Listen To Me Roar [Magnus]

[magnus]

He cannot suppress the itch between his shoulder blades whenever he has such meetings with the people of Sylva. Perhaps it is a shadow of a feeling, rooted in the way the young mare had reacted to Lepis saying she was from the southern kingdom. Perhaps it is a distrust planted when Sinner had arrived, his feelings cloaked behind a poisonous smile. Perhaps it is just years of intuition and instinct.

Whatever it is, it keeps him from relaxing, keeps him from being the kind and warm stallion that so often greeted others at his border. It is the opposite of when he had met Heartfire here, when he had been able to be so direct and honest—when everything had been so openly laid out on the table before him.

He preferred to conduct kingdom business in such a manner, but Sylva does not allow it.

So he continues to keep his cards close to his chest, continues to play the game the best that he knows how—not meeting her with cruel words but remaining guarded. She is more than a pretty face, after all, and he knows better than most the ways of women looking to root out information.

“I hope that we live up to the good things that you’ve heard,” he says easily, casting his gaze around them before returning to hold her gaze. As she draws nearer to him, something sparks in his gold-flecked gaze, a curve of his handsome lip into a crooked smile. “I am a good friend to have, Mary,” his voice is husky as he watches her, wondering just how many stallions have fallen prey to her pretty smile. “But I am a worse enemy. You don’t want to have someone like me on the other side of the battleground.”

He doesn’t elaborate on it further, letting it speak for itself before he rolls his shoulders.

“I don’t make alliances easily, and I don’t make them blindly. I’d want to know exactly it is that I am tethering myself too, and I don’t have a clue as to the truth of what Sylva is and what you stand for.” Another pause as his eyes find hers, searching them. “Answer that for me and we’ll see.”

MAGNUS | I don't belong to anyone, but everybody knows my name

@[Mary]