Otter Creek innocent iii

Their eyes locked, feverish silver to sharp seaglass; unblinking now. Her breath turned shallow. Something stirred behind his gaze, something keen and grasping that she did not understand. No one had ever looked at her that way before.

She was afraid.

Ana nodded again, slowly this time. The stars and the sea; each night in her dreams they fell together and broke into a thousand shards, and behind the glass countless eyes blinked in countless colors like so many shining gems. Always watching. Always. She knew them as surely as she knew her own blood and heart and veins. And she was afraid — but she could never look away.