[P] never told no one but we look so cute

[Marisol]

heaven talks
but not to me

She hates her heart for the way it bangs against her chest, so loud Theodosia must be able to her it passing between her skin: it is not the heartbeat of a grizzled commander and yet in this moment she is not a commander, not even a soldier. Not anything she recognizes. Just a soft, stupid girl finding it harder and harder to breathe.

Her lungs tighten and tighten until it hurts to inhale, and yet by the grace of Vespera Marisol remains, somehow, discrete. She holds her shoulders back against her spine and raises her chin until the blood rushes away from her cheeks. Power, power, power, she says to herself, gritting her teeth, blinking against the dark wet air. Power power power, keep it together - 

Then Theodosia falls against her shoulder, and her composure faces an infinitesimal crack.

The cadet smashes to the cobblestone and Marisol can’t help the gasp choked out of her throat. Shock flickers through her system like a flash of electricity. Theodosia - her coughs ring in Mari’s ears, grating and metallic against her brain, and without thinking she grabs for a piece of Theo’s mane to keep her upright and shoves a shoulder under the girl’s chest, trying to support her weight.

Overhead the wind picks up speed and Marisol thinks she might feel rain speckling her shoulders, and she sets her teeth into a growl.

credits