aruba_sheikh

Julian Thorne arrives in the secluded town of Shadowmere, seeking to uncover its hidden history. He quickly encounters Sabrina, the enigmatic and powerful guardian of the town, who warns him against delving too deep. Despite the danger, Julian is drawn into a forbidden attraction with Sabrina as he investigates the town's secrets, including a tragic love story from the past, a dormant power, and a looming curse tied to a powerful family.

Echoes of the Shadowed Grove

The pollen filled Julian's lungs like liquid desire—thick and sweet with the scent of Sabrina's skin when she'd arch beneath him on summer nights, when sweat made her body gleam like moonlight on willow bark. Now that same intoxicating musk choked him as Sabrina's transformation accelerated.

Her scream had become something other—a sound between a woman's pain and the grove's creaking branches. Julian crawled toward her through the swirling haze, his vision blurring as the pollen coated his tongue, tasting of:

Blackberries crushed under desperate fingersThe iron tang when Sabrina first bit his lipHer tears the night they'd broken the curse

"Sabrina!" His voice tore raw from his throat as he reached the root-bound altar.

What lay before him was both divine and monstrous.

Sabrina's skin had become translucent, revealing the vines pulsing beneath like lovers' entwined fingers. Where they pierced her navel, collarbones, and thighs, white roses bloomed, their petals edged with the same violet as her eyes—eyes that now held no pupil, no white, just endless amethyst radiance.

The child (now wearing Julian's own face) stroked Sabrina's sweat-slicked hair. "Does it hurt, Mother?"

Sabrina's answer came in panting bursts: "Only... when I... fight it."

Then she turned her head—so slowly—toward Julian. When her lips parted, pollen drifted out like whispered secrets.

"Julian... run."

But the vines around her wrists yanked taut, pulling her arms into a crucifixion pose. New blossoms erupted along her spine with wet pop-pop-pop sounds, each one spraying pollen that:

Killed the mushrooms it touched (they withered screaming)Revived the skeletons (their jaws clacked in worship)Made Julian's wedding ring glow white-hot

Violet fire raced up Julian's arm as the roses on Sabrina's body mimicked the motion, vines snaking from her wounds to mirror his veins. The child clapped its hands in delight:

"See? Even your love feeds her transformation!"

Sabrina threw her head back as a particularly thick vine pushed between her ribs, its tip flowering deep inside her chest cavity. The sound she made wasn't pain—it was rapture.

"You... enjoy this," he breathed.

Sabrina's glowing eyes locked onto his. "Parts of me do," she admitted, voice layered with the grove's whispers. "The parts that remember how you looked... when I... ah! ...when I first rode you beneath these very trees."

The confession undid him.

Julian surged forward despite the pain, capturing her pollen-coated lips in a kiss that:

Tasted like betrayal (the grove's influence)Felt like home (her tongue still knew his)Left his mouth bleeding (from the thorns her teeth had become)

When they broke apart, Sabrina's vines yanked her backward into the largest willow's hollow trunk.

"Find the first page," she gasped before disappearing inside. "The one the grandmother... ate!"*

The child sighed. "Now we'll have to start your transformation too, Father."

It raised a hand dripping with black sap.

CHAPTER END: The sap hit Julian's eyes—and suddenly he could see every corpse the grove had ever loved.

CHAPTER 4: THE BLOOMING