Page 62 of Daughter of Garnet

My hands are shaking as I turn it over and look into sad, golden eyes. I've never seen this woman before, but I feel as if I have known her my whole life. It's a simple portrait, with none of the creative frills of the others, but it captures my attention all the same.

Ilota sits alone, no beasts around her, in the middle of a crudely drawn flame. Her hands are folded on her lap, and she's nude, with orange hair wild around her face.

Around her neck is an unrefined garnet wrapped in a silver chain.

It matches the one around my neck.

How is it that there is so little of Ilota known, and yet here, in this destroyed painting, there is a necklace just like mine?

I grip the stone so hard it digs into my hand.

"I recognized it the first time I saw you." The deep voice startles me to the point of terror, but my scream is muffled by a hand over my mouth. "Shh, lovely Zoe."

My heart is close to beating out of my chest, but I recognize the voice and the scent of the person holding me. Sweet sticky toffee. The man pressing me against his chest is my masked hookup from the blind faith party. Despite myself, I find my body relaxing into his arms.

Though he is a stranger to me, I feel safe in his arms. He holds me until my breathing levels out, and then, almost reluctantly, he lets me go and takes a few steps back.

I wanted that rendezvous in the woods to stay anonymous, but it seems Fate had other plans for me. The moment I turn to see the man behind the mask, my stomach falls out of my ass.

"In my defense, I tried to tell you," Cameron says, holding his hands up. "I wanted you to know it was me."

"But you— You should've…" I can't seem to form a sentence. "You knew it was me!"

He flops onto a pew, dust flying up around him. "I did. You looked so beautiful."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried. Several times. You wanted me to be a fantasy, so I was a fantasy." He pulls at the collar of his sweater, revealing a thick black band around his neck, the same one he was wearing in the woods that night.

"I didn't want you to be a fantasy! I wanted him to be one!"

He blinks, nose wrinkled in confusion. "I am him."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you hook up with me?"

Cameron holds a hand out for me, and, against my better judgment, I take it, allowing him to pull me onto the pew beside him. "I'll let you in on a little secret, Zoe." His eyes are shifty, as if he expects someone to pop out of a corner and listen to us. "You asked me to."

This is going nowhere.

"Where have you been?"

Again, the strange Alpha looks baffled at my question. "Where I always am."

I rub my temples, sending a prayer to Ilota for strength. "Why did you stop leaving me notes?"

"That wasn't me."

The silence of the chapel is oppressive as his words hang in the air between us.

If he wasn't my stalker, who was? Who was I putting dresses on for?

I was okay when I thought it was Cameron, but a complete unknown stalking me makes my head spin. Darkness starts to creep into my vision with how fast I'm breathing as I try to come to terms with the fact that my stalker is not the man I wanted him to be.

"I'm just joking. Of course it was me!" The words rip me out of my spiral, and I launch myself from the pew, mouth gaping as I stare at the Alpha. "I had you going, though, didn't I?"