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Chapter 1

RED SILK CLUNG TO MY HIPS, TWISTING INTO A TIGHT bodice that accentuated my curves My hair was down, silky around hts in the ballrooht each ripple in the fabric so that, with every step, I looked like I was bloo as if theelse A warm blush stole over my skin This wouldn’t end well--not ere surrounded by people and he was looking at ed here, with hiht choice

The choice I… hadn’t made

Dancers slowed aroundbejeweledmelody the orchestra played slipped under my skin and sunk intoseparated us

I tried to breathe, but he had stolen not just my heart, but the very air I needed

He stood there, dressed in a black tux cut to fit the hard lines of his body A lopsided smile, full of mischief and playfulness, curved his lips as he bowed at the waist, extending his ars felt weak as I took the first step The twinkling lights from above lit the way to him, but I would’ve found him in the dark if necessary The beat of his heart sounded just like mine

His smile spread

That was all the reinforce behindme by the waist as I looped ainst his chest, soaking in the scent of ocean and burning leaves

Everyone atching, but it didn’t matter We were in our oorld, where only anted--e’d desired for so long--mattered

He chuckled deeply as he spun me around My feet didn’t even touch the ballroom floor "So reckless," hehe secretly loved that part ofme on my feet, he clasped my hand and placed the other on the sain, his voice was a low, sultry whisper "You look so beautiful, Alex"

My heart swelled "I love you, Aiden"

He kissed the top ofcircles Couples slowly joined us, and I caught glie eyes behind the masks--eyes completely white, no irises Unease spread Those eyes… I knehat they meant We drifted toward a corner where I heard soft cries co from the darkness

I peered into the shadowy corner of the ballroom "Aiden…?"

"Shh" His hand slipped up my spine and cupped the nape of my neck "Do you love me?"

Our eyes "

Aiden’s smile faded "Do you love me more than him?"

I stilled in his suddenly lax embrace "More than who?"

"Him," Aiden repeated "Do you love ain, to the darkness Aainst a woman, his lips on her throat

"Do you love me more than him?"

"Who?" I tried to press closer, but he held me back Uncertainty blossomed in my belly when I saw the disappoint?"

"You don’t loveback "Not when you’re with him, when you chose hi us Seth s a world of dark proreed to, that I’d chosen

"You don’t loveinto the shadows "You can’t You never could"

I reached for hied and I was lost in a sea of dresses and whispered words I pushed at theh, couldn’t find Aiden or Seth So I cried out for Aiden and then Seth, but neither heededup at faces hidden behind e eyes I knew those eyes

They were the eyes of the gods

I jerked straight up in bed, a fine sheen of sweat covering my body as my heart continued to try to come out of my chest Several moments passed before nized the bare walls of my dorm room

"What the hell?" I ran the back of my hand over my damp and warm forehead I squeezed my watery eyes shut

"Hmm?" murmured a half-awake Seth

I sneezed in response, once, and then twice

"That’s hot" He blindly reached for the box of tissues "I can’t believe you’re still sick Here"

Sighing, I took the tissues from him and cradled the box to my chest as I pulled a few free "It’s your fault--achoo! It was your stupid idea to go swiree weather, jerk-face"

"I’ a fewmy brains out, and then dropped the box on the floor Colds sucked daiotten a cold until now I hadn’t even known I could get one "Aren’t you just so damn special?"

"You know it," was his lared at the back of Seth’s head He almost looked normal with his face planted into a pillow--my pillow Not like someone who’d become a God Killer in less than four months To our world, Seth was sort of like any ht deadly "I had a weird dream"