The Pawn and The Puppet (The Pawn and The Puppet #1)

by Brandi Elise Szeker

“I’ll thank you kindly to keep your hands off of my conformist,” he says, his rugged voice quieting the panic in the room like a theater. “You wouldn’t want me to lose my temper.”

Dessin reaches his head around to the side of my face and kisses my cheek softly, leaving a warmth like a static shock in his wake, a tingle of energy where his flesh met mine. “Shall we?” he whispers into my ear.

If psycho, why cute?

“When we are brought into this world, our bodies are cages, inside we have a spirit, a soul that is greater than the sinfully tempted flesh that embodies us. That soul was created with a twin, so to speak, and those two souls are divinely bound through life, through death, through as many obstacles as existence can bring upon us. When we are born, we begin our paths to find our other half. It’s a subconscious action we are not in control of. It’s a force greater than this body.”

“The love that is born between the two cannot be mistaken for anything else. It’s not something you can choose or resist. It’s beyond our willpower.”

“Look at me,” he orders, “if he ever strikes you… You tell me immediately. I will cut off every piece of him that he believes makes him a man and shove it into his mouth until he asphyxiates.”

“But I’m trying to be better, truly. Because I get to see that beautiful face every day, even though she can be unnaturally optimistic”—he points to me with his knife, smiles sadly—“and it can be mildly annoying. I’d rather not let her down.”

Immediately his eyes meet mine, stretching wide, eyebrows arched to the sky. And now he is grinning. “You laughed,” he says, flustered with levity. I look down, smiling. I forgot how good it felt to actually laugh, release the built-up tension from my chest. “Yes, I did.” “That was—incredible.” His eyes soften. “You know I haven’t heard that—well, it’s a pleasant change from your constant frowning.” “Why?” I twist my fingers in a loose strand of hair. “Everyone laughs.” “Not you,” he argues. “Not genuinely, at least. You force it or don’t have the urge to let it out at all.”

“If things were different for both of us, Skylenna. If we had both lived normal lives, free lives…would that life—married, children, a family, a normal life be possible for us?”

I finally, after a long, long time, feel like I’m home.

Your greatest fear is losing me. I know this because my greatest fear is losing you.”