Camden ~ Find me BOOK ONE

I don’t know exactly when it happened.

Maybe it was the first time I saw him leap down the stone steps of West Lake University as effortlessly as the sun rises after a long night, bathing the morning in warm, golden light.

Or perhaps it was the way he ran a hand through his dark, full hair, trying to tame an unruly strand behind his ear. The gesture was so natural, so unguarded, that I couldn’t look away.

More likely, it was his deep, scratchy voice that caught me first. It reminded me of a cold winter evening in a snow-covered cabin hidden deep inside an enchanted forest—low, smoky, and comforting, like the last embers glowing in a dying fire.

Then again, maybe it was simply him.

Tall and undeniably handsome, his sculpted frame looked as strong as it was resilient. He carried himself as though nothing could touch him, yet there was something about him that felt vulnerable. Lost. His inked skin fascinated me, every tattoo hinting at a story I didn’t yet know. Or maybe it was the way he kept everyone at a distance that drew me in even more.

I had never met anyone who could go from open, carefree, and almost exuberant when no one was watching to grim and intimidating the second eyes turned his way. His disapproving frown made him seem impossible to read, as though he had spent years building walls no one could climb.

I can’t pinpoint the exact second he came into my life, but I know my future would never be the way I had planned. My path changed the moment he entered the picture.

Sometimes the most unexpected encounters are worth everything.

Worth living for.

Worth dying for.

Sometimes the most irrational choices are the only ones that ever make sense.

Maybe fate brought us together.

Maybe we never should have crossed paths.

Or maybe I was always meant to find him.

To love him.

To help him find his way back to himself.

He was the dark prince of aloofness, the master of solitude and self-destruction. A phantom locked away inside a castle of his own making, surrounded by walls so high and thorns so thick that no one had ever managed to reach him.

It was the only place he believed he was safe. He had convinced himself he was destined to carry everything alone.

Until I came along.

Little by little, I began to thaw the ice around his heart with a love I hadn’t even realized I was capable of giving.

Before I knew it, I was completely under his spell.

When someone gets inside your head so completely that you can no longer think straight, every decision is driven by emotion. Even when you know it’s the wrong choice, it somehow becomes the only one worth making.

How do you survive when you’re so emotionally drained you can barely function?

When the pain of missing someone becomes a physical ache, you’ll do almost anything to quiet the emptiness inside.

You learn that even when the whole world seems determined to keep you apart, there is only one direction left to go.

Towards him.

No matter the cost.

When the whole world is against you...

it’s just us.

Against all odds.