The Prince of Mourning

Prologue

They all looked the same to me before her.

Every interaction I had with them was simply part of my duty, an unending series of repetitions that rarely held any variation, day in, day out. An uncrossable line existed between us, and the only thing I could do was perform the function I was born into.

Look, but do not touch.

Help, but do not feel.

Listen, but do not answer.

These rules I’ve followed without question or hesitation. After all, rules exist for a reason, and I believed that the ones I obeyed were put in place by those I trusted. That the very nature of life and death and all existence was under threat if I deviated from my destined path.

Then I saw her, just a tiny thing. A slip of a girl, cursed to live in squalor and surrounded by others who didn’t see her true nature.

But I saw.

To be precise, she saw me.

That was what caught my attention—the palest blue eyes looking straight at me. A deviation in my routine. She shouldn’t have been able to see me. No one should. Thousands upon thousands I’d known since I’d begun performing my duties, and not one of them had known me back.

Until her.

Look, but do not touch. Help, but do not feel. Listen, but do not answer.

I broke all these rules and more.

And if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t hesitate.

For her, I would break any rule…