Prologue
Charles
I could still see her face in my mind, even years later—the girl in the sparkling blue mask at the Hallows Eve Ball. I was a young man of seventeen, and she was the first woman who had ever truly captivated me. But I knew, deep down, that I wasn’t her true mate. I could still feel the thin, weak thread of that old connection, after the loss of my mate.
The fragile images of the girl at the ball became my only hope. I was a desperate man, and I went to the one person I knew who could find anyone... Gregory.
“I need your help,” I told him, the words rushing out of me with urgency. “I need to find the girl I danced with at the Hallows Eve Ball.”
“And what will I get if I find her?”
“Your place back at the table,” I said without hesitation.
“I’m listening.”
As I described the girl to Gregory, his eyes narrowed with disbelief. He nodded, pondering over my words, before pulling out a picture. My heart hammered against my ribs. She had to be her. But her eyes were lighter, almost ivory—nothing like the pale fawn gaze that still haunted me.
“That’s her... How?”
“This is my daughter, Harvest,” he said. “There’s no way you could have danced with her.” Then it was as if something inside him had clicked. His eyes dilated, and the room temperature changed. “Unless.”
