Falls

His gaze, cold and unforgiving, tracked her every step. She moved with the same fluid grace he remembered, her silver tail whipping against her haunches, her neck a graceful curve as she strolled across the hardened earth. A knot of suspicion tightened in his chest as she drew closer, the woman who had once been his love, his life.

Quite a wicked sense indeed...” she murmured, her voice like sweetened venom.

Her lips twisted into a malevolent grin as her gaze swept over him, scrutinizing the scars of battle and the new creases etched into his icy visage. A languid smirk graced his lips as she stood before him, seemingly unchanged. She was a serpent coiled and poised to strike, her venomous fangs bared to sink into the tender flesh of her victim. Her tongue uttered his name, Bjorn, with effortless ease.

Her words, like a dull blade, scraped against his hardened exterior. He acknowledged the toll time had taken on him, but so had she. As she finished, his smirk morphed into a sneer, his lip curling. "You'd pine for me too deeply if I were to perish,," he retorted, his voice laced with icy disdain. "Nay, I shall prolong this torture, keeping your presence near me.'"

A giggle, light and dangerous, escaped her lips. Her nostrils flared, her dark eyes glittering with a wicked gleam. What happened? Your frozen hell spat you back out? Or am I just THAT irresistible?” Her words pierced him, the mocking taunt ringing in his ears. He turned his icy gaze from her, fixating on the calm pool. "Assuredly, it was not your undeniable charm that brought me back to these shores,"he growled, his gaze snapping back to her.

"What in the hell made you think I wanted to see you?" he snarled, his teeth grinding together.

"You have been a constant source of agony, a constant heartbreak! You are the reason my family is broken and scattered to the winds!" he snapped, closing the distance between them. His ears flattened against his neck, his teeth bared, his gaze narrowed. Rage surged through his veins, a consuming fire beneath his cold exterior. "You captured Siobhan for your own selfish needs, you have tortured those I love, tried to turn our children against me! Did you want me to continue counting all the reasons I loathe you?"

His heart pounded in his chest, a thunderous beat that drowned out all other sounds. His senses sharpened, the sweet scent of her perfume carried by the autumn breeze, the pulse in her neck visible in excruciating detail. "Why do you torment me endlessly, Nyimara?" his voice a low, menacing whisper. "Have you not wreaked enough havoc?"

He dared not delve beneath the surface, confront the possibility that he himself bore responsibility for his family's shattered bonds. It was easier to blame it all on the silver-haired enchantress before him. It was easier to cast all his afflictions upon her.