There is a moment in which they are touching that Thana looks at him and thinks of constellations. She should be learning all the secrets of him that no king is willing to give. The beast in her belly is telling her to touch him harder, to learn the shape of him by teeth, and horn, and blade. It's telling her that she's a desert full of bones and he the sea of salt and life.
Thana pulls back and she looks at him as if he's giving her stars she never knew she wanted. She looks at him like a lion looks at a lamb who has forgotten they are a soft where she is hard. She looks at him like salvation.
All she has to give him is the way her eyes are a jungle full of wild things. Her eyes have in them fronds hiding demons made of gemstone, and rivers rushing white-hot and hungry. There are whispers in her gaze, willows swaying in the winds of death that blow so very cold inside of her. Every wet drop of purple in her eyes holds another beast and another small death.
And each drop of amethyst is looking at him so intently that the hollow place behind her eyes feels like it's full of fire instead of darkness.
“Thana.” Her lips sing over her hard marble teeth. She doesn't remember ever deciding to give him her name. The air in her lungs feels like winter and water mixed together, cool and white. It seizes in her organs and she trembles as if frost is growing out over her bones like weeds. It hurts.
She pulls further away from this king with stars on his skin and water on his lips. “It means death.” That word, death, swings out from her like a blade she's happy to wield. Thana wants to kill him but she wants him to touch her again. It feels as if two snakes are tangled together in her belly, each trying to coil tight and choke the other.
Death rolls backwards with her as she retreats with want and sorrow in her jungle gaze full of monsters. The last drop of water falls from her and horn and Thana thinks the sound it makes against the grass is deafening. She wonders if Asterion heard the sound it made, like a gate slamming shut.
She turns away and starts to run over the grasses. The water shine dances on her skin as she runs past it. The white-glow makes her look like a fire-storm running through the grasses, red and hot and dripping fury.
Thana does not look back at her king.
She is afraid that if she looks back she might not be able to keep her horn from kissing his heart.
@Asterion
