The clock groaned into midnight,dragging the silence behind it.
Elara's senses prickled; footsteps echoed from the shadows like a predator stalking its prey. She stiffened,the chill crawling along her spine.
"You shouldn't be wandering here.'' She hissed her voice barely more than a breath in the night.
At last, a figure stepped into the pale moonlight, his blue eyes cutting through the darkness like shards of ice. Black hair fell in sharp angles over a striking face that seemed carved from shadow itself.
"Shouldn't I?'' His voice was velvet dipped in steel, sending shivers down her body.
"I...I don't belong to anyone," she stammered , every syllable tight with defiance.
He tilted his head, a slow, dangerous smile curving his lips. ''Bold words...but your trembling says otherwise." His fingers brushed along her shoulder,cold and deliberate, tracing the line of her collarbone with a predators patience.
Elara's heart beat pouneded,every instinct screaming to run.yet some impossible magnetism held rooted,eyes locked in those icy blue depths.
"Tell me." He murmured, the air around them thick with menace "are you hiding from me... or from yourself?"