well, I'm a lion in the haze and the lamb in the lightning
oh, these spears and chains of flames around my neck are tightening
There is an internal battle waging within her, something that rolled in her belly, flashed in her eyes, even as she melted beneath his gaze. He found it interesting, a puzzle, a knot that he scratched at, easing his way around it until it gave, until she came undone, until he figured her out. But he was a patient man, or he was at least right now, and he did not mind the journey of it—did not mind waiting, even though there was a restlessness about him, a need to consume, a need to move and devour. He found himself content to wait, to feel the tension building, her navigating the path of her mind; he found himself content to wait.
The final step had to be hers, he knew. She had to be the one to direct this ship.
As she shifted back into her true form, his gaze remained ravenous, that molten heat never leaving it. He watched as her grey deepened, darkened into a color that matched more of his own, and while it solidified his suspicions about her being the magician of the forest more, he didn’t speak of it. She had mysteries that she wanted to keep, and far be it from him to disallow a lady her desires. If she didn’t want to divulge certain secrets with him, he would not pry. Heaven knows that he had his own from time to time.
Still, the corner of his mouth quirked at what she said, a familiar hunger stirring in his chest. “There is more than obvious power,” practically a whisper as he tilted his head. The power to undo a woman, to watch armor come sliding off, piece by piece—was that not power? He thought so, his handsome face growing more serious as he reached out, the velvet of his damp nose hovering over her flesh, the sweat from his run still beading on the thin skin. His breath rolled over her neck as he lingered, drawing in her scent, committing it to memory. He turned hunter here, focused, determined, strange eyes sharp.
And then, a challenge, growled into the night air:
“If it is happiness you want, why do you not come and claim it?”
Aleksandr