04-21-2020, 01:33 PM
Asha grinned, not really for the words, but for the brief fluttering of humour she felt inside him. A joke? From Elias? But she knew poking at that would only recede him back into his shell.
It wasn’t cold out. She wrapped a pashmina loose over her shoulders, one she’d bargained for at the market. It was threaded with swirls of blue paisley, and edged in dark gold. The design reminded her of waves. El was a silent pillar of black beside her, clad throat to heel in his long coat, and for a while she was content just to be moving. It beat the claustrophobia of the house and the strewn evidence of his stormy temper. A car would have been better, though they would have needed to negotiate out of Moscow’s congested city centre first. Rolling, open highways would have been worth it, though.
She braided her hair to one side as they walked. It had been winter when she arrived, but now spring’s arms had opened to summer. Warmer weather always made moods lighter and more joyful; for most people, anyway. It worked the other way too, when the heat turned sticky and tempers frayed, but these streets were a far cry from the sweltering press of somewhere like Mumbai.
“Do you remember the cafe I told you about?” Where she had met Tobias not so very long ago, the latest in a long line of nowhere leads. “The proprietress read my cards. She was… intense. Do you suppose that magic is real too?” The memory made her flush, not the question. Her mind had long since cracked open to the possibility of all sorts of strange supernatural things. She hadn’t told Elias what Rowan had said, though. “I don’t want to go back there. But I’ve seen stalls at the market.”
It wasn’t cold out. She wrapped a pashmina loose over her shoulders, one she’d bargained for at the market. It was threaded with swirls of blue paisley, and edged in dark gold. The design reminded her of waves. El was a silent pillar of black beside her, clad throat to heel in his long coat, and for a while she was content just to be moving. It beat the claustrophobia of the house and the strewn evidence of his stormy temper. A car would have been better, though they would have needed to negotiate out of Moscow’s congested city centre first. Rolling, open highways would have been worth it, though.
She braided her hair to one side as they walked. It had been winter when she arrived, but now spring’s arms had opened to summer. Warmer weather always made moods lighter and more joyful; for most people, anyway. It worked the other way too, when the heat turned sticky and tempers frayed, but these streets were a far cry from the sweltering press of somewhere like Mumbai.
“Do you remember the cafe I told you about?” Where she had met Tobias not so very long ago, the latest in a long line of nowhere leads. “The proprietress read my cards. She was… intense. Do you suppose that magic is real too?” The memory made her flush, not the question. Her mind had long since cracked open to the possibility of all sorts of strange supernatural things. She hadn’t told Elias what Rowan had said, though. “I don’t want to go back there. But I’ve seen stalls at the market.”