TwilightBlade

Terror hits like a slow wave, swirling courage slowly from underfoot even as it crept over the arch of the foot, to the ankle, halfway to the knee. Slowly. Inevitably. Locking the body into place like a thick, viscous ice. Over the knee. A chilling clasp sliding up the thigh, curling around the waist, stealing the breath from the lungs. Suffocating. A relentless weight pressing in on the bones, locking around the throat, lapping at a desperately raised chin. Sipping at the breath, the nerve to stare the terror down. Brushing along tightly pressed lips, breathing like smoke into shaking lungs, muffling sound under the hush of rushing blood. Higher. Slower. Chilling the bridge of the nose, filming over the eyes, blurring vision. Pulsing at the temples, crawling over the scalp in tiny, creeping prickles, rushing down into the terrible hollow where thoughts have frozen into a scrambling swirl feeding on itself. The skin is a numb, chilled cloak, over the hollowness; too thin to hold

Seven Deadly Sins - GLUTTONY There was a rabbit in the show jumping arena. It shouldn’t have been there. Rabbits, especially wild rabbits, tended to hole up a bit in rainy weather, tuck into their burrows, or hide in a bush to nibble greens. He should know. He’d hidden with them a few times. This rabbit, in full defiance of survival, was not hidden anywhere, but sitting up as nice as you please by some of the decorative plants at a vertical. It should have been frightened off by the crowd of humans, the pounding hooves, the sheer rush of the great creatures called horses as they sailed overhead or trotted by. It was not frightened. Stupid rabbit. Adam Teal glared at it for an instant, denying any sense of worry he had for the soft-looking creature, and held back a shiver. The show jacket wasn’t enough to keep off the light rain, and he was getting cold, sitting up here on Shadow Icefire’s back as she stared the creature down. The rabbit should have been scared. The rabbits on

Seven Deadly Sins - WRATH The black colt half-reared under saddle, golden hooves lashing out at nothing but air, ears laid back as he squealed in fury. William Sandhya rose in the stirrups to stay with the angry colt, murmuring to him in a steady stream of words, talking about everything and nothing. Image de Nuit’s ears stayed pinned to his neck, but he settled back to earth, snorting out quiet little puffs of smoke in a low-level simmer from his bottomless well of anger. His black body was radiating heat by now, a mix of his own energy and the bleed-over of suppressed magic, but the extra warmth was more comfortable for both of them under the broken clouds of mid afternoon at Pemberley. William patted his neck, stroking his hand over the shimmering, silky black hair and sleek muscle that was already hot and damp with sweat, and was rewarded with the colt’s ears flicking forward for an instant and a slightly longer, almost sighing, huff. Image went back to his little puffing snorts

The long grey legs stalked forward into the ring as Rain of Tears put her full focus on the jumps. …the crowd cheered at their appearance, and Rin turned Rain toward the center of the circus ring, silver-blue water magic sparkling off her coat like mirror-mist, flowing up around them as the mare half-floated across the ground, ears pricked. Rin could feel the mare’s determination in her pricking ears and firm strides, as steely as her coat, and knew she was in for a ride. It was brisk at 40 degrees, at least for them, and she was just glad Rain wasn’t jumping out of her skin like Hawkflame had been during their practices over the last couple of days. She could feel the coolness in the air from the mist of water, a hint of freshness in the stifled hush of anticipation around them. All of the horses were feeling more than a little frisky after a longer-than-usual winter break, and despite the practice she and Rain had been putting in, the mare was no exception. The bell rang and