Page 5 of Dark & Dreadful Brutes

The fae’s attention jerked back to me.

I felt something crawl over my arms—and shuddered when I looked down at myself and realized it was ice.

It spread over my skin, killing the flames as it went.

I breathed rapidly when it closed over my throat. It was just a thin layer, but panic warred inside me anyway.

My fire burned hotter, melting through the ice in a heartbeat.

The fae man swore.

“Her flames react to her emotions. You’ll have a better chance of killing the fire if you can calm her down,” Gora added.

“We don’t have time for this.” The fae man scooped me up off the ground and tossed me over his shoulder. My face crashed into his back, and he ran. My flames didn’t seem to burn him, which was lucky for him and not particularly great for me.

A moment later, I was squeezing my eyes shut to hide them from the sunlight that washed over us. The warmth from all three of our suns kissed my exposed skin, since I was still wearing nothing but my undergarment.

It felt good.

Veil, no. It felt incredible.

And the fae’s warm, bare back felt even better.

Until he started running, and my face slammed against it. “Don’t leave Gora and Jern!” I cried out, ignoring the stinging in my eyes.

He didn’t stop.

Cries and screams echoed through the city as he sprinted through, moving so fast that I doubted anyone could even make out the shape of him well enough to see who and what he was, or why he was on fire.

The man must’ve run for half an hour, weaving through the city and then up into the barren mountains that rose above the valley.

I was lightheaded—and still burning—when he finally slowed and then stopped beside a small river.

I eyed the water, in too much shock at seeing the real world again to put together why he’d decided to stop there in particular.

He tossed me into the river, and a screech escaped me as I plummeted in.

I hadn’t swam since I was a kid.

Would he let me drown?

Why had he gone to the trouble of saving me just to throw me in a river?

The water engulfed me, nowhere near as cold as it could’ve been. My shoulder brushed soft sand, and I realized how shallow it was.

I’d be fine.

The fae wasn’t trying to kill me.

At least, not yet.

As if to emphasize that point, he grabbed the back of my undergarment and hauled me onto dry land again.

I gasped for air, my knees knocking as my bare feet hit the ground hard. My fire was out, by some miracle.

The fae growled at me like an animal, grabbing my waist to hold me upright. The motion put our chests fairly close to each other, but I didn’t let myself think much of it. He was just trying to keep me from falling over. “Why are you so weak?”

“I was in a cellar for ten years. They barely fed us.” My chest still rose and fell rapidly as I sucked in air, but I didn’t catch fire again. “You’d be weak too.”

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