Ariane:
I was still curled beneath the sheets when the soft wind ruffled my hair, waking me from my exhaustion-induced coma. I was still clutching the black glass mirror Adalais had given me, but I couldn't open my eyes, not when my body ached, and my stomach growled in protest.
Then, like the wind kissing my cheeks, a voice floated to me. Soft, delicate, poisonous.
"Welcome, darling girl." At the sound of the voice, I shot upright just as a woman appeared, not walking but blooming from the center of a blood-red flower as if the earth herself had birthed her. She was tall and willowy, dressed in layered petals and thorned silk. Her eyes were like liquid earth, a honey brown, reflective, rimmed in black kohl that ran like tears.
Her beauty was unnatural. So lovely, I couldn't look awa
