by A. B. Keuser
She hit the wall and all of her breath was knocked from her, her mind grew fuzzy and she blinked back the darkness. Agathina disappeared, leaving her alone in the dim space.
Still dizzy, she rose, and batted away the fluttering gossamer wings that tried to descend on her. Each time her hands made contact with the silky skin of whatever demon Agathina had employed to keep watch over her, it let out a screech and shrank away from her.
The dark and dusty room looked like an attic, rafters running round to a point—at least that’s what it seemed to be in the fluttering darkness.
There was no seat, no bed, just a bare wooden floor. There wasn’t even a window.
The only thing in the entire room was a plate of bronze propped against one sloped wall.
Walking timidly toward it, she waited for the darkness to try to descend on her again. It fluttered overhead, but left her alone which only worried her more.
The bronze was polished to a bright glimmering mirror, but it didn’t reflect her image back to herself. It flickered through different views of the castle grounds.
“The teakettles,” she said, covering her mouth against the whisper she’d let slip.
Something brushed against her leg, moving her skirt and she flinched away before looking down to see Maynard.
“They are her eyes. It is not the most subtle of terms.”
Isabelle watched as he padded up to the brass plate, standing on his hind legs and studying himself with a front paw to the polished surface.
“You’ve known Agathina was up here all the time, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t bother to mention it because she was more or less trapped here… it’s a place that does and doesn’t exist. And only the full moon lets her out. If she’s removed herself, she’s likely used up a lot of her own energy.”
Isabelle couldn’t begin to imagine. Glancing behind her at the doorless room, she asked, “How are you here?”
He looked back at her and shrugged one furry shoulder. “I’m a cat.”
Rubbing his face on her skirt, Maynard said, “She’ll be weak; you need to kill her in our realm. She won’t actually be dead, but finding another foothold will take years, maybe centuries. She’ll be intolerant of other metals there… where did you leave your scissors?”
“They’re broken apart. I never had a chance to reconnect them after I got out of the forest.”
“That doesn’t matter,” he said, twisting around her ankles. “It looks like Agathina is taking care of your previous fiancé….”
Looking at the mirror, she saw as one teakettle observed another, Gaston was gripped in the arms of one of Agathina’s mechanicals. He struggled, but the arms closed more tightly with each movement.
And then they both stopped.
The teakettle loosed its hold, and Gaston dropped to the floor, blood dripping from his mouth, pooling on the stone… and the mirror’s attention slipped to a different teakettle. Her whole body was numb, and her nose and eyes prickled as tears welled in her eyes. Agathina was monstrous.
*
Using the key in place of his middle finger, Arthur pushed through the door into the storage space. Lord Cat Chaser bolted from the stairwell and ran to the corner, slamming his fists on the solid walls.
“She went through a door, right here! I’m sure of it. I’m not making it up.” He pounded at the wall, and for the first time, Arthur noticed the tears streaming down Lord Cat Chaser’s face.
Arthur grabbed the boy away from the wall, and embraced him tightly. “We will get to her.”
Stepping away, he set Lord Cat Chaser back down and shooed him around the corner with the others. Taking a deep breath, he meant to call for Isabelle, but before he could say her name, Agathina was there, her long, clawed finger on his lips.
“Have you missed me, my love?” She smiled one of her sickly sweet smiles and pulled her hand away.
“The moon is not full, and yet, you plague us.”
“I have sacrificed so much for you, Arthur. And you repay me by giving the love I deserve to another woman.” She paced a circle around him. “When my metal man told me you’d been seen with another woman, I could not believe him. But when I saw her through his eyes, I knew I had to come to you, no matter the cost. Do you think she’s descended from the fae? You’re wrong. Clearly she’s tricked you.”
“No one has tricked me save for you, Agathina.”
“Where is she?” Lord Cat Chaser screamed and Arthur turned to him at the same time Agathina did.
He tried not to stare at the boy in shock. When Agathina came on the night of the full moon, the children did not speak, they weren’t able to. She only allowed them to dance as puppets to her choreographed ballet.
And yet, Lord Cat Chaser spewed expletives as though they were another language, and the other boys held him back. They were not restrained by her enchantments as they usually were.
“She’s here.” With a snap of her fingers, Isabelle appeared behind her, surrounded by fairy light.
Swaying on her feet, Isabelle blinked at him with silver eyes, as though she didn’t recognize him.
“What have you done to her?” Lord Cat Chaser broke free of his friends, but Arthur caught him and pulled him back, holding the boy against his legs and keeping a firm grip on his shoulders.
Biting back a cry of pain as the still-healing wounds on his back tore open once again, he hauled the boy back before his small foot could kick Agathina. He would not allow any of the boys to be hurt.
Agathina smiled down to the boy in Arthur’s arms. “I’ve done very little to her so far. But I think I’ll make you all watch as I show you what happens when someone displeases me.”
As the dark fairy turned, Isabelle looked from Arthur, to Lord Cat Chaser, to Agathina.
“Kneel.” The dark fairy stalked closer to her. “Your time is up. I’ll remove your head and we’ll be done with this charade.”
Isabelle took a step back and Agathina froze. “I said, kneel.”
Isabelle looked from Arthur to her, and said, “No.”
*
Something in her jaw twitched and Agathina’s fists clenched at her side. For the first time, she saw the marred flesh of Agathina’s hand. It looked like the fairy had placed her palm into a roaring fire.
Blinking snapping black eyes, Agathina paced like a cat on the edge of a pool where a bird floated on the water.
Murmuring low words, Isabelle saw dark tendrils of magic gathering around Agathina’s hands. The fairy brought them together, her focus solely on the vacuous orb in her hand.
Isabelle took a step forward. Agathina didn’t notice. Her focus on the gathering energy in her hand was too great.
Isabelle dug in her pocket and retrieved the second gold piece from her pocket. She wasn’t about to get close to that ball of dark energy. Taking aim, Isabelle threw the coin and watched it twist end over end before it struck her square in the face.
Screaming, Agathina let go of the dark energy in her hands and clawed at her face.
The glowing ball of darkness burst like a bubble, tendrils seeping through the seams in the stone floor. Agathina scraped the coin away, sending it flying to the far corner of the room. Her face smoked and blistered while black marks, like flesh already decayed and then slashed with a hot iron, formed on her pale gray skin.
Glaring daggers at Isabelle, she searched the room. Whatever she was looking for clearly wasn’t there. The low grumble in her throat grew to a screech that echoed from the stones around them and shattered windows.
Isabelle didn’t have any other coins—hadn’t realized how badly she’d need them. She twisted away as Agathina swiped at her and the movement knocked her hair loose. A cold stem touched her scalp.
“Light is stronger than dark.” Isabelle spoke to Agathina, but she knew the words were meant to remind herself as well.
She pulled one of her mother’s roses from her hair as Agathina surged forward, her clawed hands plunging toward her. Sweeping h
er arm up, she met Agathina’s strike with the silver blossom and the rose shattered, leaving shards in the fairy’s hands.
Agathina howled in pain and shrank away, trying to pull the metal from her hands. Drawing a second rose, Isabelle held it, blossom toward Agathina like a dagger, waiting for the fairy’s next attack.
Speaking in a evil tongue that pierced Isabelle’s ears, Agathina stalked forward, her face no longer attempting a human visage of beauty. It was grotesque, elongated, and above all else, filled with malice.
Something brown and furry darted by Arthur’s legs. Maynard dashed around her, dropping one half of her enchanted scissors at her feet.
Agathina’s eyes widened, nearly covering her face. Mouth contorting, she moved forward in an angularly fluid rush for the scissors. Isabelle snatched it up first.
She spun away from the dark fairy and brought the scissor blade down, cutting through Agathina’s arm.
“You will never touch these boys again.” Her hand flew into the air and plunged down, a glint of silver from the scissors in her fist bounced off the fairy light, and then…. Agathina screamed.
The sound tore through the air, like a bolt of heat lighting and Arthur grabbed Isabelle, dragging her away as the dark fairy twisted in on herself. Scissor handle sticking out of her heart, she melted into a pile of bronze sand from the bottom up, her skin and dress smudging against the air. Her wings convulsed, fluttering and breaking as the gears and mechanical parts fell from her, until all that was left was the bony substructure of her metal wings and that too dissolved.
Running to Arthur, Isabelle took his face in her hands and shook him. Blinking, his eyes cleared.
Around them, the air hummed and Arthur collapsed beneath her. Even as the room brightened, they stared at the dark pile that was all that was left of Agathina.
The sound of hundreds of cogs and gears and bits of metal hitting the stone floor echoed through the room, and Arthur clasped the hand Isabelle had pressed to his cheek.
The Duke of Hasty Pudding shook out his trousers and gears bounced away from him.
The boys erupted in a chorus of cheers and Isabelle found herself buried under a dozen boys as they hugged her.
As they let her up, the Duke of Hasty Pudding let out a triumphant crow and held aloft a small white tooth. “It came out!”
Lord Cat Chaser kissed her on the cheek and shouted at the others. “We’re free!”
Epilogue
Arthur stood on the front steps, hands in his pockets and tongue between his teeth. The staff had returned immediately. Their dismay at finding the castle in the state it had come to in the six years since Agathina’s reign began was… to say the least, dire.
He’d barely been acknowledged before they hurried to get the palace back in working order. When asked, Lord Cat Chaser declared that they had come from the outer garden. His theory was more plausible by the sudden disappearance of the outer garden’s statuary.
The staff had taken care of Gaston’s body, though none of them would tell him exactly how.
The next two weeks had been oddly quiet. The staff put their home back in order, but no one else returned, even though everyone assured him that his family must still be alive.
Luckily, his mother and father had returned on the third week. Their arrival came with an unlikely story of thinking they were soap makers in the far reaches of Lonterra. They brought enough of their trade back with them to keep anyone from guessing otherwise. And after his parents returned, so too did the rest of the castle. Things were slowly creeping back to normal, save for one thing.
Isabelle took hold of his arm and leaned against him. “She’ll be back.”
Letting out an unfortunately telling sigh, he pulled one hand free and took hold of hers. He still wore the scars of his imprisonment, but the slicked skin of his wounds shone like silver in the long light of dusk. Nothing made of silver could be a burden on him.
“Hazel would have come back by now. She once told me it was her sworn duty to drive me insane.” His jaw twitched as he thought of the outcome he was implying.
“Who knows where she wound up or what she’s been doing? But if half the things you’ve told me about her are true, there’s no doubt in my mind that she’ll be back, it just might take a little time.”
Maynard leapt onto the rail beside them, his brown striped tail curling around his paws. The cat had lost his impressive eye enhancements, but much to Arthur’s dismay….
“There is a carriage on its way up the drive.” Maynard said, “As you’ve made yourself a welcoming committee, I thought you’d like a bit of advanced warning.”
He straightened and looked down the drive. Isabelle squeezed his hand a little more tightly and leaned against him.
He’d learned to temper hope. If time was any test of truth, this carriage was yet another attempt of Isabelle’s Aunt Lucinda trying to procure some sort of payment for her niece. If it was her, she hoped the harridan had left the younger sister home. He didn’t want to have to deal with anyone physically attacking anyone else.
As soon as the carriage rounded the corner, he knew who it was. Groaning, he considered how much trouble he’d be in if he turned and went back into the castle. He could drag Isabelle off to some dark corner….
The carriage rolled to a stop and all ardor cooled as the door opened before a footman could scramble down to help her.
“Whoo!” Tirina said, as she lowered herself from the carriage. “That forest is a nasty tangle. Clockwork and dark magic as far as the eye can see!”
Isabelle stepped forward, her face painted with confusion. “Tirina? What are you doing here?”
Arthur pulled her back and smiled as genuine of one as he could muster. “I see you’ve already met my aunt. She’s not actually related, but from what I gather, my mother’s always thought of her as family and so none of us can get rid of her.”
Tirina smiled and leaned closer to Isabelle as though they were something of confidants. “He doesn’t like anyone who’s too close to the fae. Don’t worry; we can keep your relations between the two of us.” She gave an over exaggerated wink and turned to Arthur. “Now, where is my sister?”
“I’m sure you can badger one of the maids into telling you.”
With an impish smile the woman walked toward the door but paused beside Isabelle. “And look at that, dear,” Tirina’s eyes flicked to Arthur and back. “You got your third wish.”
Arthur watched as Isabelle’s cheeks colored and his crotchety aunt disappeared into the palace. In the end he didn’t ask. Taking her hand, he led her from the castle and into the outer garden.
“I’ve made a decision,” Arthur said before clearing his throat.
“You can’t call it your decision when we agreed to get married and then your mother arrived and basically decreed it.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He swung her around and pulled her to a seat on one of the stone benches—one that used to overlook a statue in a small pond. “The boys.”
“Lord Cat Chaser—who still won’t tell me his given name—swears he wasn’t the one who got jam on the green parlor rug. I’m not inclined to believe him.”
“I’m quite certain the Duke of Hasty Pudding is framing him.”
“You’d believe anything he tells you.”
“That little lordling was the first who came through the gate. First and last… you’re both special in your own ways.”
She pursed her lips and fought a smile. She did not win. “What about our boys?”
“My decision is—if you agree, of course—that we should adopt the boys.”
“I know.” She smiled and leaned against him. “Your first and favorite has been selling your secrets for extra honey scones.”
“I can understand that. But what do you think?”
“I think it’s a wonderful idea.” She kissed him on the corner of his mouth. “I love you, Arthur.”
“I love you too.”
He kissed her until h
e heard the boys who had been hiding in the hedgerow make sounds of disgust. And then they laughed.
… And they lived happily ever after.
Thank you!
I hope you enjoyed reading BEAUTY AND THE CLOCKWORK BEAST! Thank you for taking the time.
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BEAUTY AND THE CLOCKWORK BEAST is the first story in the Clockwork Fairytales series. It is followed by HAZEL AND GRETEL (March 2016)
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About the Author
When A. B. Keuser isn't trying to make sense of her own brain soup, she writes the "charmingly gritty" Flynn Monroe series, space operas that will keep you guessing, and steamy clockwork fairytales. An Oregon native whose life has transplanted her in the Sonoran desert - where she's slowly desiccating - she writes to stay out of the sun and heat.
Other Books By A. B. Keuser
The Flynn Monroe Series
Enemies of a Sort
The Betrayal of Flynn Monroe
The Reformation of Tyler Harris
The Salvation of Rayna Castiq
Quick & Painless
The Escape of Joslyn Williams
The Deception of Calliope Druthers
Irreparable Damages
The Xyvar Duology
Windthrow
Blowdown (OCT 2016)
The Lunar Colony VI Series
Safety Zone
Gravity Darkening
Zero Proximity
Terminal Shift
Non-Passive Failure
Lunar Colony VI Print Omnibus
Short Stories
Never Alone
First/Last Date
Black Friday