Page 7 of Stolen
Just enough for him to see me.
To see the creature behind the eyes.
And he pisses himself.
“S-sorry,” his buddy says.
“Wha-what are you?” he whimpers.
His friend is smarter than him. He shakes his head and drags him away, stammering apologies I don’t care to hear.
The two would-be attackers vanish into the night like rats scurrying from flame.
And now it’s just me and her.
She hasn’t moved.
Her eyes are wide, mouth parted. Staring at me like she’s not sure if I saved her or stepped out of her darkest dream.
I don’t speak yet. I just feel her.
The way her human soul hums like a struck bell.
The way the silver thread between us thrums with fate and fire and fear.
She’s mine.
And I think she knows it.
And I know—don’t ask me how I know, I just do—that she’s going to answer me exactly the way I need.
Her big eyes sparkle as she takes me in from head to foot. This part is an illusion, but she doesn’t know that.
I want to let it drop. I want her to see the real me. But I hold the veil up for a while longer.
“This isn’t how I thought this would feel,” I say aloud without meaning to.
“How you thought what would feel?” she asks.
I don’t answer. I can’t.
I’m still trying to process what’s happening right now.
Mine.
I don’t understand what this is. But I make the decision to take it.
To take her.
Whether the Fates meant it or not, I’m going to make this tiny humanbelieve.
I’m going to make her fall for me.
But what if you can’t?
I push the negative thought away. And even though my heart doesn’t beat in the human sense, something inside me jolts.
Violent. Unfamiliar.
