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“It was love at first sight…”
As the story continued, there was less talk of “boring old love” as some of the children muttered beneath their breath, and more action and adventure as the mysterious silvery stranger showed Titania around his realm.
Something drew Ben’s attention away momentarily from the storyteller’s corner. He just happened to glance behind him toward a shadowy nook between two tall bookshelves, hidden from everyone else’s view.
A man stood there, watching the storytelling with intense concentration.
He was as tall as Ben, which was noticeable in of itself, especially in this day and age. Dressed all in somber black, no hat, no waistcoat. The only things that broke the severity of his style were the sparkling silver buttons that marched down the center of his chest and the cuffs of his coat sleeves.
That, and the eerie paleness of his skin and hair.
Ben had never seen skin that pale before. It looked like the man was made of ice. Translucent, but somehow not brittle. In fact, if anything, he seemed harder than steel.
Or perhaps the right analogy was diamonds.
His features were constructed of the sharpest angles, all slanting cheekbones and cutting jawline. Slashing, silver-tipped, black brows spread over wolf-like eyes, slightly tilted at the inner and outer corners. Whose lashes were so long and thick, Ben could see them clearly from where he stood. They were also black but dipped in that same silver at the tips.
His hair, too, was a platinum white, shoulder-length, slightly wavy and loose over his collar. It reminded Ben of the Pure Healer, Rain’s, hair. But not exactly.
Each strand of Rain’s hair was called azhen, a long, silky needle that sometimes moved of its own accord. She used herzhenlike acupuncture instruments to regulate her patients’qi.
This man’s hair merely moved in a delayed manner, as if it was suspended in water.
It wasn’t the typical style for Victorian men that Ben recalled from his studies. But then, everything about the stranger looked out of place. While his wardrobe wouldn’t raise undue alarm, his physicality and presence practically throbbed like a neon sign that he didn’t belong.
That was when the man suddenly turned and looked at Ben head on.
Ben’s eyes widened as he stared back.
He’d never seen eyes like those before. Pale and glittering, almost colorless, yet reflecting every fragment of light.
Truly like diamonds, the iridescent irises were framed by a thin ring of black, the pupils small like pin points. The shape of the eyes might look like a wolf’s, but those irises and pupils…they reminded Ben of a snake’s.
No, he realized, as he stared with breath held, heart pounding.
They were the eyes of a dragon.
“Ben, are you paying attention?” Annie’s voice carried to him from a seemingly distant place.
“What are you looking at?”
Ben blinked and turned to her.
“I—”
“You missed half of the story. It’s already over for the day,” she chided.
“The good news is, Lady Brigid will be back next week. I almost hope we can stay longer in this time just to hear the rest of her fairytale.”
Ben shook his head a little to clear it, looking back toward the shadowy nook where the stranger stood.
But he was already gone.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
“That was quite an engrossing tale!” the lovely auburn-haired miss called Annie enthused, holding onto one of Brigid’s hands.
Proper etiquette dictated that she should have released Brigid promptly after the initial introduction and shake, but she maintained possession of it. And Brigid loathed to dampen her seemingly genuine enthusiasm and affection.
