Her eyes shine with unshed tears before she looks away. “Forged by fire, right, Millie?”
Her words hit harder than I expect. I stay, turned away from her, the breeze pulling strands of my black hair across my face, shifting my gown at my ankles.
Forged by the hottest fires in the deepest pits of hell.
She speaks again when I cast a glance over my shoulder.
“I miss you. I miss our mornings together. It felt like we started the day ready to face anything—together. Now it feels like you’re the source of my fears at night.”
A pause. A breath stills her trembling lips for a moment.
“I face most things alone now. And when I look into your eyes, there’s no light left. I don’t know what to do to bring you back to me.”
She wipes her cheeks, still not looking at me.
Then I hear it, the laughter.
The voice that’s followed me for months erupts in glee, drowning Arcadia’s pain in its echoing joy. I can hardly hear her now.
Arcadia is daylight. Warmth. The sun, rising over the forest.
And I—
I am what comes after. I am black inside. I am the cold, the darkness that follows the moon.
My darkness will not go.
It will only grow.
“WOW, THOSE ARE BEAUTIFUL,” LUCA says in awe, studying my arms.
His voice yanks me from my thoughts. I drag my arms back quickly.
“These marks show my power,” I say flatly. “I house dark magic. The sun isn’t made for things like me.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Why not, mortal?”
“Because you are too beautiful in the sun. Look at how your arms shine. You can’t shine in the dark. So it’s a shame you think you belong somewhere that hides your light.”
“Luca, I am two hundred years old. Don’t flirt with me.”
“Maybe I like older women,” he shoots back shamelessly.
I take off running, expecting him to follow.
He yelps behind me, scrambling to catch up.
“I also know how to give a compliment without flirting!” he shouts. “That was called an observation!”
He speeds up, reaching my side. “Besides, I want to propose to the baker.”
“Well then, you’d better train harder. What woman wants a weakling?”
I shove him off balance and surge ahead.
“Cheating!” he calls out, laughing as his footsteps thunder after mine.
