Chapter 217

Without his essence, his body was completely white. I had once compared him to the alabaster sculpture of David. Without life, he looked even more like a statue then ever before. But if I reached out and touched him, his skin wouldn't be hard like marble—only cold.

Even his normally beautiful dark curls had no color. And yet I couldn't stop thinking that he was just as handsome as any living man was with his full lips and perfect Cupid's bow. His nose was strong and not narrow or pinched, the bridge broad. He was beautiful, and if I wasn't being watched so closely, I could have stared at him for hours. I suddenly remembered that while the essence of Alexis wasn't in that body, it was still in the room—he was still in the room.

I looked over at him—the Alexis who stared at me from Ran's body. It broke whatever spell I was in, and I turned to the real Ran.