PROLOGUE

ROSE

Dark clouds covered the evening sky, rain falling in thick sheets around us. Fitting, I thought, the heavens cried with the same frequency that I did. My eyes flooding as quickly as the six-foot deep hole before me.

The preacher spoke, the congregation sang, and his body was lowered into the cold unforgiving earth. Taking a piece of my heart with it.

1 YEAR, 12 MONTHS, 365 DAYS, 8760 HOURS, 525,600 MINUTES, 31,536,000 SECONDS….

That's all I got. No more. No less. A single year. The shortest year of my entire life.

I will cherish every memory of him, and never forget the impact he had on my life in that simple, yet complicated time. The good, bad, and the ugly. Every moment would forever be installed in my memory, my heart.

The way his eyes lit up when I walked into the room. The smile that reached his eyes, causing the corners to crinkle- giving the appearance of a much younger man. One that hadn't seen and dealt with such dark things.

His smooth voice and words, and even that damn one eyebrow thing. All of his quirks and attributes that I loved so much. How he understood me in ways that others couldn't comprehend. How he turned dreams into reality, making all things possible with him by my side. Things I never even knew I wanted, he gave me.

And in a blink, a single heartbeat, it was taken away.

He shouldn't have thrown himself in front of me. He shouldn't have even been there. But as fate would have it, the cards we were dealt weren't strong enough to win the hand. We folded, faltered, and it cost him his life.

I never believed in fate before him. I didn't believe fate brought me to the Academy where I would meet Lissa, who would become my only family. I didn't believe it was fate that Lissa and I survived the car crash. Or that brought us back after running away, leading to a whole mess of problems. Fate didn't make Victor play his dirty tricks. Or make Mason take a group of friends on a Strigoi hunt. Fate didn't get us out of the battle at the Academy, or through the subsequent rescue that almost cost me my reason for breathing.

No. Fate didn't do any of those things. Skill, hard work, and a shit ton of luck got us to where we are today. That is something I strongly believe, luck is the reason for all those things. Good or bad, it has the power to pick you up or break you down to its will.

But the other factor, and possibly the most important, is love.

Love saved me in that car crash. Love made me chase down Mason, and avenge his death in Spokane. Love drew me back into the caves to save Dimitri from dying at the hands of a monster. Love is why I threw myself in front of him, and in turn, he threw himself back in front of me. Not Fate. Not Luck. Love.

Love is what killed him, and surely, it would kill me too.

Author's Note:

I know it's super short, but oh well. This jumped in my head last week and it is flowing like waves.

I do not have an update time frame, I will post a new chapter as I complete the next one.

Just so you know, for those who don't follow FB, which you should haha, anyways, this will be Romitri, but my focus is on Rose.

Most, okay all, of my stories are primarily about Dimitri. His POV and struggles, but this is all Roza.

Fave/Follow/Review as always. It keeps me going.

And for those who haven't heard. Love or Loyalty will be back up soon. I promise. But it will have some major changes in the last few new chapters. So keep an eye out for that. It will be better than ever, I hope.

All my love,

Dream