you wouldn't be the first renegade to need somebody
Despite the way the serpent’s hiss seems to pull the air from her lungs, Flora laughs—sharp and bright and entirely too delighted for someone hiding from a nightmare snake. "Oh, I love good publicity," she quips, crouching close enough behind Callum to peer around his shoulder. "That is until they find out I paid you to hang around with me and it all becomes a big scandal."
With a flick of her wrist, another dagger sings through the air, slicing past the violet glow to bury itself just below the serpent’s eye. It snarls—if that’s what the sudden, concussive silence is—and writhes violently, massive coils scraping along the tunnel walls in a screech of stone and scale.
"As for the heart," Flora adds, voice pitched with wry sarcasm as she ducks back behind cover, "let me just whip out my void-horror anatomy flip chart. Been keeping it in my bra, obviously." The rock they’re behind shudders as the serpent strikes again, missing by inches but cracking the stone with the force of the impact. Bits of bioluminescent lichen scatter like sparks, and Flora shields her eyes with one arm as she presses back against the wall, jaw tight.
With a flick of her wrist, another dagger sings through the air, slicing past the violet glow to bury itself just below the serpent’s eye. It snarls—if that’s what the sudden, concussive silence is—and writhes violently, massive coils scraping along the tunnel walls in a screech of stone and scale.
"As for the heart," Flora adds, voice pitched with wry sarcasm as she ducks back behind cover, "let me just whip out my void-horror anatomy flip chart. Been keeping it in my bra, obviously." The rock they’re behind shudders as the serpent strikes again, missing by inches but cracking the stone with the force of the impact. Bits of bioluminescent lichen scatter like sparks, and Flora shields her eyes with one arm as she presses back against the wall, jaw tight.
