1 PROLOGUE
HER & I
He smelt it in the air—in the wind that danced mocking in his face carrying her scent cradled in her arms, the deep feminine ardor of jasmine and the fresh breath of cucumbers. Her scent was a drug and the wind was its dealer, carrying it through an invisible medium, getting men like him high and dry on the perfume of pure sin. It was overwhelming his senses, infiltrating his mind and on the verge of consuming his entire being— before he saw it coming, and when he did see her strawberry blonde locks flowing with the wind and her small lips in a worried frown, he was already under her.
He had not seen the world, had not lived much…but he knew. He had read and he knew all sorts of creatures lurking in the inhabitant corners of the world. They made him one of them, it was only justice he knew more…but she, she was something else. A whole new world had crashed into him— quite literally.
She had jumped down the wall that protected her from the evil out in the world and into the arms of mortal peril himself.
Playing with danger had never been her favorite sport, but what she did not know could hardly hurt— right? And there was so much more to him; his face that appeared so young but seemed too tried and tested by life, over and over again. His eyes that reflected the mysterious depths of the forest, she loved his eyes; they were a part of most of her fantasies from then on. Nothing but a wisp of deep green with black slits that haunted her dreams forever.
She needed an escape.
He wanted a solace.
They found each other.
Funny thing Fate is; has a twisted sense of humor.
Ridiculously genius what she does; Making two ruined people destroy each other even further, slowly killing them with the sweet poison named love.
They would meet behind the wall. He'd tell her stories of the cruel world outside and she'd tell him stories of the safe world inside. He was a patient listener. He like listening to her unstoppable rambling, she always had something to say, someone to talk about or something to discuss. Her eyes always brightened at the mention of her family and what prank she'd be playing on them.
It was beautiful, she was beautiful, and she made him feel beautiful. They were beautiful… until one day.
The day the innocent maiden, Fate, unveiled her rotten part that she hid from the world oh-so-dearly.
He'd never seen her cry, but the day he did, his nuclear world that revolved around her, came crashing down. The once brightness in her eyes was now shadowed livery, her smile overtaken by tears. It was dreadful, she was still beautiful, and he couldn't help it. He pulled her in a hug and let her cry on his shoulder from noon till dusk. Each of her pure tears burned his skin as if they had a life of their own, raised to have a personal vendetta against him.
Then he patiently asked, "What happened, my love? Who brought tears to your eyes?"
She had looked up at him with pain and expectation. If only she could see herself from his perspective, her heart would be thumping with a burden he couldn't bear.
"They said that I'm not theirs…"
"Who said?"
"My parents…and…my—my Rory died…"
Rory was her pet parrot that loved to imitate even the subtlest of sounds around him. She loved to use him to mock people in strange accents that she had made Rory master.
But Rory was beside the point because he hit an epiphany.
Then in that moment, when the sun had finally set and the very first glimmer of Venus caught his eyes, he knew. He knew why the world lived around her, as if thriving. He knew why her smile looked blessed by the Gods. He knew why the kindness in her eyes would thaw the coldest soul. And he suddenly realized what she was and what she could do.
She was his hope.
A gushing river in his barren lands.
So he took her hand and said, "I can bring you to a place with magic, a place where no one dies because you can heal them. Do you want to run away?"
Intertwined hands and teary smiles couldn't be more dangerous while dressed in their façade of innocence.
Escape isn't always the answer to our problems.
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