YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS
She nearly smiles at him - one of made of something more than just false promises and potential godhood - as they laugh together.
Aela is used to being praised, is used to feeling wandering eyes on her as they travel her perfect lines. It is perhaps why, with Skandar, when he does it, she feels something completely different when he does it. Her body is just another tool to be utilized; another means to an end. But when he looks at her (and she can certainly feel it), Skandar doesn't make her feel like a weapon.
He makes her feel something else entirely, a feeling worthy of the gods that they are.
The healing waters of Tephra do nothing for him, but illuminate his skin. The stars dance there, possibly revealing a future that Reave could see, but when she looks into the molten eyes of him, Aela doesn't need the power of foresight to understand what this is. This is destiny, burning deep within her and lighting all her senses aflame.
For a moment, he is perfection.
But then the familiar sound of his skin pulling apart reaches her delicate ears, and the palomino turns the cheek nearest to him. His shifting is becoming better, she realizes. The cracking and shuttering of him lasts merely the blink of an eye and when Aela turns to look at him, there is the Pampas Prince standing before her. Striding boldly towards her just as the real Obscene would have done and she can't help the appraising look that she gives the dark brute. She is looking for differences, imperfections, any minute mistake but even the voice that speaks to her doesn't sound like Skandar.
If she were to close her eyes and lean into the statuesque shape next to her (the red of his desire almost ignites her), Aela might convince herself that this really was Obscene.
There are many thoughts in her mind (and many memories), and while Aela had found the dark stallion appealing (she would accept nothing less), the reasons she had wanted Obscene are not the same reasons that she wants Skandar. She had thought that once that would do whatever it took so that he might touch her, but Aela finds now that isn't true. If there had been a reason for it - if they had to convince the rest of the Flower Court after disposing of the real Pampas Prince - she might have allowed it.
"Perfect," she compliments him, tipping her slender head so that it might reach behind his onyx ear, allowing herself to come only so close. "For Loess." Aela tells him instead, pulling slowly away from him, and then glanced sidelong over to the shapeshifter, wanting someone else entirely.
@Skandar oh man
