Thomas brightened and clapped his hands once. “Excellent! You leave tonight.”
My heart froze and I felt like the air had been knocked out of me. “Tonight! But—”
“Yes, tonight,” Thomas interrupted smoothly. “You may have weaseled your way out of my original offer, Ms. Fairfax, but don’t think I can’t see what you’re doing.” He waved for his men to leave, and they filed out quickly, uniformly, leaving the door open for the cold to come in and sink into my bones.
Once they were gone, he stepped towards me and said, “You’re stalling for time. But I will get what I want. And I don’t just mean the ring.”
Thomas reached towards me, and I stiffened as his rough, unkempt hand brushed my jaw, on the side of my face that was unmarred. Now that he was closer, I could smell the stench on him: like he’d taken a bath in a tub of rum—I could taste it in the back of my throat and it burned.
“You look so much like your mother,” he murmured, and I felt like I was going to be sick. But then he straightened, pulling his hand away, his gaze hardening further. “If you return from the forest with the ring, you will be my wife.”
Swallowing, I looked down at the termite-eaten floor, feeling hot tears well up in my eyes, and then pushing them back to fill the growing emptiness. I’d imagined being married to a man I didn’t love, but a man I couldn’t love? A man who would abuse his power over me? I wondered quickly if my father was worth it. The answer to that was a deafening no. But my sisters were, and as long as they were safe, nothing else mattered. Even being trapped in a treacherous marriage to a delusional psychopath.
“But I’m already promised to someone,” I told him quietly, unable to meet his gaze.
He laughed, and my head snapped up. “To who? Sean Ager? I’m sure he won’t mind giving you up when it’s for the good of the Regime.”
The good of the Regime my ass, I thought, but I had no choice. Fighting against Thomas would only make things worse. I’d have to figure a way out of the marriage later, when I knew my sisters were safe and cared for.
I lifted my head and answered through my teeth, “Fine, you have a deal.”
Thomas, suddenly solemn, answered, “Good.” He paused for a moment, looking serious. “My men and I will remain outside until you leave,” he said before he bowed his head and left.
As soon as the door slammed shut with a blast of cold winter wind, Lila and Emily ran towards me and wrapped their arms around my waist, the three of us silently crying into each other’s hair as I kneeled down. It felt like a hole had torn itself in my stomach—it hurt just to breathe.
“Dammit, Belle!” father boomed, and I started. My sisters took a step back from him, keeping their arms around my waist while I stood again. I’d completely forgotten he was there.
I stared down at him—he was supposed to be one of the reasons I’d agreed to go into the Black Forest and steal the ring from the Beast. Now, I wasn’t sure why.
“You were supposed to go with them,” he complained.
My stomach dropped, but I ignored it—I shouldn’t have expected anything less. I left my sisters’ arms and stormed up to father, who was still on his knees and chained by his wrists. He looked so small to me, but as I stood over him, I realized I had no sympathy for him. He’d done this to himself, and now the consequences of his mistakes were bleeding into our lives like mud splattered on a white cloth, and ruining them.
“Oh, was I? And have myself whored out to the entire population of Briar?” I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so, father. As usual, I have to clean up your mess.”
Turning, I moved to pick up the key Thomas had left on the table by the vase. It was small and silver and icy in my cold, sweating hands. Against every instinct I had, I unlocked father’s chains. They clattered to the ground, and he flexed his fingers and rubbed his reddened wrists, looking up accusingly at me as if I’d been the one to put him in the chains.
“I had a plan,” he said with little conviction.
Emily snorted and came forward. “Not another one of your hair-brained schemes, father. We’ve done marvelously well without them these past months.”
Father, whose eyes had grown a little clearer, peeked around me at Emily, and his eyes widened. “Emily,” he breathed. “My Em, how you’ve grown.” He grunted as he picked himself up off the ground and approached his daughters. We took a step backward, and he stumbled a bit before righting himself on the back of a chair.
Pain and disappointment crossed his weary features, but it was quickly replaced with resolve. He turned to me. “If you insist on following through with this, then I’ll accompany you into the forest and help you find the castle.” He looked away into the dying fire, expressionless, emotionless. “It’s the least I can do.”
Hot rage screamed through my veins at his words. I marched up to him and jabbed my finger into the boniness of his chest; his gaze snapped to mine as he swayed. “You don’t deserve to do the least for this family. That’s all you’ve ever done and we’re tired of it!”
My voice finished in a scream. Taking a quick breath to calm myself, I began again, more softly this time, “But if I’m going to be away for a while, then I need you here, with Emily and Lila. To care for them as I have.” I took a step back, and, seeing father’s surprise, continued. “If you dare try and follow me, then when I get back to Briar and marry Thomas, I’ll make sure you’re disowned from this family in every way possible. I will not let you hurt Emily and Lila as you’ve hurt me.” I turned to my sisters. “Girls, come help me pack.”
Emily was quick to rush to my room, the same anger and sorrow I felt within myself visible in her brown eyes. Lila, though, stood frozen for a moment, staring at father with her blue eyes—mother’s eyes. He wouldn’t meet them.
“Lila,” I said painfully. Em and I were used to this, but Lila was young enough to still think that father cared.
After another moment of hesitation, she turned and dragged her feet after Em. When I heard the door to my room shut, I approached father.
“I do love you, Papa,” I said, and he looked up, hopeful at the sound of my nickname for him from when I was little and mother was still alive. “But if you lay a finger on either of them, or cause them any more harm while I’m gone, I’ll kill you myself. Your absence has made me more than capable of taking down an animal.”
I turned away from him, not daring look at his expression, to see the look of shock and hurt that I knew—hoped—was there.
“They’re too important to me—and we’ve worked too hard—for you to screw things up now.”
And, with that, I headed to my room and slammed the door shut.
Chapter 5
The Death You Deserve
BASTIAN
I couldn’t believe it was her.
I’d seen many strange things since deciding to take back the only part of my kingdom I dared fight for after being cursed, but the girl never came into the Black Forest at night. She knew the dangers of it, probably better than anyone. Except myself, of course.
Yet, here she was.
I’d been hunting the forest wolves closer than usual to the village when I noticed her at the edge of the Black Forest. Lately, I’d been curious to see what had become of it since I’d become the Beast. Since I’d turned my back on my people. I knew there was an Emperor that desperately wanted my kingdom, but as his own decree dictated, he had to meet with the leader before he took their land so that it appeared more like a peaceful surrendering rather than a hostile takeover. I’d also heard he was getting impatient. But no one dared brave the Black Forest to try to find me and attempt diplomacy.
No one but her.
Her sisters had joined her soon after, the littlest one running towards her and wrapping her arms around the girl’s legs, as if she’d never see her again. I hadn’t had a chance to see her sisters before, though she sometimes muttered things about them after she’d shot down a pheasant or a deer. They were beautiful too, with no imperfections.
But her scar was what had first drawn me to her, and the way the morning sun always reflected off it.
Seeing her now, the jagged silver lines were even more stunning bathed in the moonlight—she was more stunning.
Despite the guilt that nagged at me, watching her as often as I had made leaving her more difficult each time: her movements were swift and agile, never ceasing to stun me, but she was gentle with the game she killed. Not a day went by where I didn’t watch her.
And without meaning to, I’d found myself falling in love with her.
At least, that’s what it felt like to me. I’d only ever felt something akin to love for my parents, and even then, it was for no other reason except that they’d born me. I hadn’t even been capable of real love then.
Now, I watched her from my hiding spot, perched in a giant oak tree that I’d climbed up just moments before. She was wearing her dark green hunting pants with a black long-sleeved shirt that clung to her figure, and I watched her embrace her sisters, a few tears fleeing down her cheeks. An unchecked anger rose up in me, and I nearly broke the branch I was holding on to as my grip tightened—the bark of the tree barely breached through my thick skin. I had a sudden urge to approach her and demand who’d hurt her. But I knew she’d run if she saw me. They always did.
Besides, I was too curious.
I focused, slowing my breathing so that I could hear them—to understand what was happening, and why she would risk entering the Black Forest at night.
“Please don’t go, Belle,” the smallest sister pleaded.
My breath froze. Belle. I almost laughed—it fit her more than any other name I could’ve conjured.
“Why not just let them kill father?” the other sister demanded. Her words surprised me. She had a fierceness in her that was unfounded in other girls her age. That much I remembered, unless things in my kingdom had changed that much.
Then the girl—Belle—spoke. “The thought had crossed my mind.” It sounded like she was trying to make a joke of it, and my heart contracted oddly.
Her next words, however, came out as a threat: “But he’s still our father, and he will take care of you. Emily, you know what you have to do. I hate to have to put this burden on you, but… I won’t be gone long,” she continued. “Before you know it, I’ll be back, telling you to make your beds and clean up your rooms.” Her voice cracked on the last words, and I felt myself moving forward involuntarily, leaning heavily against the thick trunk.
The youngest sister flung her arms around Belle one last time, latching onto her. The middle sister grabbed her gently by the waist and pried her back, her eyes glassy. Belle’s tears had dried now, even as she watched them back away from her.
“I love you,” Belle told them. “Never forget that.”
The sisters nodded, then fled, away from the forest, back to whatever father they had. Leaving the girl alone.
With me.
She took a stuttering breath and closed her eyes for a moment. It took everything in me not go down there and comfort her. Then she opened them in a snap and, without taking her pack off, ripped a band from her wrist and tied her hair back, exposing her neck. I stopped breathing again as I glimpsed more of the silver scar, the way it dipped beneath her collar and disappeared. Then she moved further into the Black Forest, ever watchful.
I followed behind her, jumping soundlessly between the trees as I tracked her careful movements. I sensed a lone wolf nearby, but it wasn’t looking for food. She was safe. For now.
In that moment, watching her navigate the Black Forest at night with nothing but her bow and quiver of arrows, I knew that I would protect Belle at all costs. Even if she would never see me as anything more than a beast.
Chapter 6
Deep Snow and Bitter Frost
BELLE
I was lying before when I’d told Thomas that I’d seen the castle.
Having barely made it back alive from the Black Forest when I was a child—with an angry but mostly superficial claw mark torn down the left side of my body from a forest wolf—it had traumatized my memory.
When I’d managed to stumble back home, Mother had helped me fix up my wounds before I’d shut myself away in my room and poured over an old pre-Regime map. From what I knew from the story, I’d been close. But I hadn’t gotten even a glimpse of stonework. And I’d been lost during the day, when I could see clearly.
Squinting through the dimness of the forest, it was obvious Thomas had expected me not to live through the night by sending me now. But nothing had attacked me.
Yet.
I did, however, feel a strange presence following me closely as I navigated, nearly-blind, through the trees. But it didn’t seem threatening. It seemed…expectant. Protective.
I shook off the feeling. I was out here on my own, and I had to accept that. I’d taken this responsibility from father and now I had to try to hold up my end of the deal. But it was difficult when I was dooming myself either way—death, or marriage to a man I could never love. Though I preferred the former over death, it was still a hard life to accept.
I shivered suddenly as the temperature dropped, and I pulled my black leather jacket from where I’d tied it around my waist. Emily, with the help of the local seamstress that had once been a family friend before the Regime drafted her son, had made the jacket for me a couple years after mother died. I brought the collar to my nose and nuzzled it; it still smelled like home.
Through my reverie, I was startled by a twig snapping off to my right, and, letting my jacket fall to the ground, I brought my bow up from around my shoulder while reaching into my quiver for an arrow in one fluid motion. But it was so dark—the thick trees kept out most of the moonlight. Fear gripped me and I took an involuntary step back, my ears ringing from the silence, heart pounding loudly in my chest.
I flinched as another twig broke closer behind me, but this time it was followed with a growl. I remembered that growl, would remember it anywhere—the growl of a forest wolf.
I swallowed hard and tried not to make a sound, hoping it would move on. The forest wolves were a hybrid that had been created by the man whose castle I was planning to break into. People in town said that they were part wolf, part Tasmanian devil, but I was fairly certain I’d been the only one to get close enough to make that distinction and be alive to tell it. The forest wolves were vicious and didn’t have the capacity for compassion, even for their own kind. It was the reason they didn’t travel in packs.
Remembering this, my confidence returned. There was a very good chance that this was a lone wolf. I could handle a lone wolf.
That is, until I heard a second growl, and turned as far as I dared to find another wolf not twenty feet from me, flickering in and out of the soft moonlight that had managed to find its way through the thick canopy.
They were just as I remembered them: jet black fur, red eyes that somehow shone even brighter in the darkness, and teeth the size of my forearm. The one I could see didn’t look like it was tensed for an attack, so I risked a glance behind me and found the other one was just as close now. I was thinking of how I could possibly take on two wolves, when, as soon as I moved to turn back towards the other, a third growl joined them.
Heart slamming into my chest, I whipped around to find another black wolf blocking my path. My breath stuttered, clouding up in front of me from the cold—they had me surrounded.
I had a sudden flash of fear for my sisters. Barring how painful death would be, the only thought in my head now was what Thomas would do to them when I failed. And it was no longer an if; I was going to die here, now. But I wouldn’t go down without a fight.
I straightened as I watched the first wolf tense on its hind legs, and I pulled back the arrow in my bow just as it pounced. I let the arrow go, hoping the darkness wouldn’t inhibit my aim too much, and then ducked forward. The wolf flew over me as I crawled off the ground, the creature landing in a snarling heap against a giant tree trunk before getting back up on its feet swiftly, a
broken arrow sticking out of its hind leg. Its eyes glowed brighter as it snarled.
Great, all I did was irritate it.
I reached for my quiver to see how many arrows I had left and panicked: only two. In that moment, all three wolves leaned back and bent their front legs, growling with exposed teeth, before they attacked.
And I did the only thing I could think of—I pressed my boot against the trunk of the closest tree for leverage and jumped.
In the air, my hands scrambled in the darkness for something to latch onto, until my forearm thunked hard against a low-hanging tree branch. I latched onto it as I fell, the thick bark digging deep into my skin. I felt blood trickling down my forearm as I hung there, sending the wolves below me into a frenzy.
Groaning at the stinging pain, I reached my other hand up to get a better grip on the wood, lifting myself onto the thicker part of the branch—when a sharpness tore at my leg. I looked down to see that a wolf claw had dug itself deep into my calf, pulling me towards the ground and forcing me to let go.
I screamed, and fell back to the ground hard; the sound of my other leg snapping cracked through the night, and I heard myself cry out again in agony.
I laid there on the dead leaves, the pain forcing my body into shock and freezing up my muscles. I wished I could gag on the smell of my own blood and the hot breath of the wolves as they circled me, but I no longer had the strength. Closing my eyes, I waited for them to tear me apart, the sharp pain now ebbing mutely along my nerves.
This is it, I thought. There were so many things I wished I could’ve said to my sisters, so many things I should’ve done differently. As I felt the wolves close in on my broken body, their putrid breath filling my nose and mouth, I just hoped against my better judgment that father would take care of them.
But then I heard the wolves whimper, their paws stumbling over each other, until I could no longer hear them at all. My body grew numb from the loss of blood just as something that felt like hands grasped my body and held me in their arms.
A Curse of Thorns Page 4