Bree Porter

I didn’t mind the chill, the bite in the air; I always found it cleared my head.

Like all things Thaddeo owned, the garden was perfect, with flawlessly shaped flowers, clean pathways and gleaming statues.

A part of me wondered how much the smiles and jokes hid the trauma in her mind.

A part of me wondered how much the smiles and jokes hid the trauma in her mind.

Since the moment I had first laid eyes on her, she had always reminded me of a nymph from a childhood fable. Beautiful, ethereal, otherworldly. Paired with her strange but pretty features, Elena had been the source of many fantasies, proving to be just as out of reach as a mythical forest fairy.

The sun had risen higher, pinkening the sky. Clouds had begun to form, their gray color telling me how the weather was going to be for the day.

I glanced at them one more time at them as I reached the end of the hallway, before tearing my eyes away.

You don’t need a partner, I told myself, trying to soothe the snarling green beast low in my stomach.

I glanced at them one more time at them as I reached the end of the hallway, before tearing my eyes away.

You don’t need a partner, I told myself, trying to soothe the snarling green beast low in my stomach.

I can get down the stairs, Konstantin.”

“I know you can,” he acknowledged. “But I was always taught to aid a lady in dangerous heels. Especially ones as beautiful as yourself.”

Konstantin didn’t respond. Instead he stared at me, like his eyes were peeling away at the makeup and skin and peering into my brain.

No one had ever looked like at me like that before.

Like they were…enamored.

I lifted a hand to my face, self-consciously.

“When you laugh, the sun rises in your eyes,” Konstantin said.

The world dropped from beneath my feet.