"Rose," he said in a melodic tone that would weave itself around her like a golden but sticky net. "I could if I wanted to."

She shifted around uncomfortably, her hands holding on to the boulders behind her for support, but no words left her lips as his magic began taking its effect on her. He stood now directly in front of her and he noticed how small and fragile she was in comparison to him. She barely reached his shoulders. It would be easy for him to overpower her. But that was not his plan. It did not work this way.

"Or do you wish to be enchanted?" he asked, locking eyes with her.

She stood frozen to the spot, unable to move, staring into his face, as if she had been hypnotised.

"W—what? No, I only wish to find my way out again," she said, but her eyes betrayed her words.

She looked at him with both fear and a hidden gleam of excitement. It would not be long for her to accept his offer.

"Do not be afraid of me," he said softly as he reached out for her hands. "I know what people say. The woods are haunted and evil spirits do live within. But tell me, do I look like an evil spirit to you?"

She tried to pull her hands away from him, but his grip was strong and her resistance was beginning to melt away.

"N— no, but how am I to know if you are telling the truth?" she said. He could sense that she was struggling to keep her mind focused. A futile struggle. Soon she would be trapped like a butterfly in a spider's net.

Andor tilted his head towards her, his hair cascading over his shoulders and onto her chest like supple waves of ebony. "Have you never dreamt of running away into the forest? Have you never felt the desire to meet those that guard these woods? Be like them?"

She stared up to him slightly confused. "How could I be like them? I am a human and that will never change."

"How can you be so sure of that? I see it in your eyes what you wish for." He leaned down, his face now barely an inch from hers. "You want to be with me."

His last words were just a whisper, but he knew that she had heard him loud and clear. Her lips were so close that he could even feel her breath, peculiar and strange, but somehow alluring. It might be nice to kiss her, he thought to himself, before it was all over.

"But—, how do you know?" she stuttered, suddenly flustered.

"I know, because I am one of the guardians of this forest. I can feel what pulls you here." He took her chin in his hands and brought his lips to hover above hers. She did not move away. Her sky blue eyes now spoke less of fear than of a longing. This was the moment.

He slanted his lips over hers and kissed her. She melted into the softness of his touch and kissed him back with a hunger that he had not expected from her. She tasted of honey and for a fleeting moment he nearly forgot his duty. Andor broke the kiss just in time to make her crave for more, and before he would lose himself.

"Now," he said and held her face in his hands. "If you want this," he teased her with another ghostly kiss that lingered on her trembling lips just for a moment, "you can have it."

Her eyes were dazed and her cheeks flushed and she only said, "More."

He smiled and pulled the phial from his pocket. "If you drink this," he said, holding up the crystal clear liquid, "you can stay in the forest forever."

She narrowed her eyes, a lingering doubt trying to break through the web he had woven around her, "But what is the price? There is nothing that comes for free."

"Do you not wish for eternal life?" he said. "What you must pay is a small price. To give up your human form is what you must do."

Her hands extended towards the phial, but he held it out of her reach and then closed his hands again around it. He saw the hesitance in her eyes, but also the longing and the desire he had instilled in her.

"What do you say? If you accept my offer, all this will be yours," he said with a sweeping gesture around the glade. "I will eternally be yours," he added in a low voice. "But you must decide now or the moment will be gone forever."

She looked up to him again, her blonde locks slightly disarrayed, but her glazed look told him that she was under his spell already.

"Yes," she breathed, the word leaving her mouth almost out of its own accord.

A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. He unplugged the phial and handed it to her.

"You must drink it all at once for the magic to work. Do not stop and do not hesitate. Do you understand, Rose?" When he said her name, he reached right into the core of her very existence. There it was, her heart, fluttering like a little bird and ready for him to take it.

"I do," she said, her voice now drowsy as her fingers closed around the small crystal bottle.