03-05-2021, 12:14 PM
She is so furious with him.
(Why? Hadn't this been the plan? Didn't they need to bleed to burn?)
And yet he had seared into her striped flesh, had cut something away from Aela (exposes a vulnerability), and blazes in anger. She thinks of all the ways that she will make him burn in return. She thinks of all the way to rend the flesh from his body and how to rip the stars from his cosmic skin.
But as Aela comes closer, as she comes to him all wild rage that she expects he will reflect at her, he surprises her (but doesn't he always?). Skandar doesn't threaten her with his blazing eyes. He doesn't snarl or threaten to turn himself into a terror (he could, she knows, he could turn himself into any terrible thing). The palomino won't notice it at first. She is a wildfire and in the heat of the moment, she doesn't care which way she burns.
It will only be later - after she has gone and he has left - when she recalls the moment, that she will realize this.
It will only be after she has pulled away and left him at the pine bleeding that her memories will reveal this: that Aela had offered to tear him apart (but she hadn't) and Skandar had offered her his throat instead.