Recent content by Shuck

The voice that answered had been the one she knew from some far-off corner of mind and memory, but the man who entered wasn't quite the one she remembered. The dark hair that shone silver in the light was well and truly silver in name now, and there were more lines in his features, from both...

He didn't answer. For a few heartbeats, there was only silence in her mind. With no indication as to whether or not he'd heard her, she hung onto the gold thread in the silence. What had happened? Why wasn't he answering her? She'd forgotten him for a time, but had she forgotten something else...

He looked so wonderfully happy. She'd have endured a hundred times more if it meant seeing that blinding smile. Shuck's laughter was a low and guttural so as not to shake up her sore body too much. "I love you," she told him again when he prompted it once more. There was no burn, no searing of...

She had felt the quiet before she had understood it. Shuck hadn't minded it -- had thought it appropriate after the ruckus she'd caused. Lying back in the pillows like a sack of flour, she was ready for some peace while her body recovered. It had done something amazing, but at a great cost. Why...

Someone took her hand in a firm grip and her face was turned to look at the older woman. Joseph was outside, she assured her, but he couldn't come in. Wards. Labor. Her baby. Shuck. Memories clattered through her. She gasped, cringing against the pain between her eyes, though it was paled...

She first heard the hiss in the darkness, quiet and yet so loud that it was deafening. Something was tickling her face and when she reached up to push it away, grass tangled in her fingers. She opened her eyes to see, and the sunlight was nearly blinding. The air was hissing, and looking up she...

The sylphs screeched again when Trahaearn whimpered. Their flaming green bodies trembled and flickered, threatening to peter out as he pulled out his heart. Alba grit his teeth. The magick in this circle was delicate, and now wasn't the time for any weakness. The tapped the power of the ley line...

Yes. Of course he did. Alba nodded. "Then the deal is made." He seized Trahaearn's arm suddenly, clasping his forearm and his claws piercing his skin. There was a flicker and bright green brambles of light coiled around their arms before vanishing into nothing. Releasing him, Alba backed away...

He watched the man struggle. Though he remained still and silent as the night around them, Alba's eyes glittered, green stars in the darkness. Trahaearn was a sensible fellow; he'd taken Malice's warnings and had kept his distance, and his hesitation told him plainly that he had some sort of...

"Assistance..." He tasted the word, stalking slowly closer but keeping a wide berth. Rounding the pair, he looked down at the woman laid carefully the decaying leaves upon the forest floor, a bed of death in the hopes of finding life. She could have been sleeping, her head turned to the side and...

For weeks he had been waiting, watching. He felt the thrum of the earth beneath him, the turning of the world back toward the light as the deepest part of winter came and went. He had stood by, waiting to see how this life of hers would turn out. She was so gentle, so sweet. Her mouth was of...

She closed her eyes and leaned into his kiss, reluctant to pull away. This was the last time. She knew it, and that realization alone set her close to solving again. She didn't want to leave him, didn't want to say goodbye. But she was tired. The energy that had kept her this long was...

Shuck shushed him gently, freeing her other hand to pull him toward her. Her kiss was soft, reassuring. "We did this together," she replied firmly. Her silver eyes were clear but her lids were so heavy, and her arms were starting to shake from holding her hands to his cheeks. "I wanted it. I...

It was so very hard to keep her eyes open, but she fought he fatigue and clung to him like he was the only tether she had to life -- and in a way, he was. But he was speaking so quickly. "My heart?" she blinked. It took her mind a full moment to understand before the weight of what he'd told...

A strange sense of peace had overtaken the house in the days that followed, but there would be no peace in Shuck's mind. Her mind was erratic, constantly swaying between the calm exuded by the family and fits of terror induced by a lapse in memory -- both falling into the moments and coming out...