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“Cursed monster…wicked woman…masked nothing.” The villagers’ malicious whispers whirled around me. I was the wretch roaming their world,
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I wanted to soothe the storm that roiled within her sky-blue eyes. I drew her closer, caging her in my protective embrace. Her breathing steadied, but I lost myself in the unfathomable depths of her gaze, as if she were gravity itself, keeping me from drifting away. She mesmerized me.
What was wrong with me? Arianna’s presence unsettled me to my core. As if she were the harbinger of my destruction as well as the angel who would save me.
I begged whatever god would listen with every fiber of my being for her to return to this mortal coil. Then a flicker ignited within me,
as if I’d bargained a piece of my soul for her life.
My breath caught as Arianna descended the stairs, and my inner thoughts ceased. I inhaled sharply, the air palpable in her presence. I stood, my body moving of its own accord until I reached the base of the staircase. Her gaze locked on mine as I offered my hand to assist her with the descent, pulled closer by her spell. Warmth radiated into me as I caressed her fingertips. I guided her forward. Her feet touched the landing, but I couldn’t break the compulsion I fell under when she was near. Instead, I stayed there for a heartbeat longer than I should, soaking in these last moments with her.
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These bruises were the last straw. Everything since I’d arrived in Krella felt like it had converged on this moment. My tenuous control over my emotions faltered. The churning anger boiled over my thick inner walls like molten fire burning through metal. The trees swayed from the pressure of my curse threatening to break free. “Who did this to you?” I asked through my clenched teeth. Yet I suspected I already knew the answer.
A knot welled in my throat, and I stifled sobs, wishing desperately she would notice me. I longed for her to care for me, to intercede on my behalf and take the pain I carried off my shoulders. Yet she said nothing.
I studied every detail of his face: the slope of his angular chin, his straight, regal nose, his full lips, and the amber of his irises that glowed beside the firelight. My body pulled to him like a magnet until we were a handbreadth apart. I lost myself under this billowing pressure between us, as if he possessed me wholly.
“I focused on my soul-crushing loneliness, Silas. It has been my only companion
“I should kill you this instant for daring to lay a finger on my wife.”
“How dare you. That is my wife,” Silas growled, and he shifted me in the crook of his arm, freeing one of his hands. A heartbeat passed, and I expected the man’s cries to intensify or for him to beg. But only an eerie silence and the scent of ash washed over my senses.
My soul had seemed to be guided by a compass straight to her, as if a piece of me knew her whereabouts. Something primal connected us.
“As long as I draw breath, you will never be alone.”
“I’m a monster, Arianna. I am a monster no one could ever love,”
For you already possess me wholly. You are mine,
The last remnant of myself, the core of my soul I clung to, melted away. “I will kill you all!”
