But I couldn’t believe it, not when he’d welcomed a girl to his castle to lift the enchantment and all I had done was use it and him for my own purposes.
“As long as I’m here,” I said, “you’ll always be a beast. Never a man.”
“If you need me to be a beast,” he insisted, “then I’ll be a beast.”
But that only made everything so much worse.
“I’m taking Honey for a ride.”
I left the castle with hurried steps, and he didn’t follow.
The wind stung my face as we galloped. Though I rarely let my eyes wander out to the forest, I looked to the trees that led toward my family’s cottage. My eyes widened, and I pulled Honey to a halt. She stamped and danced a few steps to the side, perhaps as uneasy as I was about the sight.
The treetops roiled as if they hid a hurricane, every branch whipping in a different direction. The sky above the castle was as clear as ever, but when I squinted at the horizon, I could swear I saw storm clouds flicker.
Heart pounding, I glanced back at the castle. Then at the gate.
Honey whinnied, and I leaned forward to rub her neck.
While I waited in indecision, the storm slowly calmed. The churning treetops slowed until, at last, all was still.
When I returned to the castle, I asked Beast about the forest.
“It only abides an intruder for so long,” he said, looking uneasy. “A storm like that means someone wandered too far in.”
I realized the meaning underneath his words. “Can you not enter the forest?”
“No. The trees come alive to keep me out.”
I knew he was cursed to be a beast, knew he needed a marriage agreement to escape. But I hadn’t realized he was a prisoner of the castle on top of it all. I thought of him in the throne room, learning military strategy from a silent instructor. Even knowing he had no taste for it, I’d never asked if he could leave. The castle had never locked me in a room, so in my arrogance, I’d imagined he possessed the same freedoms.
The duties of a prince,he’d told me.
Every day, the truth grew thornier.
I bit my tongue.
Then the rest of the message sank in.
“My family,” I asked. “Are they in danger from the forest?”
His yellow eyes mourned. “If they dive too deep.”
Astra would never come after me, nor would Callista.
But Rob might. Or Papa.
“My father came to the castle once,” I said.
“I can’t speak for the whims of the enchantments.”
“Some prince you are.” Once again, it was unfair of me. Hadn’t I just realized he was a prisoner?
That night, I closed myself in my bedroom and sat at the window, watching the forest. All was still.
But in the silence of my thoughts, I realized—
There was someone else who would come after me. If he only knew where I was.
