- Aurelian Salvatore:
Love ruined my life long before I ever understood what it meant.
Not the gentle kind of love that people dream about or chase foolishly. Not something warm or chosen. Not the love which you build and develop slowly with someone you feel safe and loved with. Love, for me, arrived as a punishment—forced into my bones by a curse I never asked for and can never escape.
I was cursed when I was young. Too young to understand why my parents' enemies hated them enough to destroy their child's life instead. One spell, carefully crafted and cruel, woven out of spite and hatred. It didn't disfigure me. It didn't rot my skin or twist my magic. It did something far worse.
Anyone who looks at my face falls in love with me.
