[o] bad luck never lost a race

SOHALIA

and there we are again when nobody had to know

Soh was very suddenly aware of everywhere their bodies touched, and not necessarily in the this-was-fun-let’s-do-it-again kind of way. For the gods’ sake, she was a former queen, and she’d allowed herself to be thoroughly seduced beneath the midnight sky for all the world to see and hear.

And what was worse was that she’d liked it.

And if she stayed, she wasn’t sure she’d have the willpower necessary - or the physical strength needed - to drag herself back to her apartment in the city. She was already too comfortable in Ace’s arms, and she barely knew him. Maybe that was fine for her to have sex with him, but it certainly wasn’t enough to trust him as she slept.

I should go, she murmured, softening the rejection with a last sweet kiss. She gathered her clothes from where they’d been discarded nearby and dressed hurriedly, hardly caring about the dirt that marred her skin or the twigs that had tangled in her hair. She paused before leaving, meeting Ace’s ice-blue gaze with a hesitant, shy smile. I’ll see you around, she added, but she wasn’t sure if she meant it. What would happen if she saw him again? She couldn’t deny their attraction - not when it had led to that - but nor could she pretend that this hadn’t been a mistake.

Or had it been? Maybe this was better - no strings, no attachments, no messy relationships for her to screw up.

Swallowing her misgivings, Soh fled, shifting into a snowy owl for a more direct flight back to her apartment in the city.

fin

you kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath