And our minds, the thought came softly.
Darkness and pain had been her sole companions for so long, alongside the occasional cries of the others, until she had came.
Curse breaker. The beast had tried to speak her name. The One had come to them at last.
Too late!
They were too far gone, she’d wanted to tell the girl. A deeper part of her, the beast who had slumbered half an age, had wanted to rip into their long-awaited savior. She wasn’t sure why she both loathed and longed to touch the curse breaker. Twin glowing eyes, like a wyldcat’s, had blazed through the bars of her cell, piercing through the dark and stirring something long forgotten. Immediately, she had risen and stumbled as her chains were broken. The girl had smiled at her with sharp teeth and then left the door open behind her.
Come and be free, the curse breaker had said to their minds as she opened their cell doors, breaking both their physical chains and the majik blocking their free will. The curse tied them together in malice yet, however. The eldest among them had had one conscious thought that quickly spread through to the others.
Kill the masters!
Too long they had waited to be freed and now they wanted vengeance. Too late for the curse breaker to call them back. Now they would seek and find their pound of flesh.
She had followed the others like a wolf with its pack, up through the dungeon, seeking and sniffing out the one responsible. Often the paths were blocked by ruins, or enchanted to lead them back to dead ends. Her path had led her here, into the court yard.
How long have I been here? she wondered now as she looked about the graceful arches and noticed the darkness which had descended over the castle, over the grounds spread past the castle gate and to the forested valley and mountains below.
Time as a monster was meaningless. She hungered, fed and slept and, while the others feasted, she ate the red blossoms that pricked her muzzle, but filled her with increasing awareness.
Where is the curse breaker?
She knew this was not the first time she had asked herself this question as she turned back to the castle, then to the roses. Her memories before her time as a beast were still hidden behind a veil, thick as ice over the Silver River. But she did recall this much. The curse breaker had freed them, and then the Master had sent her away before she could heal them.
Now the power behind the curse was awakened and furious to have been so easily thwarted. Soraya was long dead, at least in the corporeal sense, but her will lingered and lived on.
We must find the curse breaker, the beast girl thought with absolute and almost human assurance.
A movement at the corner of the garden caught her sensitive ears and the hairs on her back bristled as she twisted and snarled at the light between shadows.
The light flickered and then a gasp escaped the bushes nearby as the beast girl approached.
Fury filled her as she breathed in the smell of the ones who had hunted and hated her people before… wyne.
She snarled as she pushed her head deeper into the thorny bush to reveal the gaping, frightened face of a young girl.
“P-please do not eat me,” the girl pleaded.
The beast shivered, cocking her head slightly as though the motion would help her understand better. The girl continued, voice trembling and light flickering as she spoke.
“I have been watching you since you came here and began to eat Mistress’ roses.”
The beast snarled again, sensing the wyne’s disapproval.
The girl shook her head. “That is, she would not object, I am sure. As I said, I have been watching you and you are not so savage as the others. I hoped… that is, if you understand me, I beg of you—please find our mistress. She has gone to the Wolvs, I fear. She is in grave danger there and must return to us. Please go to her and, oh, please, do not try to kill her!”
The beast grunted with a bear-like snort in what might have been a chuckle as the wyne started.
“I do not expect to survive for long after you leave. So few of us are left… If you leave me, I fear another, less kind creature will take your place. Yet you must go if we are to have any hope… If you find Vynasha, please tell her that Hvalla cared for her roses until the end.”
The wyne blinked back tears. Something about them pierced through the fog around the beast’s mind and she backed away from the thorny bush at last. The wyne’s words were strange to her ears, but she found herself nodding her great head all the same.
“Thank you,” the girl said with a sigh.
The beast bowed her head to the wyne and, as she approached the outer hedges of their sanctuary, felt a stab of pity for the fading girl. Her thin form flickered in and out of the moonlight. It would not be long before the curse claimed her too.
She thought of her dream again as she leaped and clawed over the hedge, wondered at her reason for coming to the garden while her brethren haunted the rest of the ruin. Another unattainable memory, not to be grasped by beasts after all. This much she knew. None had come as close as she did, to what or whom, she was uncertain.
The curse breaker will know.
To her surprise, no majik, wyne or beast, barred her from slipping past the gates of the Lost City, once known as Bitterhelm. The stars glowed brighter on her fur as she crossed the open downslope between the two mountains. The fog that kept her thoughts hazy dissipated the further she pushed into the forest below. A lingering ache made her turn one last time towards Bitterhelm’s crumbling towers. A bitter human feeling, that she was forgetting the most important thing of all by leaving, almost made her return to the garden with its sweet roses. But the wyne was right. Too many of her brothers and sisters were filled with violence alone now. They needed the curse breaker to help them remember.
With this final thought, she turned to the forest, trusting an otherworldly sense tying them to the One who had come to save and then abandoned them to madness.
Collect the Wylder Tales Series
The classic fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast is retold in a Gothic setting where nothing is exactly as it seems and the heroine must be her own hero.
The tale continues in 2018 with Bound Beauty, Vol. 3
Most of this novel would not have been possible without the constant encouragement and enthusiasm of the lovely and talented Melissa Wright. I am truly blessed to call you friend. To my husband, thank you for listening to me bounce nonsense at you and helping me believe in the dream again. To R.J. Locksley, I could not have asked for a better or more patient editor. A thousand thanks to Najla Qamber for her gorgeous cover art and letting me join her escapades through Gotham. And to Champagne Formats, thank you for helping make this series beautiful on the inside.
I started writing by pounding away on my grandpa’s antique typewriter. Today I live out our dream by giving this book to you. If you had fun reading about Vynasha and her adventures, please show your support through reviews and posts.
Please feel free to contact me through the links listed below to find information on upcoming books. I love hearing from readers and other authors. Being new to the game myself, I’m always happy to help others follow their dreams.
Website: www.jennifersilverwood.com
Blog: silverwoodsketches.blogspot.com
Twitter: twitter.com/JennSilverwood
Facebook: www.facebook.com/silverwoodj
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/5827602.Jennifer_Silverwood
Jennifer Silverwood was raised deep in the heart of Texas and has been spinning yarns a mile high since childhood. In her spare time she reads and writes and tries to sustain her wanderlust, whether it’s the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, the highlands of Ecuador or a road trip to the next town. Always on the lookout for her next adventure, in print or reality, she dreams of one day proving to the masses that everything really is better in Texas. She is the author of the Heaven’s Edge series, Stay and Silver Hollow.
Other Books
Heaven’s Edge
&nbs
p; Qeya
Ohre
Wylder Tales
Craving Beauty
Scarred Beauty
Bound Beauty (coming in 2018)
Silver Hollow
Stay
Scarred Beauty Page 25