She watched from the woods as her estate burnt to the ground. The garments she wore had become torn and muddy, and her only remaining possessions.
It had been decades since she'd all but taken for granted her status as a countess and the unique freedom allotted her as a woman allowed to keep possession of her own property.
But now, as her whole life was smoldering to ashes, she remembered the taste of inequality. How long it had taken her, how hard she had toiled to earn her place in the world.
The land, the house, her stables and horses, the meticulously cultivated wardrobe she'd never be able to wear again, even the nearby hamlet and its quaint people she'd come to appreciate, all of it had been hers, not by right, but by sheer hard work.
Women had blamed her of being overly egotistical, though now she knew herself to be proud, and rightfully so.
The red-coated foot soldiers were being called into order by their superiors. Hunting parties were being organized.
She was angry enough to let them find her, to rip into them, to paint the scene as red as their coats. And she was more than capable of causing their destruction… except for how specifically prepared these men were to fight her.
The men were armed with weapons unusually suited for injuring an immortal.
Even if they hadn't been prepared, and even if they were much fewer in number, He was with them.
The man who looked like an angel, who had the unquenchable ambition of a devil.
For all she knew, he was the devil.
Hours ago he'd arrived at her estate for tea and made his offer, of which she had promptly refused. So he'd burned down everything left she cared about in this world.
She needed to earn back what he'd taken from her. But he would always find her, as long as she earned back the prominence belonging to her. Any power she could scrape together for herself in the future, any name she would hew for herself would catch that man's attention.
Her only option was to kill him. As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't end the man's life on her own. That task required help.