[private] I couldn't utter my love when it counted; birthing

[adna]

one touch will make you so nervous you might stop breathing
one touch will make you so reckless you might start feeling
one touch will finally show to me what you can't hide

Her daughter is bright and fierce and she loves her wholeheartedly immediately.

It takes no time at all for Adna’s heart to clench in her chest and even though there is part of her that mourns the fact that she has passed on her curse, she cannot help but find her beautiful. One day, she will need to tell her of the hunger. She will need to warn her of the way that it spreads throughout your veins and fires all of the wrong synapses. She will need to tell her about the way her body will betray her.

But not today.

Not when she looks up and sees Beth approaching. Her throat clenches and she feels herself nearly come undone but manages to hold herself together. She rises to her feet and meet her daughter’s fiercely green eyes, so much sharper than the sage of her own, and smiles, feels the fangs press against her lips.

“She is beautiful,” she affirms, her head swimming with the nearness of him. So much unsaid between them and she feels the distance but as with every other time, she doesn’t close it. But neither does she spit venom at him. She just smiles, feels the need to fidget and then calms down, smoothes the edges of her nerves until she is still. She should tell him about Sabbath, she thinks. She should tell him that she knows about the daughter he shares with her sister. She should tell him that she knows about Prayer.

But these things escape her and she clenches to these moments of peace just a little longer.

“We never did decide on a name, did we?”

She glances up, searching his eyes, doing her best to keep these secrets at bay.

ADNA