From the moment Hades first laid eyes on Evangeline, he knew she was different. Or perhaps she was no different from the countless women who had crossed his path before, except for the way her presence drew his gaze without asking for it. She shone to him, not in brilliance or beauty alone, but in a way that caught his sight even when he had no intention of looking.
It was an unsettling kind of presence. The sort that stirred curiosity rather than desire. A girl who made him want to know more, not because she demanded attention, but because she existed honestly within herself.
She did not hide her thoughts or bend her beliefs to survive. She knew what was right and what was wrong, and she carried that knowledge on shoulders far too delicate for the weight she bore, yet she never once tried to set it down.
