Chapter 8
Ava's POV
I hurriedly spun around to face the intruder, my heart pounding in my chest. The moment my eyes landed on his face, everything stopped, my breath, my thoughts, even the beat of my heart froze for a split second.
He didn't look real. He looked like every dangerous secret you were told to stay away from. Like every sin you weren't supposed to gaze upon.
His face was sharp, with a jawline that looked carved from the hardest of stone. His dark hair was cut to slightly frame is head, giving him a rough, wild edge that only made him more intimidating.
But it was his eyes that held me captive, they were bright, piercing blue, glowing faintly in the darkness. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. He was what i would imagine a devil to look like.
"Who... who are you?" I whispered, the words barely making it out of my mouth as my voice was came out shaky and breathless. My hand went instinctively to my chest, pressing hard against it, as if to keep my heart from jumping right out.
The stranger didn't answer. Instead, his eyes slowly swept down my body, taking in every detail with shameless confidence.
His gaze burned, and I suddenly felt hotter than the awful herbal tea my mother used to force down my throat every morning. Warmth rushed up my neck to my cheeks, and I took a small, nervous step backward, desperate to put some space between us. But I had forgotten the old well behind me.
The moment my foot stepped back into empty air, my balance tipped. A gasp caught in my throat as the world tilted and I started falling.
I didn't even have time to scream. I snapped my mouth shut, my hand clamping over my lips to stop the sound. I couldn't risk alerting the guards.
The embarrassment of what had just happened hit me even harder as I recalled the way the stranger had watched me fall, he had looked amused as he watched, making no move to catch me.
As I fell backward into the darkness, I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the pain of the landing. But the impact never came.
Instead, strong, warm arms wrapped around me mid-fall, pulling me close against a solid chest.
My eyes snapped open in shock, wide as plates, and I found myself staring into those same mesmerizing blue eyes from seconds ago. My breath caught again, this time for an entirely different reason.
Then we hit the bottom. The landing wasn't gentle as we crashed onto the stone floor below. We rolled a few feet with his arms still locked around me protectively.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears, not just from the fall, but from being held so tightly by a handsome man I didn't even know.
We finally came to a stop and my eyes fluttered opene to find him already staring at me, those same glowing blue eyes locking onto mine.
There was something different in them now. It looked like longing but just as quickly as it came, it vanished,and his gaze turned distant again.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice low yet still cold enough to send a shiver down my spine. It's not that his words were harsh, but they carried an edge that made me nervous.
I knew opening my mouth to speak at this point would just be me making a fool out of myself, so i nodded to his question instead.
But even ith my answer his arms still held me. And for some strange, unexplainable reason, I didn't ask him to let go, but it didn't last long.
His arms slowly loosened around me, and I wasted no time crawling out of his hold. My skin still tingled where he had touched me, and it took everything in me not to look back at him.
There was something strange about this man, i couldn't place it.
"Let me help you up…" I offered, my voice soft. Half of me said it out of gratitude. The other half…well, it just wanted to confirm that he was real. Because honestly, no human had the right to be that beautiful. He looked like a daydream dressed in black.
I reached out and gently grabbed the tattered edge of his gloves, trying to help him to his feet.
The moment my hand made contact with his, he flinched hard.
In the blink of an eye, he was several feet away, standing at the far edge of the room, his body looking tense as I gasped, caught completely off guard by how quickly he had moved.
"I was just trying to help, Hybrid," I snapped, unable to stop the sting in my voice. I could immediately tell from his touch that he was an Hybrid.
I quickly turned my back on him, hoping he didn't see the blush creeping up my neck.
I tried to push the moment away and focus on our surroundings. That's when I realized where we were.
My eyes drifted upward to the open mouth of the well we had fallen through, high above us.
"Hey… I think we've got a problem," I said, my voice rising with worry. "It's easy enough to fall in, but it's almost impossible to climb out. We might die down here!" I exclaimed, my voice echoing off the dungeon walls as I turned to face him again.
He still hadn't said a word. My eyes swept the room and froze when I saw the pile of bones littering the far end of the dungeon. They were hose who were sent here and never left.
"Did you even hear what I just said?" I demanded, stomping toward him with frustration tightening my chest. My gaze fell to his gloved hands again that he had been staring at.
"Stay back. Don't come any closer," he growled suddenly. His eyes locked onto mine, and I stumbled to a stop with my heart hammering from the cold edge in his tone. Why did it feel like he was pleading?
I opened my mouth to respond, but the words were stolen away by a sharp pain that struck the sides of my head and my vision blurred, the corners of my sight going dim, and then there was heat.
Intense, unbearable heat blasted through my body like fire racing through my blood. It centered at the side of my neck.
"Arrrrgh!" I screamed, the pain stealing my breath as I clawed at my neck. My fingers dug into my skin, desperate to relieve the unbearable pain. My knees buckled slightly as I fought to stay standing.
Through my blurry vision, I could see him across the dungeon now he had his body was lit faintly by the blue glow of some strange energy. He was murmuring words under his breath, It was magic.
"Help me!" I cried out, stumbling toward him with tears stinging my eyes.
I didn't know what was happening to me, but some part of me, some instinct buried deep in my bones told me he was the only one who could stop it. I needed to be near him.
That was the only thing my body seemed to want.
"You need to keep your distance, Princess," he growled at me more louder this time as i stumbled towards him. He stood stiffly with his back rigid and arms at his sides like he was fighting the urge to move.
My gaze fell on the part of his chest that was exposed by his unbuttoned shirt.
The moment I saw it, my mouth went dry and a strange thirst clawed at me, I swallowed hard and took another step, closing the distance between us, unable to resist the pull I felt toward him.