find a way to come back.
I wanted to get home. I wanted to be in my warm bed and would willingly take the scolding my father would give me once
he found out I had run off. Oh, what I would do if only Marcus had followed me in, perhaps he would be able to save me,
protect me, and do the job my father had set him up to do all my life.
“Come with us.” The voice still lingered, this time feeling as if it were closer, and I still couldn’t move.
“She will not be going with you, creature.”
The voice of my dreams. The man draped in shadows—he was here. But where? How? He wasn't real.
“We found her first.”
“You dare defy me?!” he shouted.
A rumble rolled under my feet, as if the ground itself were shaking, and then there was silence. I felt a presence behind me
and the feeling of fingers running down my arm. I didn’t turn around for fear of what I might come to face.
“You are safe now. They have retreated.”
I still didn’t say a word.
“Breathe, my sweet princess. I promise you, I will not harm you.”
His voice seemed softer than before and my heart slowed to it. A feeling of wanting began to cover my body. But when I
turned around, my shadowed man was not there.
“I must return home.”
“Yes, you must. I shall guide you to the tree line.”
Suddenly, a trail of what looked like fireflies lit up the pathway in front of me, and continued in the distance. I finally felt
myself able to move, even if my nerves were shot. I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry in bed. I was grateful he had come to
my aid.
“Thank you for saving me,” I said, almost a whisper.
“I told you, I am here to save you. You only need to ask it of me.”
“Will I ever know your name?”
He didn’t answer for a minute, and I wondered if he had left me as I reached the tree line. Shouting of my name could be
heard in the distance. The guards were out looking for me.
“I believe you already know it.”
Feeling that same tingling feeling running down my forearm as my hand was lifted up into the darkness, I felt warm lips
touch my hand and then sudden coldness as the shadow disappeared.
Stepping out of the tree line, I headed back up towards the rose garden and was almost ambushed by the guards, Kathlyn,