6
" Tresses of lustrous, snow-white hair tumbled from their cloth-bound imprisonment, streaming like a waterfall down the young woman’s back. In an effort to make his student more at ease, Alexi did his best to appear wholly disinterested as she carefully removed her protections with delicate, private ceremony. But then she turned to face him, clutching those items that had held her unusual features in mystery : glasses, gloves, long scarf.
"As you would have it so, Professor, here is your pupil in all her ghastliness."
Though Miss Parker's hands clearly trembled, her voice did not. Luminous crystal eyes held streaks of pale blue shooting from tiny black pupils. A face youthful but devoid of color, smooth and unblemished like porcelain, had graceful lines as well-defined and proportioned as a marble statue. Her long, blanched locks shimmered in the candlelight like spider silk. Upon high cheekbones lay hints of rouge : any more would have appeared garish against her blindingly white skin, but she had been artful in her application. Her rosebud lips were tinted in the same manner.
"You see, Professor, even you, so stern and stoic, cannot hide your shock, surprise, distaste-"
"Distaste ?" he interrupted quietly. "Is that what you see ? "
― Leanna Renee Hieber , The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker (Strangely Beautiful, #1)
