dragon?”
Did you escape the dragon?
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