[ he's sufficiently scared her. alina doesn't have a comeback for that. she sets the device aside instead, rubbing a hand over her mouth like a troubled victorian grandmother. ]
[ she shivers because she does believe him. because he has come for her and dragged her, powerless, out of the people zoo. anything she says about him only wanting her power is a deliberate obfuscation of that fact, which sticks out like a thorn in her mind.
so no. she can't, with any defensible argument, deny his wanting. that leaves her with the worse outcome. they do want each other, honestly, and succumbing to that would make monsters of them both. she thinks of the shadows where baghra's eyes had been, the insistence that alina had been the one to drive her son beyond redemption.
and then she looks at the photograph. at the scar, and the way that the dark lines of merzost creep away from it. ]
How very true. But I suspect you also don't need me to tell you why you would rather have left me for dead than doing the deed yourself. It's certainly because you doubt your ability. I might've believed that once, but not now.
( which might not be "aleksander and alina sitting in a tree" levels of gleeful, but that's only because this is a text and she can't see the look on his face right now. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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As long as they believe they can use my power for themselves.
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I want you.
There's a breadth of difference between the two.
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( and he's still following her around like the proverbial bad smell. has she considered why that might be? )
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What you want has nothing to do with me.
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I would know you anywhere.
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so no. she can't, with any defensible argument, deny his wanting. that leaves her with the worse outcome. they do want each other, honestly, and succumbing to that would make monsters of them both. she thinks of the shadows where baghra's eyes had been, the insistence that alina had been the one to drive her son beyond redemption.
and then she looks at the photograph. at the scar, and the way that the dark lines of merzost creep away from it. ]
Maybe that's worse.
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You've had every opportunity.
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But I suspect you also don't need me to tell you why you would rather have left me for dead than doing the deed yourself.
It's certainly because you doubt your ability. I might've believed that once, but not now.
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Much as you wish you did.
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[ the problem, rather, is that it's not the only feeling there. ]
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( which might not be "aleksander and alina sitting in a tree" levels of gleeful, but that's only because this is a text and she can't see the look on his face right now. )
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