fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes
“I mean that—”
Nish snaps his mouth shut when she gives him the order, shifting his weight from one side to the other for… well, lack of knowing what else to do, really. That insistent ache in his chest hasn’t subsided, though it grows duller until he realizes he doesn’t know what he will do if she turns him away now.
Leave? Of course not.
Stay? He supposes he could do that, continue to hide under her nose and keep the three of them safe. It isn’t ideal but at least he knows they will be secure. Sabbath will come to her senses, eventually, and if she doesn’t? Well. It isn’t as if he has anything better to do besides follow her around anyway.
The children are oblivious to their parents’ squabbling, or they at least pretend to be. Reign presses her nose against Eucharist’s shoulder, staring over his back up at their father while their mother goes about trying to tame her mane. Nish stares right back at the girl, mesmerized by Sabbath’s affection towards their children; it hurts to think he might miss out on this or even have to watch it from a distance.
Sabbath’s whole attitude shifts as fluidly as he does when she turns back to him, baring her teeth and spitting venom (figuratively, for once). She mentions the other lovers he has entertained over the last season or so, and though he tries, he cannot stop the bark of a laugh that escapes his throat. Each of his ‘encounters’ with Sabbath had been violent. If someone who didn’t know them had stumbled across their coupling, they might have thought it was forced. He was always covered in wounds and bleeding afterward, honestly believing she had only allowed him to touch her due to a need rather than a want.
“I did not think you cared,” Nish snorts, his ears pressing forwards as the horns protruding from his head begin to shrink—retracting back into his skull. He struggles to not let his expression soften but it does. Especially when he starts to recognize the hurt in her voice. “I won’t have another, Sabbath.” It’s a promise, though coming out of Nish’s mouth, it sounds more like a threat. “And if you do, well…”
The second half is definitely a threat, emphasized by the way his mouth stretches into an unnaturally wide smile to bare row after row of shark-like teeth. He’d be lying if he said the thought didn’t haunt him all autumn long. Another reason he was always so eager to get back to her each time, worried that someone else might take his place. Someone she actually cared about.
“I’ll eat them.”
Reign, who hasn’t stopped staring at her father, perks her ears up.
Nish realizes the filly hasn’t made much of a move for quite a while, not until she begins to step forwards and away from her mother and her brother to stand meekly in the middle between them. He narrows his eyes suspiciously, noting the visible shiver that runs down their daughter’s spine; it takes but a moment for her hair and soft baby flesh to morph into hard scales.
The scales darken, rapidly turning black as her small body starts to grow longer and more snake-like still—there’s a ghoulishly green tint to her yellow eyes now, he cannot stop staring into them. Something beckons him to look, whispers promises of sweeter things into his ear. He doesn’t know the danger, doesn’t know what she is—
Reign squeals, unsure of what’s happening to her, and just like that the process reverses itself.
Nish shakes his head roughly, trying to snap out of whatever stupor the girl has seemingly put him under, and he watches her scramble to hide behind her brother. Trembling, a black forked tongue slips out from between her teeth to taste the air for danger. She doesn’t seem to notice, it comes as naturally to her as breathing.
“Well that’s certainly interesting,” Nish smirks, turning his attention to Eucharist. He’s suddenly curious as to what the boy himself can do.
careful creature, made friends with time
he left her lonely with a diamond mind
equus mutatio, immortality, disease manipulation, trait immunity