She stepped in like she owned the air in the room; tall, regal, terrifyingly graceful. Her crimson gown hugged her figure like silk poured over bone, and the matching robe fluttered behind her as though it moved with a will of its own. Her ginger hair coiled in elegant twists, streaked with silver like lightning through the night. She looked no older than mid-forties, yet her presence felt ancient. Eyes the color of bloodied rubies scanned the room with bored precision.
Beautiful. Terribly so.
But beneath that beauty was something wrong. Something that made the temperature drop and the breath in my lungs seize. The shadows clung to her, bending slightly as if in deference.
Her eyes settled on me. A cold smile curled on her painted lips. And fear, true, choking fear coiled in my gut like
