False Reality | Book Three

Prologue

STOP!

Read the first two books please! Found on my profile underneath "The Branded Girl Series"

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Grim's POV

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She was the light to my darkness. It sounds completely false and girlish, but it's true. She was the light to the darkness that wrapped itself freely around me. That light that showed up in the darkness was the most beautiful light of all simply because it was surrounded by the darkness itself. It shone the brightest and purest and made the black emptiness flock to it. That's how I was with her.

    As I watched her run away from me, I could feel my heart come back to life and howl its melodic symphonies into the night sky. It cried for her to come back. To come back to me.

    It was my first time experiencing heartbreak in my life and I never despised anything more. It felt like someone was constantly punching me everywhere. Or maybe that was the frozen snow sinking into my pants as I stayed in my place, watching her black hair flow freely down her back since her hood had fallen down.

    I never understood love, and I didn't want to. I figured love was the one single thing that made humans weak. Only now I wonder if I am the weak one, once mourning in the darkness of night as she ran from the single thing she shouldn't have been running from. I knew from the start her loyal and stubborn personality would cause me pain, but I never imagined it would be that type of pain. It felt like glass stabbing my chest with each step she took.

    I fell in love and I hope to never again. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth and my mind constantly thinks about her. Even when I'm trying not to, she's there, dancing on the edge of my mind sending me into a manic episode.

    I didn't think anything in the world was more powerful than my brother and I. We were the sole reasons life even started and ended, how could something be more powerful? I wonder if it's not someone more powerful than us, but rather something. That something being love.

    It clouded my thoughts, my visions, even my emotions. It toyed with me like I was a worthless ant and controlled me to no end. Yet I was addicted to it. To her.

    I craved to hold her one last time. I begged that in some way she would look to me again with that familiar warmth. I relied solely on the power of love to bring her back to me. Love was, after all, more powerful than my brother and I. If she is ever going to come back to me, I have to use the love I know is still in her heart for me.

    I remember comparing life to a game once before. I figured I rolled the dice, but now I wonder if there is something else that rolls them. Love. Everything comes back to love. Everything. It rolls the dice and I dared to play with it. I tried everything and I somehow still lost the game. Every motion to save myself, it fought through. Distance did not work.

    When I told her I was going to be away for a while, I never planned to come back. I could only stay away for a few days before coming back to her. I loved the way her heart pumped excitedly when she saw me and the way her eyes would linger on my lips when I would purposefully mess with her. I fell in love the way her smile reached up into her eyes as she stared at me and I absolutely loved the way she smelled. I loved her. I was completely and utterly obsessed with her.

    From the moment I saw her in the church, I could see it. I hated the way my eyes locked onto hers from underneath my hood and couldn't seem to leave them. She was lost at the time, but I slowly helped her get back on the road. She would be fine now, I know she would.

    Something tells me to leave her alone.

    She's brave, stubborn, sarcastic, and most of all, determined. She wouldn't let anything come in the way of her and her dreams. And for that, I loved her. I loved her for everything. I loved how whenever she was about to say something sardonic back at me her lips would twitch in pride and how afterward when I pretended to be appalled she would grow a flicker of a smile. I was addicted to the way her eyebrows twitched whenever she was about to say something.

    She was everything I wanted.

    I was planning on leaving her alone the day after everything went down. Thaddeus disappeared but I don't think I ever ran to her house as fast as I did when she was running away from me. I reached the edge of the woods when she finally closed the door. I watched the way her eyes scanned the trees before she turned and ran up to her room. I was there in seconds, appearing in the shadows of her room. I watched her sit on her bed and try to figure out what had just happened. She had somehow ended up in the woods with two men screaming, one crying. I watched her until she eventually fell asleep on her pillow. I carefully walked over to her and stroked her cheek.

    I figured that would be the last time I would see her. After that night, I would never show up to her again and I would try and block her out of my mind. Only something magical happened. As soon as I touched her, she leaned into my touch as if she welcomed it and let out a deep sigh. I couldn't help the way my eyes gravitated to her soft cheeks and adorable upturned nose. When she grabbed my arm and yanked me down next to her, I was uncomfortable. I imagined her waking up to find a complete stranger in her bed, but also held the hope she would remember me. I hoped she would somehow find a way to remember me.

    I eventually just wrapped my hands around her and held her against me. Her hands sprawled delicately across my chest causing tingles of electricity to shoot up my arms. I fell in love with love the moment I realized those electric shocks I got from whenever I touched her were bound to happen. I feared them at first.

As her face dug into my neck and her breath tickled across my collarbone I knew.

    I knew as soon as the electricity shot up me.

I knew as soon as her body wrapped around mine.

    I knew there would be no way I could ever stay away from her.

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