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me—
i’mhung​rystarv​ingdyin​gwitho​utyo​uplea​sewon’​tyouplea​sewon’​tyougiveme​whatineed
—scorching the air in my lungs, flash-frying my brain, and charring my backbone.
    I collapsed to the floor, human ashes.
    As suddenly and unexpectedly as the sexual inferno had razed every cell in my body, it was gone, leaving me cold and, for brief moments, in agonizing pain, ravenous for delights that could only be sampled by eating from a banquet table at which humans were never meant to sit. Forbidden fruit. Poisonous fruit. Fruit a woman might sell her soul for. Perhaps even betray mankind.
    â€œCareful,
sidhe
-seer. I have chosen to spare you. Do not press your luck.”
    I locked my jaw, pushed myself up, and lit another match, studying my enemies in the flickering light. Both would devour me. Just in different ways. If forced to choose, I’d take death-by-Shade.
    â€œWhy have you chosen to spare me?”
    â€œI want us to be … what is your word? Friends.”
    â€œPsychotic rapists don’t have friends.”
    â€œI was unaware you were a psychotic rapist or I would not have offered.”
    â€œHa.” I’d set myself up for that one.
    He smiled, and I recognized the urge I suddenly felt to believe everything was wonderful with my world for the illusion it was. Royal Fae pack a psychic punch. Barrons says their entire being is designed to seduce on every level. Glamour piled upon illusion heaped upon deceit. You can’t believe a word they say.
    â€œI am unaccustomed to interacting with humans, and have been known to underestimate my impact upon them. I did not understand how deeply the
Sidhba-jai
would disturb you. I wish to start again,” he said.
    I dropped my match and lit another. “Start by getting rid of the Shade.”
    â€œWith the cuff, you would be able to saunter among them freely, without fear. You would never be so vulnerable again. Why would you refuse such power?”
    â€œOh, gee, let’s see … maybe because I trust you less than I trust the Shades?” At least the Shade was too stupid to be deceptive. I think.
    â€œWhat is trust,
sidhe
-seer, but expectation that another will behave in a certain fashion, consistent with prior actions?”
    â€œGreat definition. Examine your prior actions.”
    â€œI did. It is you who do not see me clearly. I came to you offering a gift to protect your life. You are a beautiful woman who dresses to command male attention. I gave it to you. I did not know the
Sidhba-jai
would distress you as it did. I even offered to pleasure you without price. You refused me. Perhaps I was offended. You menace me with a weapon stolen from my race. You speak to me of reasons not to trust when you have given me a multitude. You are a suspicious larcenous being with homicidal tendencies. Despite your continued threats to do vile things to me, I remain here, withholding what offends you, offering aid.”
    I was getting low on matches. How cleverly he’d turned things around, as if he’d done nothing wrong, and
I
was the dangerous one. “Oh, drop the act, Tinkerbell, and get rid of my problem. Then we’ll talk.”
    â€œWill we? Talk?”
    I frowned and lit another match. There was a catch here somewhere but I wasn’t sure what it was. “I said we would.”
    â€œAs friends, we’ll talk.”
    â€œFriends do
not
have sex, if that’s what you’re getting at.” That wasn’t true, but he didn’t necessarily know that. I’m heir to the “sex is just sex” generation and I hate it. Not only friends have sex, people who don’t like each other have sex. I’d once caught Natalie and Rick, two people I know for a fact can’t stand each other, banging away in the bathroom at The Brickyard. When later I’d asked her what had changed, she’d said nothing, she