The smile that dies on his lips.

"But how?" I stare at him. He isn't being serious, is he? 

     "I can make you go. With me." He says. Yet his eyes refuse to hold mine. 

      "You are lying."

      "Why would I ?"

    I squint my eyes at him. He can't be serious. How could I ever go there when I was never invited or allowed at the least? The soldiers will swoosh me out of there like an omen.  People will curse my face for ruining their precious day. 

        I clutch my jaw. 

       I could never be normal.  

   "You don't know better, Arlo. You'll never say this if you do." My tone is harsh. Harsher than I intended it to be. 

         He scoffs. Scoffs? Really? 

     "The fair is held next Tuesday, isn't it? Why won't you meet me here on Monday so I'll tell you about my plan?" He asks and when my eyes narrow at him, he only shrugged. 

    "My mom won't work on Mondays, didn't I tell you? She will be home." I mumbles. A breeze comes and snatch the words away from my lips. 

     Arlo sighs, "Isn't she home today too?"

     I huff out a long puff of breath, "Yeah."

   "Zera," I curse at the way my heart races and the way my name sounds on his tongue. The way how soft it sounds. So soft. Soft like him and  it had this magic to invade my heart. 

   I glance up at him and my eyes hold his flickering gaze.

  "I really do want you to come here Monday." He says in an awfully delicate tone that melts my heart like an ice cube on fire. 

    How could I ever say no to him? I don't think I could ever. 

    "I'll show you that we can go to the fair together. No one will know." His intense gaze makes my skin tingle as he whispers, "That you are a Gray." 

     I don't dare to breathe. 

    It takes me an extended breath of silence to find my voice and when I do, the sound that comes out of my mouth is alien to my ears: "What— but how?"

  "You will come, right?" He asks instead of answering me, chewing on his lips as his eyes anxiously gaze down at me. "Monday. Evening. On top of the tree house." 

        "Arlo—"

      "I'll be waiting." His eyes ride up to the horizon. Where the sun is dipping down the water level.

   The last rays of sunlight scatter on Arlo's hair strands and paint it in a gold and orange hue. It's breathtaking. 

     He takes my breath away. 

  "You need to go back. It's past your usual return time " He says and it breaks my trance. 

   "Yeah…" I mumble, but my legs feel frozen in the sand. I don't wanna go back yet…

   "Go, My Zera. I'll wait for you. Always." I don't know why he says things like that, because whenever he does my heart feels like it would explode and my stomach would feel like it cannot contain any more butterflies that he gives me in it. 

       I manage a nod and walk backward with my eyes still on him.

          I stop. 

        "Arlo," I call out, loving the way his name feels on my tongue and the delight when it swivels out of my mouth. 

       "When will you get home?" The sun is already halfway down the water level. It must be at nightfall that he will get back to the Hawzey mountains. I want to ask him to leave first but the thought of him vanishing away to the darkness of the woods is not a pleasant sight for me to hold.

   "Before nightfall." He says as he pushes back the hair strands falling into his eyes from the wild sea breeze. 

      "What? You are lying." If I run now I can barely manage to reach home before nightfall even though I live way too nearer than him. 

    "Oh, Zera, you don't know." He rolls his eyes as he bites back a grin. "I have the fastest wolf in all these mountains." 

      Oh! 

   I forget for a moment that he isn't a wolf-less soul like me. 

      "Is that so?" I stare at Arlo who is now standing in front of me with a magnificent grin sloping his pink lips. 

     "Can I see your wolf?" I ask him.

 I'm really really curious. What will Arlo's wolf look like? Will it be as breathtaking as his human form?  

    "If only you would show me yours too." 

   My heart stops.

   Aches.

  and I can't breathe. 

   "I should go, it's really late."  As the words escape my mouth, the smile that dies down on his lips doesn't go unnoticed by my wandering gaze.