It was his hair. That was what drew the Nix to the man when she saw him.

What could she say? She was always a sucker for guys with long hair, it was just her thing.

And she knew he would be drawn to her, it was only a matter of minutes before he was sitting at her table in the restaurant. As talk ensued, she slowly began to take on her role. The role she had fit into so easily in her life.

The sweet, beautiful woman with the sapphire eyes and angelic voice who hung onto a mans every word when he spoke. Laughed when she was supposed to, a hand gently placed on his forearm in a silent flirting gesture.

But it was all a lie.

The laugh, the interest in his stories and life, the flirting. A lie, perfectly cultivated and tailored from years of practice and observation.

Throughout life you fall in love. Rather it be accidental, or something your perused, it happened. To everyone, no one was immune to it.

But it was those times when the feeling wasn’t returned, or was turned against you, that you learned to build walls.

Walls around yourself, your emotions and more importantly, your heart.

That’s what Sera had done. The walls she had built around her heart were made of steel. Her heart battered, bruised and full of scars from various people. Those who simply couldn’t not return the feelings, and those who had taken those feelings and twisted them for their own sick pleasure and use.

It was those people that thickened the skin of her heart and that wall she had built. Made her as cynical as she was and able to manipulate others feelings as her own had been.

These manipulation skills helped her not only harvest Glamour, but whatever else she may need.

Her Keeper taught her well, taught her that playing with someone’s heart was just life. And if some mere human was stupid enough to fall for you, then they got what they had coming. She had spent countless nights being arm candy to various Gentries, whispering her undying love in their ears. All for the benefit of her Keeper and his mad battle for power.

Which was why this poor soul sitting in front of her didn’t stand a chance. His infatuation with her written clearly on his face and within his eyes.

She played the part perfectly. Each word, movement and giggle scripted to lure him in. The Glamor rolling off him in waves of lust and desire.

But was this who she wanted to be? Did she want to keep being that woman who could play a person’s emotions and desires like a fine-tuned fiddle? Cultivate their emotions to get what she wanted. Was this still her?

Was she still the person her Keeper had turned her into?

Could she be someone different? Could her stone heart soften into something that would welcome love, that could learn to love?

But the biggest question...did she want to change?