His voice stops her. Catches her. Enough that she pauses her walk and turns slowly around to regard him once more with that same cool expression, her silver eyes mercurial but her face otherwise unaffected. Her lips twitch into a cold smile. “I pride myself on hunting whatever I like but I was not looking for this one, Castile.” His name sounds like a weapon in her mouth and there’s a part of her that mourns that. That mourns that she cannot glory in the strength of him like this or that they cannot both turn to the hunt.
Mourns what had been.
But the sorrow turns to pain at what he says next although she gives no outward expression of it. She remains as still as stone as he turns the loss of their child against her and buries it to the hilt in her chest. She bites down and a muscle jumps in her jaw but she says nothing for a second until she is certain that she is composed and that when she speaks again, her voice will continue to be even.
“One can only hope,” she manages around an empty smile. “Perhaps if she does you will not fail in finding the child this time.” She throws a casual glance at his wings, studying them, before letting her gaze rest on his draconic face again, the message clear: of the two of them, a dragon would have had a much easier time flying North to locate their wayward son. Still, she shrugs, an apathetic gesture that doesn’t speak to the churning of her stomach and that furious need to find relief for the pressure.
“I hope your child with the lamb is strong enough to survive should that happen.”
Another pause as she makes to leave again, having no interest in prolonging this moment—no interest in squaring off against the only thing she has ever loved for the sole purpose in exchanging barbs. But, again, he catches her, anchors her with his demands and the barest hint of heat flashes in her eyes.
“Where I’ve been is none of your damn business,” a flick of her tail. “You’re not mine, and I’m not yours any longer.” She jerks her head in the direction of the common lands. “But she may very well be. I have no idea. Don’t you think you should go hoard that which you still own?”
she said a war ain't a war before both sides bleed