The look in Davion's eyes filled her with fear. His eyes were as cold as ice, staring at her. It felt like beneath the ice there was a swirling mass of cold water ready to swallow her the moment the ice broke. Back into the darkness where the monster had tried to consume her earlier. Although that had felt like fire eating its way through her body, in stark contrast to the man in front of her. Thana didn't know what to expect, but the longer he remained silent, the more frightened she became. Her throat felt constricted, and she longed for Saskia. The woman had slapped her, but at least Thana had immediately known who she was dealing with. With Davion, there was only a look and a silence she dared not break.

"I don't know who Izara is," he finally spoke. "But I promise you, I will find her, my love." Again, Thana felt a cold shiver run down her spine when he called her his love; it felt wrong. "If she is the last obstacle between us, we will overcome it." He fell silent, and Thana realized she was too dumbfounded to respond. Izara was her obstacle? Yet she shook her head in disbelief; this couldn't be true. Of everyone, Izara had always been the one standing by Thana's side, the one who made her heart sing, and the one she wanted to share her life with.

"No," she responded firmly, much more certain than she felt. It no longer felt like a dream; she never dreamed this vividly. Yet she wanted nothing more than to wake up screaming from this nightmare. She had suffered pain and never felt so helpless. But Thana refused to acknowledge that her memories weren't hers and that she belonged to the jerk in front of her. Whatever shield he might mean, he was wrong. And she would prove it to him. "If anyone here is an obstacle, it's you," she quickly replied to keep her voice from breaking.

However, Davion moved even closer to her, causing her gaze to flicker to the hairbrush again. "Leave that," he mumbled when he followed her gaze. "Mara, I understand you're confused, but believe me when I say this will all get better soon. Who knows, maybe this Izara is just a figment of the shield and never really existed," the smile with which he looked at her seemed sincere. Yet Thana didn't believe him for a second; she had seen the way he looked at her before. And she had seen how he hadn't flinched when Saskia slapped her.

"She's not, and you're an asshole," she muttered, struggling to suppress the urge to stomp her foot like a child. Doing so would mean conceding that Davion was right, so she held back. She had no idea how far his patience would go and didn't want to risk truly angering him. Thana feared he was both her obstacle and the way to get back home. He, however, raised his eyebrow as if he hadn't understood what she said. Maybe he didn't want to understand; it was a mystery to Thana.

However, he only extended his hand to brush a lock of hair behind her ear. If she had been an animal, she would have bitten him, Thana decided. Yet something inside her held back. What if he was telling the truth? What if she really was Mara and something had made her believe she was Thana? Thana knew she wasn't any more special than the other girls she had met. She had no deep secrets, except for a hopeless crush on her best friend. She definitely didn't possess any hidden special talents. Thana also couldn't say she had often felt different, aside from the usual teenage frustrations everyone experienced. A teacher had once told her that everyone felt different at some point, which made everyone the same.

Her back was still pressed against the wall, and now that Davion was closer, Thana realized her chance to grab the hairbrush was gone. She didn't know if it was Davion's intention, but she felt even more trapped than before. Out of reflex, her hand went back to the necklace hidden under her dress. That was where it all began, but it also felt like a lifeline to reality. The only thing she had that came from her own world, though she was beginning to doubt even that. Saskia had told her to keep it hidden, but she noticed Davion watching her movements. He wasn't looking at her chest like so many others had but higher, as if he knew she had hidden the necklace there.

"It brought you back here, my love," he whispered softly. The pet name still made Thana's hair stand on end. "You kept it, so you knew you would return to me. I still don't know what you managed to steal from me, but measures have been taken. You can't imagine how happy I was when Klaida told me she had found you. As promised, all you had to do was open the book, and I would bring you back home." Every word made Thana feel that the story didn't add up. The necklace hadn't been hers for long. She had received it from her aunt on her birthday, along with the book she had tried to read. Had her aunt not opened it? Was that why she was here instead of her aunt? Then Davion would immediately know that Aunt Adaline wasn't Mara.

He must have seen her doubts; Thana had always been bad at lying and keeping a straight face. Yet he hadn't looked away. "May I, milady?" he asked, waiting, the first thing he let Thana decide, she realized. She hesitated; she wasn't stupid. The distance between them had shrunk, and she had nowhere to go. "The shield would then disappear, the last stubborn walls and illusions would finally give way to the truth," he continued. It still sounded like nonsense to Thana, but there was that cursed little voice in her head. A voice wondering what would happen if Davion was right. If this was her real home and she did belong in the fairy tales others dreamed of. Izara, for instance, loved them; was that a sign? Had the necklace returned to her because it was time to discover the truth?

She decided to give her doubts the benefit of the doubt and nodded softly. With all her heart, she hoped she wouldn't regret it. It was the right choice, she told herself, then she would know what her heart truly wanted to say. She felt Davion's lips softly touch hers. They brushed against hers like butterfly wings, and Thana's heart began to race. It felt as if it had escaped her chest and was trying to find a way out through her throat. Yet she closed her eyes, knowing even without experience that you don't kiss with your eyes open.

Davion's scent filled her nose, but Thana couldn't quite place it. He smelled like a smoldering campfire and fresh-fallen powder snow, reflecting the contrast between fire and ice. Carefully, the man placed a hand around her hip, and Thana let him. She still couldn't believe this could be real. That she was standing in the arms of the man she had just called a jerk. That he was the one who claimed to offer her a new home, a real home. Thana couldn't fathom what he had promised her and what he envisioned. She didn't understand what was happening and couldn't believe she had trusted him even for a second.

Everything felt wrong, and her body screamed for an escape. She was like a trapped bird in the jaws of a predator. She stood in the arms of a man, but her heart cried out for another. Thana knew she could never love him; she wasn't Mara at all. She didn't want to become the person he saw before him. She had had numerous dreams back home and wanted to make countless plans for the future. A future where Davion had never played a role, since she had just met him. She should never have opened the stupid book and should have just fallen asleep. The arm he had wrapped around her felt like burning ice, and Thana felt like she couldn't breathe.

She pushed the man away from her and quickly moved away from the wall. She felt the tears welling up as she looked at Davion, shocked. "I am Thana," she responded breathlessly, panting from the emotions surging through her. "I don't know who you are, but I'm not your beloved." Thana had known for a long time that her heart didn't belong to men, as the girl she loved had stolen it long ago.

Davion looked at her with a gaze she hadn't seen before in the few hours she had known him. For a moment, he seemed broken, but soon a kind of anger washed over his face, making Thana afraid. Had she gone too far? He said nothing but stormed out of the room, leaving Thana alone. The door slammed shut with a loud bang, and to her great fear, she heard a key turn in the lock. She ran after him to the door but couldn't get the handle down. "Let me go!" she screamed loudly, banging her flat hands on the door. "Don't lock me up!"

On the other side of the door, there was only silence, so Thana continued to pound on the door. "Davion! Jerk!" she screamed until her voice was hoarse. "Saskia! Monster! Someone! Get me out of here!" The door remained shut, and terrified by everything, she took a step back to stare at it. A lone tear rolled down her cheek as Thana walked over to the bed that stood opposite the huge wardrobe. She collapsed onto the neatly made sheets and began to cry like a little child for the first time since she woke up here.

Her first kiss had been a huge mistake.