Ravensblood Forest feel the ocean as it breathes, shivering teeth

she's startled by the sudden appearance of a striking pale woman, taking two stumbling steps back with hackles prickling as she takes in the other's foxlike features. the woman is beautiful, a luminous phantom under the moonlight with pearlescent green eyes. for some reason she thinks of athris. the tension leaves her body a moment later and she blinks, swallowing hard as she tries to comprehend what the woman is saying to her. i um, she swallows again and takes a tentative step forward, finally processing the words spoken. it doesn't occur to her that this probing is unacceptable, uncomfortable; she's too tired now for such observations, so her only instinct is to answer truthfully. however ugly it may be. i'm cursed. by my father — my whole family. i can't get away from it. it pours from her more easily than she might have thought, and she's too captivated to feel any sort of embarrassment. any thoughts of the consequences of such openness have already fled her mind.