Prologue
There was something a little odd about the woman, not just in physical appearance but in the way she walked and dressed and spoke, but the elderly man on the park bench said nothing. He pulled out his half-eaten turkey sandwich and picked a few pieces of mold off the crust. Digging through the garbage for food had its downsides, but the sandwich was edible and not all that bad. The man wrinkled his nose as he took a large bite, watching the strange woman walk around the park. She was tall and walked with catlike grace. Long copper hair fanned out behind her in the breeze like flames. Her eyes were wide and an impossible lilac color that the man found interesting. At least until she glanced his way.
When their eyes met, the man couldn’t look away. She held his gaze with a small smile, a threatening glimmer in those impossibly deep lilac eyes. The old man wasn’t blinking, couldn’t breathe— staring into what he swore was the entire universe hiding in her irises. He could see planets, stars, a swirling white substance like the Milky Way…galaxies…
A few moments later the man collapsed, bland brown eyes dripping crimson, nose slowly starting to bleed too. The partially eaten sandwich rolled from his hand and fell to the dewy grass, where a few pigeons landed to inspect it. Even they turned away in disgust. The strange woman turned as though nothing had happened, her boots making sweet music on the cobblestone path, but in her violaceous eyes there was a little glint. A little star.
