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Chapter 1

Ren could hear the blood pounding against his eardrums, overshadowing the dead silence with a sense of fear. He had acclimated himself to breathing steadily despite the rate at which his heart was racing, every step as silent as the last. He had learned where to place his hands and what direction to pull in when he opened his window so it made the least amount of noise.

Ren lived for this kind of adrenaline. He chased after it like a dog chased a rabbit. To taste the fur and flesh between teeth and jaw was like a small taste of a dream. The reward after a hunt.

He slipped out of the window and planted his feet on the ground with practiced precision, deftly pulling the window back down again.

—

“What are you doing?”

Ren’s lips pulled up into a grin as he looked up onto the roof. He was hoping that Elinor would be there—she always was, whenever she couldn’t sleep. “Why hello, my fair lady! Care to help out your knight in shining armor?”

“Be quiet,” the Fae girl said in a hushed voice, reaching out one of her wings down to him, which he promptly grabbed onto. He held to the sturdy white feathers as he was pulled up onto the roof.

“So strong,” he commented with a mockingly flirtatious tone as he plopped down on the slightly sloped roof beside Elinor. “Just how I like my women, eh?”

“You are something else.” Elinor shook her head and sat back, supporting herself with her hands as her feathers ruffled and settled again. “I don’t know what my parents see in you.”

“Oh, ya know…” Ren laid back, folding his arms behind his head and closing his eyes. “Money makes people overlook your flaws. So basically, I’m the picture of perfection.”

“Picture of detention, maybe,” Elinor shot back with a glare he didn’t have to see to know was there. After a moment of silence, she added, “Did that make sense?”

“Sorta, but it was still lame.”

“Shut up.”

Ren chuckled and opened his eyes, looking over at Elinor from where he laid. “You’ve never been the best with that. I can’t believe I have to spend the rest of my life with someone like you.”