Firestone Hot Springs mare's milk

she should have known the moment the light dances from his jade green eyes.

pinned between stone, his breath spilling across her face and a tension radiating between them, atoztli curses her stupidity.

all this time, she believed she was the danger! stupid girl. she let her guard down, dreaming of romantic high rises, the roof of the world, and the blue shale roads leading up to them; these images fade, replaced by jamukha’s leering face.

this close, and she can see the murkwater refracting across his pupils. the knifelike twist of his smile that now, atoztli found no charm in.

and what cost is that, jamukha? a marvel the priestess manages to keep her voice level, her heart a deluge of icewater. instinct tells her to prepare; muscles coiling for what she believes must be inevitable.