Alchemised

by SenLinYu

“You’re like a rose in a graveyard,” he said, and his lips twisted into a bitter smile. “I wonder what you could have turned into without the

Women were always defined by the lowliest thing they could be called.

“Do you see my scars that way?” he finally said. “When you look at me, are they all you see?” She flinched. “No.” “Well.” He met her eyes. “I don’t see you that way, either. You’re mine.” He let go of her wrist and lifted his hand, the fingertips tracing the scarring until it was covered by his palm, warm against her bare skin, then sliding up to curve around her neck. “You are. It doesn’t matter what happens to you, you will still be mine.”

Someday, she promised herself, someday I am going to love him in a moment that isn’t stolen.

“Tell me to stop,” he said, his mouth over her throat. “Tell me to stop.” She pulled him closer. “Don’t stop. I don’t want you to stop.”

She brought his face back to hers. “I love you,” she said, kissing him. “I wish I’d told you a thousand times.”

“I don’t want to choose. I always have to choose, and I never get to choose you. I’m so tired of not getting to choose you.”

“We’ll go out together, won’t we, old girl? Bennet’s last two monsters.”

“It seems I am cursed to love as you do.”