He hadn't been avoiding Fatale.

He'd been avoiding everyone.

Ensnared in the tangled theads of his emotions, Rade could feel his position - his power - beginning to slip from his grasp. The world he had worked so hard to build was slowly unraveling, and as the loose ends began to curl in on themselves, they revealed glimpses of the man behind the mask. His life had become a dizzying series of ups and downs, rising and falling like the tides of his old Atlantean home. The strange combination of anger and agony that tore through him whenever he thought of Debonaire. The simple joy of his brother's silent companionship. Rade was more human in these moments than he had ever been - and infinitely more vulnerable.

Worse than the grief for the dead, however, was the guilt he felt for the living. Every time he looked at his son, Rade was reminded of the woman he'd betrayed. Fatale had returned, he knew, but he could not bring himself to face her. How could he explain that he'd abandoned her to the Vulcans in order to protect them both? By surrendering the bay mare without a fight, Rade had proven to the wretched women that he did not care for her, and had prevented her from becoming the weakness a Boss of the Lagoon could not afford to have.

It wasn't until she was gone that the truth buried deep in his heart had come to light. Rade had lied through his actions - lied to the Vulcans, lied to Fatale, and even lied to himself.

Rade.

He knew her before the single syllable of his name had fully left her lips, but could not keep his eyes from seeking hers. Searching for the anger that he was certain would be there, and the anguish he feared he would find. “Fatale.” Rade returned, and long after the silence fell, those two syllables still lingered on his lips. As Fatale drew closer, the roan stallion's heart beat in time to the rhythm of her hooves, and both ears - the whole and the tattered - disappeared into the wild sea of his mane, as if they would sooner drown there than hear the denunciations the woman would undoubtedly speak.


stallion // mongrel // 15.1hh // 10 // palomino roan // reba
debonaire x neassa