He moved away from me I’d just pushed a dagger through his heart again, there was disbelief, confusion, and pain in his eyes but he only had those emotions because he didn't understand why I’d declined his proposal.After almost spending my life with the wrong man because of guilt, I couldn't say Yes to Ethan while guilt kept eating me up for the great of our lives. I’d be as much of a monster as Arnold was if I take advantage of his feelings for me and jump into marriage when guilt had been plaguing me like it was my second shadow since the day I watched him fall to his death.He stared at me again, long and hard before he walked toward the bed and covered himself in the duvet, an air of uncertainty hovering over him as he delved into thoughts of his own. However, it was as he covered up tag I realized that I was still naked and I slowly walked toward the floor where he’d dropped my dress and picked up. I quietly pulled it over my head and held my arms around my body tightly as thou
Layla’s POV“If you stare at that dress any longer, you’ll burn it to the ground with your gaze” Nadia nagged me as I took one last glance at my wedding dress while I stood at the bathroom door, I was obsessed with it.Beyond obsessed, It’s beauty had become an extra body part of mine.“At least we’d die watching its beautiful flames ascend to the heavens,” I smiled dreamily while still staring at it with lost eyes.“Be fucking for real?” She laughed before she grabbed a button off the dresser and threw it me, luckily I was able to dodge it and if I hadn't it’d have hit my eyes.“You’d explain to Ethan in detail why his bride is walking down the aisle with just one eye” I picked the button up and threw it at her, and it landed on her feet.“If you're not ready in the next hour, there’ll be no bride to scrutinize while she walks down the aisle, I promise you” She shot me a glare just before she took a seat on my bed, pulling her own dress in her lap to admire it.“What? An hour? Why hav
LAYLA"I've come here to take your daughter to Crescent Valley."The words made a lump form in my throat, one that choked me and made it near impossible to breathe. He wasn't talking about me, right? No one except my Aunty and Uncle knew of my real identity. I hardly even go out and everyone that knew me knew me as a boy, a male so what was he talking about?From where I was hiding behind the curtain, I saw Aunty Kayla exchange glances with her husband, Uncle Nate and I saw how her hands balled into fists. "Our daughter?" it was Uncle Nate who spoke, his voice sounding confused. “I think you've made a mistake, we have no daughter, what we have is a son, our nephew who lost his parents a long time ago so we've raised him as ours. He's indisposed so he's always indoors."The intruder's lips stretched into a smile, an amused smile that looked sinister and made the hair at the back of neck stand up as he leaned over on the chair he was sitting with his two hands on either of his legs.
LAYLA"Wake up, Layla, wake up," the words sounded far away in my subconscious but the gentle yet urgent shoving was what made my eyes open and all trace of sleep disappeared from my eyes when I saw Aunty Kayla. "Aunty, what's wrong? Why are you waking me up in the middle of the...""Shhh," she interrupted me as she pulled me to a sitting position, "this is not the time to chat, we need to leave now!"Then she was pulling me to my feet and shoving my clothes from the wardrobe into a bag with an urgency I'd never seen in her before. Maybe I was still sleeping or I was still drowsy from sleep but nothing she said made any sense. We were leaving? To where? And why in the middle of the night with no prior warning?"Aunty," I pulled at her hands so she stopped packing my clothes, "what are you talking about? Where are we going? Can you... It's the middle of the night.""Layla, there's no time to explain now, our priority now is getting out of here and once we leave Wandercoast, we'll exp
LAYLAI drifted in and out of consciousness, nothing making sense and that terrible nightmare replaying itself in my head. Aunty Kayla and Uncle Nate. And blood. Too much blood. I woke up screaming. I flew from the bed wildly, my hands clutching the sheets before I made a beline to dive out of the bed and out of the room to help Aunty Kayla and Uncle Nate, to stop the bleeding, to...Strong hands held me back, pulling me back towards the bed."You need to calm down," the masculine voice whispered close to my ears, the soothing voice doing nothing to calm the erracticness that was going on in my body."Nooo," I screamed, thrashing against the stronghold, "I need to go to them, I need to help them, they're bleeding, they're..." my words dissolved into mindless cries and screams when the reality of what happened dawned on me again. They were dead.My foster parents were dead.Just like that. The darkness took over again. Several days passed, blending into a blur as time seemed endl
ARNOLDFrom the day I set my eyes on her, I knew I had to have her, take her, own her, claim her, and do anything to make her belong to me. I had a routine of walking around Wandercoast, just to get familiar with the people I was one day going to rule and to listen to their needs and wants because I wanted them to love me and not fear me. And who'd have thought that my routine would one day lead me to the most beautiful girl to ever exist. It was the day I decided to talk a walk in the forest and as walked deeper than I've ever walked before, I couldn't help but feel something akin to warmth and expectancy, and just as I took a bend, leading to a deeper part of the woods, a figure came into sight.Upon closer look, I discovered that the person, whoever it was was small in stature. It was a small boy and even though I was looking at him from quite a distance, there was almost something magnetic about the distance between us and I could tell that the boy was very good-looking. Funny
LAYLAI'd been to very few places all my life and the woods were my favorite place in the world, so I was convinced that nothing was prettier than the nature I basked in whenever I was in the woods closest to my home. But today, I'd been proven absolutely wrong by the awe that enveloped my entire body when I set eyes on the beauty beyond Crescent Valley's gates as they opened.Without regard for how shy I'd been feeling earlier, I poked my head out of the Carriage's window and my eyes widened in appreciation of the land that might become my new home. I equally couldn't conceal the smile that crawled up to my face when I saw cute little bunnies hopping in the flowery bushes that lined the path we were riding on.Next, my eyes wandered to how the buildings were lined up asymmetrically but it somehow looked perfect, they were the most beautiful and intentional lineup of buildings I'd ever seen, especially because they also were adorned with beautiful flowers and door ornaments that looked
ARNOLDThe mere fact that I’d successfully brought Layla to Crescent Valley made my day a million times brighter than usual while I worked on a few documents that needed my approval. I simply couldn't help but bask in the possibility that she’d soon come of age and I could completely claim her as my Luna.I wouldn’t have cared if I had to wait years before I could get married to Layla, any man who’d set his eyes on her enthralling beauty would be willing to wait a lifetime for her, and I wasn't any different because I could swear by the moon goddess and any worthy deity that Layla was the most beautiful girl to ever walk this earth.I just so happened to have been favored by the moon goddess to find her first, and with everything that happened leading up to her being brought to my home, I knew that we’d definitely been destined to find one another and we were soulmates somehow.“I can't believe we really have her in our home” Loki pranced within me and I broke into a chuckle as my exci