Kissing Danger ✔️

SIXTEEN

Word Count: 1782

¬Aven

The air in the room goes ice cold.

"He's here already?" mother whispers. For someone she is telling me to trust, her face loses all it's colour awfully quickly at the mention of this man's name. My heart flutters in my chest as I grip Lei's hand, glancing at her. She doesn't look as petrified as me, but I suppose this man isn't here to see her, but me.

Eryk's hand slips off the door knob as he faces my mother, looking grim. "Yes, and he is going to want to see Aven right away."

"She's not ready to see him right this instant," mother claims, sounding frantic all of a sudden. I don't know what to say, whether I should back mother up with that, so I just look between them both. "He is going to overwhelm her."

Despite my fear, there is a burning curiosity rising up within me to meet this man. Whoever he is, I can sense that he is here, that he is powerful. His power seeps through the walls, skating up my skin, tugging at something within me, like I'm destined to meet him.

"You know he isn't going to do anything to intentionally hurt her," Eryk murmurs.

I bristle, my head whipping to my mother. What does he mean by intentionally? I can tell by the magic in the air that he would be capable of hurting absolutely anyone, but is there a risk of our meeting turning fatal?

Mother doesn't even look at me. "That's not what I worry about..."

"Mother, I want to see him," I assure her. "I need to speak to whoever is behind all of this."

It's time to push away my fear, to meet the man who dragged me all the way from my home realm to here, where I expected to stay for my safety. The only reason I'm trusting Eryk right now is because of my mother, because I know she loves me and would never do anything that would put me in a bad situation.

Eryk finally opens the door. "I will get him."

The moment the door closes, I turn to my friend, trying to ignore the feeling in my stomach that is making me nauseous with fear."Are you okay, Lei?"

"I'm okay. Just trying to make sense of this," she murmurs quietly, looking down at her hands.

I turn to my mother, who stares at the door, waiting for this Stace man to walk in at any moment. "Mother...Should I be scared of him?"

"No, you have no reason to fear him," she responds a little too quickly, shaking her head. I shiver, wondering if that's truthful or not, or if she is having doubts.

It's too late for any of us to back out though, as the door opens and Eryk walks in, followed up by a surprisingly familiar man. My heart stops.

I've seen him before, I realise. He's not easy to forget, his features causing me to flinch back, as if they are so physically devastating it almost hurts to look at. He has to bow his head to enter through the door frame, so tall it could be considered an aspect of his power in itself. From head to toe, he is dressed in a ruggish, all black outfit that frames his impressive figure faultlessly, contrasting against his refined features.

It's his tattoos, his markings that take me back to when I first saw him. They creep out from the neckline of his tunic, an intricate pattern of darkness that stops right at his jawline. His name is suddenly familiar, a dark, forgotten part of my mind remembering the last time I heard it uttered. He was at mother's ball, in my room at one point.

But only for a moment...Before he had seemed to vanish, leaving me to wonder if I actually saw him or not.

His eyes sweep to me, dark like shadows, like night. "Aven...."