Where she is so bright and full of shimmering youthful hope, he is in so very many ways the opposite. There is little in the way of redeeming qualities remaining in Darkling, though to say he is genuinely terrible would also be a stretch. He may hold the cheerfulness of youth, but that is where the similarities end.
And perhaps that is what draws him to her. That peculiar yin and yang of those who are both similar and yet so clearly opposite. Of course, his interest is far less benign than one might wish, but whether that would prove terrible or not is yet to be determined.
It’s easy to remain unnoticed when he wishes it. The shadows flock to him like the gentle hands of a lover, easily wrapping him in their whispered embrace. His golden skin becomes faded and dark, gleaming, near-black eyes only another pitch in the shelter of the trees. She, in contrast, is lovely and shining, a beacon of sweetness impossible to resist for one who already knows they love the taste.
A single step, the crack of a stick is all it takes. Her attention is caught. From the reaching, skeletal branches above, a shape forms, falls. A prehensile tail catches, the grinning face and gleaming yellow eyes of the shadow creature staring out at her from the shape of a monkey. A thing equal parts innocuous and alarming.
And he wonders, which would scream louder to her?
you're burning up the sky, you're a constellation
I think that I could die for this revelation