The sharp burn of the swaying candlelight illuminated his flesh, as if the light that cast along the curvature of his jawline, separated and accentuated the line between the devils and angels battling within his soul.
For the shadows seeped across his scars, dipping within the crevices lining his skin beyond his rightful years, heightening the sight of his sins gone by that were to forever stain his flesh. But in the light, no matter how dim the flame swayed, it was as if the hue was gentle and tender as it flooded over his marred and tired skin. Like perhaps, with time, the exhaustion, the inner turmoil, the scars of his past, could surely fade.
Perhaps, you'd known that he stood behind you long before your eyes met his gaze in the mirror. For Thomas Shelby's presence was unequivocal, it demanded to be felt even if it was yet to be seen. It was commanding and domineering and damn well overwhelming, just as he himself was. He was a sheer force of a man and yet, he could be as deadly silent like that of a ghost, a spirit simply inhabiting the living flesh of a shelled-out war hero.
For you could feel his sudden company in the small space, as if he'd gone and crawled his way beneath your very flesh. Igniting goosebumps along the exposed patches of your skin, sensitizing you to his touch, without the pads of his fingertips ever having to descend upon you. For it felt as if you could feel him invading the very breath that you inhaled, intertwining himself along the current of your oxygen, tainting it, poisoning it until it slipped into the cavities of your lungs without a shred of purity left behind for your breath to cling to.
For even as you were bathed in the ethereal fabric of ivory lace and intricate silk, staring at your reflection in the floor length mirror, it was the strong cast of cerulean that pierced through the room with the strongest hue. As if the flames that flickered from the candles were suddenly futile, their efforts to bathe the room in a warm and saturated hue, abruptly extinguished by the cold current of ice that flooded over the hardwood.
You had yet to lift your gaze, frozen in place along the stunning material that cascaded down your frame, but it felt as if you hadn't needed your eyes to raise and see his gaze, for it was as if the blue bleeding down from the scrutiny of his never-ending gaze, enveloped the room in a tangible light. As if the sharp beams of citrine were simply replaced with the piercing glow of an iced over blue, one that punctured your flesh from behind as the cold of his gaze settled beneath the surface of your flesh and eased its way over the delicate fabric adorning your body, until all you could feel was a tingling sensation. A meld of both burning heat from his inextinguishable gaze and a staggering chill from the blue that captivated his irises like a collection of priceless sapphires.
It wasn't possible and yet, you could've sworn that around the outline of your reflection in the mirror, a glow emanated from the strong cast of azure burning from his gaze, that consumed your spine.
His eyes were his weapon. All these years, he'd held tightly to his revolver and crowned his cap with razor blades like an infamous king, but it had been the orbs of chiseled out cerulean that held distinct and unattainable power.
For the cast of his gaze, it felt as if it could melt into your flesh, as if you hadn't a single layer of protection to obscure yourself from Thomas's formidable stare. Seeping underneath your skin until he could see straight into your foundation, the beating organ of your heart, the mere breath of your soul. Seeking your secrets, your deeply hidden regrets, your darkest desires and all of the things you kept locked away that even you hadn't the key for anymore. But within that powerful burn of blinding blue, as if it might just leave its mark upon your flesh like the bright beams of the sun, he'd discovered the key without fail or perhaps, he'd simply been able to open the lock with the mere force and conviction he traveled with. Unraveling you from the inside out, until you and every secret within your precious soul, was spilled out and exposed before him.
