Beauty's Beast- The Light
Page 28
These thoughts led her to think about how she was snuck on while she was trapped on her makeshift rope off the side of her balcony. She hadn't seen the intruder at all; as had no one else, aside from Avain. Perhaps the wolves attack would be a little something like that; someone to do the distraction while others attacked in some unpredictable way.
It was then that Bella remembered something she was almost sure that the others had forgotten, and she grasped at her father before pulling out of his grip and striding up to Kataros, clutching at his arms to get his attention. “They're going to be let in,” she told him, shaking him insistently when he shook his head at her with a confused expression.
“Bella,” he started.
“We haven't caught my attacker,” she insisted, letting go of him and taking a step back when he froze. “If he wants me dead so badly, then what better way than to let the enemy into the only place I'm safe in?”
“It makes sense,” Thais said, lifting a hand and glowering at Malum to silence him when he opened his mouth to speak. “But, how do we know that this intruder hasn't already left?”
“You've seen Avain,” Bella told her. “You know how smug he is; he's confident that we're all going to die. Not to mention, if he has managed to betray you, then just imagine who his accomplice could have been.”
Kataros and Thais exchanged worried looks, both shifting uncomfortably in their spots as if they didn't like the idea before looking at Bella.
She nodded. “Whoever tried to kill me is one of your allies.” She drew in a deep breath. “And he's still in the castle.”
* * *
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Bella looked up, and the tapping stopped, replaced instead with a smug expression that regarded her with a sort of simplicity that irritated her. Then, she looked from her spot at the table, eyes boring into the door that led to the kitchen.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Heaving a sigh, Bella ignored Malum, who was sitting across the table from her, glass in one hand, while the other tapped its fingers against the polished wood, and she continued staring at the door that Kataros had disappeared through along with Thais and a few other of the Fae. They had decided to talk to Avain, even though Bella had made her thoughts clear on how she was sure that he would not give up the identity of his accomplice.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Attention turning to her father, who was sitting right beside her and glowering at the faerie across from them, she grabbed his hand, which was fisted on his thigh. In return, he gave her a small smile before continuing his glare. So far, he seemed to be taking everything well. That was, aside from his obvious hatred towards the Fae.
Tap. Tap-
“Could you stop?” Bella asked, turning her eyes back to the creature across the table, who watched her with an expression of amusement as he pressed his palm flat on the table and chugged the rest of the contents of his glass before lowering it slowly and licking his lips.
“I do believe that you mean would,” he said, and when Bella only narrowed her eyes at him, he sighed and explained. “You asked if I could stop, which indicates that, yes, it is possible for me to stop. So, yes, I could stop; but, the only matter is determining whether or not I will stop.” He smiled. “So there you put in the term would.”
Bella's face scrunched up. “You're absolutely ridiculous.”
“Don't you mean barbaric?” he purred.
“Oh, do shut up,” she muttered, looking back at the door.
“But I always have such transpiring things to say,” he crooned, eyes slitted the slightest bit when she turned to look at him. Then, his eyes settled on her father. “Especially about dear old Papa.”
“Leave him alone,” Bella snapped at Malum just as Johnathon narrowed his eyes at the faerie. “Unless you have anything useful to say, I suggest you keep your trap shut.” It seemed that the more angry and worried she got, the lower her defenses were since it was more idiotic than brave to talk to one of the Fae in that way, whether she was now considered one of his kind or not.
He stared at her calmly, silent. Then, after a few minutes of Bella and her father glowering at the creature, he said, as he leaned back in his chair and lifted his feet onto the table, “So, Bella, how is it, exactly, that you came to meet the deity of Life itself?”
She scowled. “We've already been through this.”
“Oh, I know. I just find it...strange...that you were able to bring your father back from the dead, and in doing so she saved your life.” He leaned forward over the table, clasping his hands together. “There's normally a price for saving the dead, you know. And, if you didn't die, then it makes me wonder who will.”
Ignoring him, she looked down at her hands, which rested on her upper thighs, frowning at them. “We're both seers, so whilst I was looking into various times because of my...state...she was looking into the past, and it created-”
“A portal that allowed for both your times to connect, and allowed her to drag you into her world,” Malum finished, waving a hand as she scowled at him again. “Yes, yes, we've already been through this-”
“Just as I told you,” Bella snapped, growing impatient. “I've told you everything I know, so what are you trying to get at?”
“There just has to be some reason that your magic suddenly kicked in when it did,” he responded, brows raised. “Of course, your emotions were heightened because your...father,” he said this pointedly, giving Johnathon a look that earned him a glare before he looked back at Bella, “died, but that doesn't immediately place you in a state of extreme power unless you were already very powerful to begin with...”
Slowly raising to her feet, the palms of her hands flat on the table, Bella narrowed her eyes, confused as much as she was suspicious. “What, exactly, are you suggesting?”
He shrugged. “Merely that you were already a part of the Fae world to begin with.”
Rolling her eyes and sitting back down, Bella muttered, “You're delusional.”
“Am I?” he asked. “You can't say it doesn't make sense, Bella. Look at you now, in the center-”
“I am only here because my father travelled a dangerous path,” Bella snapped. “It led him here, and I traded myself for his safety to go back home, and because I was here-”
“It takes much longer than how long you've been here,” Malum started.
“I was a human!” Bella shouted, eyes filled with rage, making Johnathon jump in his seat and look at her with what looked to be a mixture of fear and worry. But, she ignored her father's reaction, grinding her teeth as she glared at Malum, who was tilting his head at her response to him. “I was a human, and nothing more. The fault of what has come to be was not my own, nor that of my father's. We are innocent in such matters, and I'm only here to help.”
There was so much more Bella realized, much to her own surprise, that she would rather be dealing with. Jared, for example, who was—in no doubt—still trying to figure out where she had disappeared, and maybe even finding some way to punish the town for her denial, as her disappearing could be mistaken as her form of avoiding him. She missed her home, Ash, and all the gossiping townsfolk that filled it. She missed everything about her seemingly normal life.
Malum, much to Bella's annoyance, was still talking. “But why-”
“Because I owe Kataros my life,” she snapped, irritated. “Are you done asking questions now?”
He shook his head. “I still don't understand why your magic-”
“Who is Aurelia?” Bella asked, silencing him. When he only looked away, strangely no longer amused, she tilted her head. “Kataros mentioned her name when I said I didn't know where my magic originated from-”
“She's someone of the past,” he replied. “Nothing more; nothing less. There's nothing more to her than that...” He looked away, eyes pained.
Bella narrowed her eyes. “You're lying.”
“Tell that to the man who sits right beside you,” he said, this time meeting her crude gaze, his e
yes no longer pained, slowly growing amused again.
“Don't you even,” Johnathon managed to growl before being interrupted.
“What? You can't do anything to me, pup. You can barely even take care of yourself, much less this little beauty.”
He snarled, standing up so quickly his chair fell backward, and pointed a finger, veins visible on his neck, face reddening. “That is my business and my business only-”
“But don't you think Bella has a right to know?” he asked calmly, though he stood, and the way he slowly pushed himself to his feet suggested an air of demand and threat, voice cold and flat. “She is, after all, your daughter, ironic as saying that actually is.”
“Silence!” Johnathon roared, slamming a fist on the surface of the table.
“What,” Bella said quickly, before another word could be exchanged between the two of them, “are you going on about?” She looked from her father to Malum, who both didn't once look her way as they stared at one another. Then, her eyes settled on Johnathon. “Papa?”
This time, Malum peeled his eyes from her father and looked at her. “Yes, why don't we tell this child what dear old father and the stranger are talking about, hmm?”
Johnathon's hand lifted to his eyes, and he fell into his seat, breathing heavily. “Dear God,” he muttered into the heel of his palm, shaking his head. “Dear God, I've done it. I've gone and ruined everything. We were supposed to avoid this.”
“What are you talking about, Papa?” Bella asked, heart skipping a beat. “Someone, answer me!”
“Do you ever wonder why you look nothing like your father, Bella?” Malum asked her, turning her attention back to him. “Hmm? Do you even wonder, now, why you turned so quickly when it took the whole bloody castle several long years? Hmm? Well, Bella?”
“Stop,” she said, slowly standing and stepping back from the table, refusing to look at her father, who was now looking at her with pained eyes. Her face twisted, eyes welling up. “You're just...you're just saying...stuff.”
“But we all know that I have a point.” He cooed, eyes slitting and lips pursing. “This is just all so marvelous, isn't it?” He smirked. “Think about it, darling. You look nothing like your old man, here. That pretty little gown you have in your closet that came from your mother is of Fae material.” When she tilted her head sharply and opened her mouth, he lifted a finger and tapped the temple right beside his eye. “I know more than you think, sweetheart. Including the fact that it was a gift to your mother from a stranger you've never met.” He looked at Johnathon. “And it's a wonder she never has.”
“You stop this madness,” her father whispered.
“Madness?” He scoffed. “Ha! This coming from the man that knows it from experience. Awfully brave of you, pulling the nonsense you did so long ago with Willow.”
Bella froze, blinking at the name of the man that was said to have given her mother the night gown so long before, and she took a hesitant step forward, lifting a hand and pointing her finger at him. “How do you know that name?”
He snorted. “Everyone knows that name, darling.” His eyes shifted back to her father. “Don't they, Johnathon?”
“Stop,” he growled.
“No,” Bella said, shaking her head, this time looking at her father, whose fearful expression turned to her, though his eyes slowly filled with regret. She lowered her hand, and whispered, “You're not my father, are you, Papa?”
He closed his eyes, sucking in a breath through his teeth, and slowly released it. Then, he opened his eyes and said, voice soft, “No.”
Bella blinked once. Then twice; stumbling over to the table a few chairs down and grabbing onto the edge of it, staring blankly at the top, mind whirling. Before she could utter another syllable, however, perhaps to ask who he was and who her true father was, Eriq came rushing in from the main hall, eyes wild and hair disheveled.
“The gates have been opened,” he said breathlessly, racing across the dining room. Then he raised his voice to a full shout, as if he hadn't been loud enough the first time. “The gates have been opened!!!”
Before anyone had the chance to react, several chilling howls echoed through the night.