Ocean of Ink (The Obsidian Academy Duet #1)

Year 819, Week 68 Adira （Seventeen years old）

Rowan Cove, the Duke of Valorshire, asked for my hand in the drawing room today. I could not meet his eyes. I could only stare into the ones of the little girl in the portrait above the hearth. Rowan is handsome, kind, and wealthy. Many of the women on the Wild Holm desire him.

But I do not, because I am stuck in the painting. I am ten years old and ruined for trusting a man. I am ten years old and crying in my brother’s bloodstained arms. I am ten years old and crippled beneath a Curse that makes me feel my brother’s sorrow in my bones.

It has been seven years, but time has frozen like the lily pond in winter. I am forever the girl in the painting, screaming and screaming yet not making a sound.