She told herself to stop cataloguing his scent like some lovesick fool.

She was not a lovesick fool.

She simply had bigger problems than whatever that was.

He had just dropped from a ledge like gravity was a suggestion and said her name like it was a threat and she was standing in a forest that had no business being summer.

She noted the cedar and steel and the faint smoke underneath it, and filed the observation somewhere out of the way.

Focus, Alora. You have bigger problems than whatever that was.

She had bigger problems than whatever that was.

(She did not have bigger problems than whatever that was.)

A World Beyond the Unknown — July 5. 🖤