The night isn’t as dark and dreary and closed away as she wishes it would be, because the few remaining souls left in the field, flushed bright beneath the moon, cluster together like dew in the belly of a leaf and she is at its heart. Anxiety closes like a fist around her chest and she can feel bones breaking and muscles tearing beneath its grip. I’m not want you want, she thinks at them desperately, I’ll rot you from the inside out. But the desperate plea is buried beneath impossible layers, beneath a mask of aching indigo and black and a row of horns glittering like molten obsidian in starlight that suddenly feels so cold against her quivering skin.
The first is a stallion drenched in gold and the sweaty echo of his frustration. There is something startlingly familiar about him, about his face and his shape and the ghosts staring back at her from the bottoms of his bright gold eyes. For a long second she holds his gaze in hers and it feels like flying too close to the sun so she blinks and turns from him, her face stoic despite the ache in her chest. When she does look back a half second later, she is struck with a feeling of unease, a worry that he knows more than he should, and she turns to stone before him. “Hello.” She says, and her voice is like the crackle of a leaf crumpled underfoot.
When the next mare comes, Malis is relieved to have an excuse to look away from Magnus, from a face that sets her mind awhirl with the kinds of questions that could ruin her. But the relief is short lived once it becomes glaringly clear that this mare does know more than she should. Her jaw tightens and her eyes are shards of emerald flickering like green flames over Gallows face. “Privacy.” Malis responds sharply when Gallows asks what it is she wants.
Her eyes are torn from the bay mare when one, two, three more horses arrive and the air feels so hot, so full of static, and it’s a wonder they can’t hear the thundering of her heart.
The first is a gray and white mare, and the gray is so dark it must be black but it is so unlike the shade of the sky or the horns springing from Malis’ face. This mare admires Gallows forwardness and Malis can feel her brow furrow beneath those windswept tangles of black and blue forelock. She wondered how much she would like it if Gallows chose to use her forwardness with the secrets tucked away inside Nayls mind.
The second is remarkable in the way a large python is draped around her neck and Malis cannot help but wonder how she can bare the closeness of this creature when her instincts should be demanding the opposite. But they are clearly a pair and there is no tension between them, though she does not miss it when the third, a stallion with a quiet face, chooses to stand apart from the two. Her eyes flicker to his face, bright and green and faintly curious, and she wonders if his instincts were as dismayed as hers. It was impossible to tell.
It’s even worse when the snake speaks, and she can feel her eyes widen for just a heartbeat before she rushes to bury the surprise.
“Malis.” She breathes in response as her eyes shift from the bay tobiano mare to Ramiel.
The group is quiet for a moment as all eyes seem to settle on her, and she wills all emotion from her face, all tension from the aching indigo of her skin. But her eyes flash faintly accusingly to Gallows when she remembers that her secrets were at the mercy of a complete stranger. She had never felt so naked.
Her chest tightens and she takes a small breath, her eyes flashing uncertainly to Magnus, to Gallows, to Nayl and Smother and Ramiel. “I don’t know what I want.” Her words are short and clipped and she hates the way this honesty feels forced when it is information she would have shared anyway. “I’m hoping I’ll recognize it when it finds me.”
MALIS
makai x oksana
ahhhh i'm so bad at group threads, but ily all <333