He turned slowly.
The woman standing before him was beautiful in the way a predator is beautiful. Her dark hair cascaded past her shoulders like liquid shadow. Her eyes held depths that should not exist in anything mortal. And her smile, that gentle curve of her lips, promised things that Alex's instincts screamed at him to avoid.
Sofia tilted her head, studying him like a child examining a particularly interesting insect. "You have grown stronger since we last met. I can taste it."
"Taste it?" Alex kept his voice level, though every nerve in his body had gone taut. "That's an interesting choice of words."
"Isn't it just?" Sofia took a single step forward. The grass beneath her feet withered. Not dramatically, not with flames or decay, but quietly, as if the life simply chose to abandon it. "Words matter, Alex. Intentions matter. Souls matter most of all."
