Page 88 of Sidhe
One of them was ridiculously short for her build at less than five feet tall, but was also ridiculously buxom. Her hair was platinum blonde, her eyes a pale green, and something about her skin honestlyglittered. She looked awkward in jeans and a tank top, like she usually didn’t wear human clothing at all.
The other girl was possibly even more conspicuous. She had fire-red hair, as in almostliterally, shades of red, orange, and golden yellows evenly distributed like an actual flame, hanging wavy past her shoulders. Her eyes were orange, bright and nearly glowing. She wore green shorts and a purple tank top that just looked awkward, much like her shorter friend, like maybe Ula had had to dress them both.
“Oh.” Ula smiled wide, looking the most normal of the group despite her demureness, her hair a little longer now, still blonde, blue-green eyes, her tall form clad in a light sweater and flowery skirt. “That’s Danny,” she pointed to the guy, “he’s a shapeshifter. We met a long time ago and became good friends right away since we both, umm…ya know…like our particular look.”
Which Nathan took to mean that Danny kept to one form like Ula and didn’t go around slaughtering others to change into, at least as far as sheknew. Nathan wanted to be trusting of their recruits, of course, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t keep an eye on everyone, even if the guy smiled charmingly and nodded in greeting.
“This is Serileth,” Ula went on to the short glittery girl. “She’s a pixie.”
Nathan nodded. Pixies were generally pretty benign and more often light fae. “And you are…?” He turned to the other girl.
“Kaley,” she responded, holding out a hand for Nathan to shake. Her voice had a smooth, low tone. Her smile was crooked, more like a smirk, but Nathan didn’t sense any ill-will, and had to remind himself that hecouldsense emotions. He accepted Kaley’s very warm hand, as if she radiated heat. “I’m a salamander,” she added.
“A fire elemental?” Jim said quietly. “Wow, I…I didn’t think elementals ever traveled outside the fae realm. Thank you so much for coming.”
“We have it on good authority that there may be some higher up light fae help on the way,” Nathan said. “You’re not part of that crowd?”
“You must mean Oberon and Gwen.” Kaley smiled and looked sideways at the pixie. “And yeah, we heard things from them too, but Ula’s the one who convinced us. Between everyone working to gather people here, you’ll have your army.”
“We don’t want to split everyone down the middle,” Jim said, “we’ll have to fill the seals in eventually, and it might mean some of them will leave. But we won’t let anyone hurt anyone else while they’re here. We just figured it might be better to let everyone settle and realize how serious this really is before we give anyone reason to bail. We really appreciate you taking the risk.”
A giggle responded that sounded suspiciously like a bell from the pixie. “How could we not? Humans are important to a lot of us. And as an incubus now, well, you’re practically family.” She smiled at Nathan.
“Thanks.” Nathan actually really appreciated that since Sasha had said a lot of light fae looked down on incubi and succubae as‘tainted’ because of their dark fae blood. Obviously that wasn’t a problem for these light fae since they were friends with two dark fae shapeshifters.
“You might be surprised, Nathan,” Ula said shyly, her voice still quiet to keep any curious seals from overhearing, “but news of all this has been spreading through a lot of camps already. It’s the end of the world, you know, so…word travels fast. About what’s happening. Andyouof course.”
“Me? What do you mean?”
“Because you’reNathan,” Ula said as if that were something profound within itself. “You’re the Griers. Everyone’s heard of you. The things you’ve done…” She shook her head in seeming awe. “Why, I saw some of it firsthand myself, and it’s still hard to believe. The way you dealt with that cursed house, Nathan, and helped Sasha and your brother. Most people wouldn’t even know where to begin, I bet not even most seals. And then when you found out the truth about me, well, you listened to Jim and Sasha, you listened to me and…people just don’t do that. You’re really something special.” Her blush was fierce now and it was obvious she meant everything she had said.
Nathan didn’t quite know how to respond, but he was filled with sudden…anger. He didn’t understand why he felt that way, so he brushed it aside as best he could, smiled at Ula, and gestured to Alex at the bar.
“Go check in with that fine lady there. Alex will get rooms settled for you. We’re starting to run out so we may have to get creative. But don’t worry about Al. You can be honest with her about what you are. She runs the Gatehouse, and keeps this place neutral. She might help you with deciding what you want to do until the fighting actually starts. We don’t really know what to expect at this point.”
Ula just smiled and led her friends over to Alex as instructed.
Nathan sighed and shook his head. “Special,” he muttered. “Yeah right.”
He still felt angry, and he didn’t know why. He wassoangry, so angry at…something, that he had to get out of the bustling chaos of the bar—immediately.
He didn’t look at Jim as he stalked away from him, heading for the tiny hallway to the med room because it was the one place he was fairly certain no one had wandered yet. He didn’t stop when he reached the room but went right in and closed the door, taking a few deep breaths and trying not to focus on how the tips of claws were biting into his palms.
The door opened only seconds later.
“Nate, are you okay?”
“Go away, Jim,” Nathan said without turning. He faced the other wall, where he had slowly unwrapped the bandages from Solrin’s body, another person he hadn’t been ‘special’ enough to save—like Iain.
“Nate?” Jim was right behind him. “Listen…I want to give you the chance you asked for, but you know this is wrong, don’t you? That’s why Ula’s words struck home. You don’t need to run away from what people believe about you.”
“I’m notrunning away,” Nathan snapped before he even realized the last straw had fallen, anger and so much else exploding out of him as he spun to face Jim. “I’m not sticking my head in the sand, Jim. I’m trying to take care of you, to be smart.”
Jim’s brow scrunched. “Take care of me? How does this take care ofme?”
“Not just you,everyone,” Nathan said with a sweeping gesture of his hand, wanting to pace the room but unable to look away from Jim now that he had locked gazes. “I’m making sure I don’t screw up again, okay,that’swhat I’m doing. So it’s not just because I want this for me and Sasha, so what? I can’t…dothis.”He ran blackened fingers harshly through his hair, feeling the sharpness of his not-quite claws. “I make wrong decisions all the time. I’ve made some of the worst. Why does everyone think I’m so god damn special when I already let Malakwin?”
The ricochet of Nathan’s final words was replaced too quickly by silence. Silence thatchoked. Silence that made Jim’s dark blue eyes go soft and sympathetic.
