A line of women awaits. I can feel their emotions on the other side of this door, melding together in one big vat of fluttering, dizzyingexcitement. It makes me want to turn on my heel and leave.
Duty is the only thing that keeps me rooted in place.
Let’s get this over with.
I open the door and go still.
Red.
People’s emotions have auras. Colors. They are usually similar. Dull. I’ve never seen this color before. It’s sosaturated. It’s the shade of roses, of hearts, of blood—
Her.
Her.
A woman wearing the same scrap of fabric as everyone else, but somehow, she stands out. The room is full, but she has my full attention. It isn’t, I admit, just her peculiar aura.
She’s the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.
The moment the thought is formed, I incinerate it.Beautiful?Ridiculous. Nothing in this ash-crusted world has earned the word in centuries.
Nothing, I think... except her. My jaw works as I try to steady my thoughts. As I rush to bury the swell of emotion. But her red aura is like poison, seeping through the gaps in the fortresses I’ve built around myself.
The more I look at her, the worse it gets.
Her hair is brown, and long, curled at the ends. Every strand gleams. I imagine touching it. Pulling it ... A blush is spreading across her cheeks, highlighting a few freckles, and I have the strange urge to count them.
My thoughts horrify me.
I should not be thinking about her. I should not be staring at her.
But I can’t stop.
Something is wrong with me. Maybe I’ve been poisoned. I should leave. I should portal to the other side of this island.
Instead, I continue to stare like a fool.
She’s wearing red paint on her heart-shaped lips. I don’t kissanyone, I don’t let anyone get that close to me, but right now ... right now I have the sudden urge to remove all that paint with my tongue. Because she doesn’t need anything—anything—extra to make her look beautiful.
She already is.
She is perfection. She is radiance.
She is dangerous.
Pick someone else, the voice in my head says.Anyone else.
“You.” The word is out of me, and it’s done.
Green. She’s looking at me with green eyes that I’m going to see in my head tonight, long after she’s gone.
What is wrong with me?
As I finally turn out of the room, ignoring the wave of disappointment from the women who were not chosen, I grind my teeth together.
I am not this weak. I am in complete control of my feelings.
I will prove it to myself.
