Draped in black satin, her hair dark as ink, her milk-white skin so pale it seemed to glow in the dim light. Her radiant smile managed to pour warmth into parts of me I’d thought were long buried, lost beneath the ruins of all I had endured. Ivy Harper—this intoxicating, beautiful muse—kissed like she wanted to devour me, as if every kiss were a meal to be savoured. And this delicious, delicate degustation obliterated the darkness and despair and only pure joy and ecstasy remained. Where does chance give way to fate? For the Fates have offered Ivy as my muse and I accept this gift from the ether with all my heart. My world is better with Ivy in it. FULL STOP.