STAINED GLASS ✓

V. ASH AND STARDUST

REAGAN DIDN'T MIND RULES. She'd follow them without a second thought because why not? I'm a rebel, can't you see? she'd say, In a world where everyone breaks the rules, I follow them. Breaking them was too much of a hassle to bother with, and Reagan didn't like hassles. Rules made everything simple. Easy. Her mother didn't like easy, she knew, but Reagan wasn't like her mother.

And Reagan never wanted to be.

Her mother had warned about boys. Boys who could twist their words, boys who could steal your heart all because they could. Her mother had warned her about boys with eyes of gold and light and everything pure because they were the worst of all, the kind that stole your heart and shattered it because they could.

Her father had eyes of gold and light and everything pure.

But her father was gone, they said, and he's taken your mother's heart with him. It's only a matter of time before someone steals your heart, dearie.

Reagan was not her mother.

But his eyes weren't gold and light and everything pure. Oh no, they weren't pure at all. They were of ash and stardust, the darkest hour of dusk. He was sweet smiles and crooked teeth, messy hair and toffee skin. He was rust and gleam, iron and steel, the calm after a storm. He was an overflowing sink, ink splattering on a page, a breath of fresh air.

He was toxic, they warned. But Reagan didn't care. She was far too lost in ash and stardust to care about anything they said.

He's pretty, that boy, they had told her, pretty boys won't steal your heart, dearie, oh no. They'll shatter it and keep the pieces. But that couldn't be true. His eyes, which held ash and stardust, held a startling innocence that was uncommon with boys. And he wasn't just pretty. He was rust and gleam, iron and steel, the calm after a storm with eyes of ash and stardust.

Reagan wasn't her mother and Azriel Turner didn't have eyes of gold and light and everything pure. Oh no, he had eyes of ash and stardust and Reagan could think of nothing more beautiful.