Redsand Canyon but the room is so quiet

what a question. and after all that veiled insinuation and metaphor back in the canyon. they would have known she wasn’t thinking even without the curl of her lip, the furrow of her brow. didn’t pay to miss the signs.

“i said i’d be watching, didn’t i?” almost amused, as her head swung forward again –

and with her back turned, presenting the perfect target, something cold rose in the center of their chest. they weren’t some feral beast, turning on anything that they could sink their teeth into – but they’d been called similar before, and sometimes it was tempting to pretend otherwise.

their question hadn’t been necessary. they knew what she was doing. how could they not? after the way she’d frozen at nemisis’ execution, the perfect blankness of her expression – and now here, in the dark and in the rain. the saints’ borders did not lay far ahead. beyond that, the sunspires.

beyond that, an escape.

if renard had been here on donovan’s orders – if he had known she would run, and if he had cared enough to wield the blade that had handed itself over to him – they would have struck. a quick snake-bite to the back of the right leg, deep enough to sever the tendon. another on the left to match. they would have let her try to run, too, let her try to fight if she really wanted, in the same way a cat toys with an injured bird – dragged her back only when she was no longer capable of moving, bleeding the same color as the rain-soaked sand under their paws.

but they were not.

so they only thought about it, watching her walk away: the withheld promise of violence lingering in the animal gleam of their eyes, blurred by the rain.

“i’m not here to do anything i haven’t been ordered to do.” they let their voice rise a little; they kept finley within speaking range, nothing more. “might surprise you to know that donovan didn’t notice anything odd about your behavior at his little show. too busy gloating over nemisis’ execution.” their smile widened. “or it might not. unfortunately for you, i pay attention.”

if donovan paid attention, he wouldn’t have needed to make such a spectacle of his mate. he wouldn’t have made nearly as much of a mess with his diplomacy. he wouldn’t have driven the saints into this corner in the first place.

and here they’d thought she might be the solution. they hadn’t anticipated this particular answer to the problem.

who would have joined the saints expecting anything other than blood?