What did they mean? I knew who I was, didn't I? I was Rosalia Mallory, a girl left on the doorstep of our town's foster agency to find a new home. From there I went through three homes before at the age of 16 instead of having to live in the group h...
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Hunter's POV:
Shadow keeps looking at me with a concerned stare that seems so familiar yet strange at the same time. A combination that leaves me guessing as to if I really do know her or if I've lost my mind. Giving a tentative smile she sighs where her head is still rested on my collarbone gently. "Hunter? What's wrong?" She asks again, this time pulling out of my arms to look me in the eye. The moment we're apart something inside me starts to hurt, aching to be nearer to her. But she just stands there, looking at me with a peculiar expression that I can't decipher.
"N-nothing," I reply, appraising her once over in my head. Where have I seen you? I think to myself, hoping she won't hear my thoughts. She doesn't respond - meaning that her telepathy was either not working or she just wasn't prying. Instead, she keeps looking at me with that same concerned expression rooted in her gaze, the low light making the subtle flecks of amber, gold and smoky brown catch in the light when she dances. "You're really beautiful. You know that?"
She laughs, the sound quietly muffled behind her hand to avoid drawing attention to where we were. "Maybe I do know," Her tone has an impishly mischievous edge to it that sounds so much like my brothers that if I didn't know my family well enough I'd suspect she was somehow related. But that's not the case. "Maybe I do know and maybe that's true but stop changing the subject," She replies, still in a calm-ish voice. Damn, she's smarter than I thought. "Not necessarily," She whispers, looking me directly in the eye. "I just have a knack at reading people's faces and seeing what they're hiding." Some of the humour leaves her tone, making her eyes appear more serious than before. I don't speak for a second so she takes charge, leading the two of us away from the busy ballroom towards a warmer, more secluded part of the palace.
"Thought you didn't know your way around here?" I joke, futilely attempting to stall her from asking questions. She rolls her eyes at me over her shoulder, the train of her dress whispering against the bare stone tiles. Her mask hags from her hand and I see her grasp her cloak out of the dining hall as we pass it. "Shadow? Where are we going?" She doesn't respond verbally but continues to pull me along until we're safely tucked away in a corner where the noise of the masquerade can't reach us. "Shadow?" I ask in a warning tone but she just sits on a stone window ledge and looks at me intently. "What?"
"What's wrong?" She asks, her voice softer than before, and holding a protective edge to it that I don't remember hearing before. I stare down at her for a few seconds before she sighs, holding her hands up. "I can't make you tell me whatever's on your mind Hunter but I'd like it if you trusted me enough to just say whatever's clearly on your mind." Holy hell someone's in a touchy mood. Wonder what set her off. Time of the month maybe? The thought makes me chuckle to myself before I remember her.
Sitting down next to her we start off with a distance between us before we both sit in silence. She sighs and plays with her mask where it's still resting on her lap, twisting the ebony coloured ribbon around her finger before releasing it to settle in loose spirals. "Why do I feel like I know you," I eventually whisper and she looks up at me, her eyes swirling with a myriad of emotions I can't name. "What is it about you that's so memorable to me?" I stare at her, at a loss for words, until she reaches a hand in my direction. Meeting her halfway I feel the same sparks shoot up my arm. She just smiles.
