Mortal Skin

I first saw the Folk when I was a little boy. When they started appearing in my garden, with their unnatural, cruel beauty and honeyed words and veiled taunts. I grew up with big green eyes watching me from the forest. Whispers from the trees. Shimmering skin darting between the bushes. Black creatures always lurking in the shadows.

While they were here, I thought nothing of them. It wasn’t until they were gone that I realise it wasn’t… normal.

But it isn’t until I’m twenty-one, when my life is in ruins, that they come back to take me away.

They say I’m not fully mortal. They say I should be among them. The Unseelie Ruler wants me on her land for reasons no one will explain to me, but it’s her aloof, painfully beautiful son who captures my attention and refuses to let go.

The cold, black-eyed assassin prince who strikes fear into the hearts of all Folk. Who I’ve been warned about, repeatedly.

Who watches me always.

I don’t trust the Folk, so I ignore their fearful advice to stay away from him. I ignore all of them except him, despite everything telling me that he can’t be trusted—that he’s just as bad as the rest of them, that he’s playing games with me, the clueless mortal held here against his will.

But I want him.