~ Madeline ~
Anxiety had gripped me from the moment Dante materialized out of the trees. His taunting arrogance grated on my nerves and the intense way his eyes followed me made me feel like a bug under a microscope lens. A distinct part of myself wanted to run, to give in to the fear that ate at the edges of my thoughts and escape the complexity of what I was feeling. Because it was hard to think when he was looking at me.
I’d never been the type to be bowled over by a pretty face, I learned early from Diana how beauty could hide a cruel nature but I felt like I could get lost in the depth of Dante’s gaze, just drown in by the magnetic pull of his ocean blue depths. Like I could lose myself to him when I wasn’t even sure who I was yet.
He offered his hand to me as howls of my kin fil
