Shadow Mountain [m] And I think that she knows, I'm out of control

Did he frighten her then?

She saw how a man might quail before him, might see his own death written into those frostfire eyes. It'd been a long time since Reverie had truly feared fire; the heat of his anger scarcely touched her.

But she hadn't been prepared for his words; a confession of his own, perhaps. For you. Protest rose in her throat and died on her lips, and Reverie was left breathless and staring and caught in the storm of a thousand thoughts all at once. For her; all of it for her, Medeiros that she was, gilded little songbird always trailing flame in her endless flight. She was cursed, too, couldn't he see?

It couldn't be for her.

Pull your shit together.

Numbly she nodded again. Hunst was right, of course — and she couldn't deny that some secret selfish part of her was soothed. For her. That was all she'd ever asked of the world: something just for her. How many times had she found it? How many times had it been ripped from her grasp? And this — this was a truly selfish thing, a dangerous thing, more than ever before.

But it'd been a long time since she'd truly feared fire.

Reverie drew in a tremulous breath. Let's go, then, She murmured. She wouldn't apologize, not to him. Medeiros is a curse; she would say it with her last breath. It was her right, after all.

She'd always been Medeiros to the core.