RYKER
THREE YEARS AGO
I stood in the courtyard watching the maidens move through their morning routines, half listening to Cole talk about some bullshit patrol assignment, he walked into the courtyard but I stood still. I didn't trail after him,
"Are you looking for the next girl you are going to fuck?" a voice said interrupting my thoughts.
I turned around ready to tell whoever had the audacity to speak to me like that exactly where they could shove their opinion and froze.
Her red hair caught the sunlight like fire, falling in waves around a face that belonged in paintings or dreams or wherever beautiful things lived when they were not standing in front of me making my brain short circuit.
She was probably in her early thirties, not by how she looked because she looked ageless in that way some women did, but by the bold brightness radiating from her eyes. Eyes that had seen things, done things, knew things.
