Desert

Kohelet couldn't remember the last time she'd shared a casual conversation with a member of the opposite sex that she was unrelated to. Every conversation with Rafe had been rooted in the fact that he'd taken her to the Badlands against her will and her complacency in Fell's crimes. And she didn't want to think about the things Quinn had said, especially not now that Ivo was here and so very much like his real father.

Talking to this nameless man made her feel like a young girl again, flustered and uncertain of herself. Made her want to rush to the nearest reflection pool to straighten her hair and make certain she had no dirt on her face. She had no business holding attraction for anyone else and she knew it, but there was a small part of her that craved something as simple as being attracted to a pretty face without the weight of expectation, or a past, or threats having over it. Especially as she had all but skipped over the courting phase as a girl, and had fallen hard and fast for Fell the moment she'd met the wordless stallion. There was no playing the field, no receiving of wordy compliments or awkward first touches. Only full and immediate infatuation from day one.

The patchwork stallion offered to hideout together and she huffed a soft laugh of amusement, her dark lips curling into a grin. Undoubtedly, Nyimara or Asmodeus would eventually come to find them and likely split them apart. Kohelet's use to Nyimara was twofold - as both the daughter of Solomon and the once-mate of Fell, she served as a lynchpin to manipulate both of them, and she knew it. Staying near this man would only put him in danger too, although the scars across his lithe body told her that he didn't mind a little bit of danger.

"That is tough luck," she murmured at his revelation, the words almost playful if the light in her eyes is any indication. His tone had implied that he was no happier about his imprisonment here than she was about her own, and it felt freeing to find a kinship with someone here, even if that someone had blood ties to her enemy. "The islands certainly have a strange sense of humor." How else could she explain half of the coincidences in her life?

"Perhaps," she said a moment later, her thoughts contemplative. "Nyimara certainly isn't my mother, but it is my brother at her side and my nephew at her hip" Asmo's defection remained shocking to her, even all these months later. The fact that he had not only switched sides but gone so far as to give Nyimara a piece of their family, a child with a direct claim to Solomon's throne, freely, made her sick to her stomach. "None of which has stopped them from keeping me captive to have leverage over my father and my..." Her what? Ex-mate? Current mate? Ex-lover? She had separated from him long before any of this had happened, of her own free will, and yet she could not deny the way her very soul had cried out for him when they'd been reunited last autumn. A flush warmed her cheeks and her gaze slipped away momentarily, her tail flicking uneasily. "And Fell."

"So what do you think?" She asked, clearing her throat as if her sudden awkwardness hadn't happened. "Are we equal?"

mare - mutt - black tobiano - 16.1h - solomon x sicily