What Not to Do (Kallisti)

[Visha]

The bracelet pressed into her hands left her spellbound. It would still be warm from his skin, though of course she could not feel it through her gloves. Was this what love was supposed to feel like? Because she was feeling all sorts of things inside that left her fizzing and strange. She started to smile, utterly beguiled.

And then Nox.

Seven adjusted for the intrusion with easy charm, but Visha was not similarly enamoured. After her concern about the effects of Nox’s touch fled, she felt a spike of something she could not explain, except that she very much wanted him to go away. The words floating around her went all watery. When she saw the way Seven looked at Nox, it all only got worse. A sharp tang hit the back of her tongue, and her eyes widened in surprise.

She reached for the wineglass, but by then the tide of attention had turned, and Nox was addressing her directly. All Visha could feel was a horribly familiar sense of pressure, which made it very difficult to concentrate on controlling the instinct to spit. Usually it was fear that triggered it. She took an uncomfortable sip of the wine, let it and the poison spill back out into the glass like the mouthful had turned sour.

“I didn’t lie” she said defensively. “That man heard what he wanted to. He wouldn’t let me in. And Raffe was safe last I saw him. Well, he was asleep actually.”

She realised as she said it that maybe it was too much to reveal about where she was from. But she was too busy staring at the glass and suddenly wondering if it would even hold. And the feeling hadn’t even gone. She stood abruptly, the liquid sloshing. Nox’s hair flickered, and something inside her screamed predator so loud she flinched, half stumbled backwards. Though she caught herself gracefully enough. “Excuse me, please.” she said, and slipped away to try and find the bathroom; glass tight in one hand, bracelet in the other.