The doors opened before I even raised a hand, as if letting me know I hadn’t been forgotten. My heart lifted.
“Beast!” I tried to shout, but my voice only rasped.
Inside, I grabbed the banister and hauled myself up to the second floor, tripping twice over the stairs.
But when I reached my room, I felt the winter chill of the outside world all over again.
Where the door had once said “Beauty,” framed by carved roses, it now said “Astra,” framed by faceted gems. The door was no longer wood at all. It was solid gold, and it would not open at my touch.
The castle may have recognized me, but I was no longer its resident.
I wheeled from the door and ran to the library, but it was deserted. Astra would never be in the library, but I’d hoped Beast might be. I forced myself to stop long enough to think, and I realized Astra would be in the grandest room she could find. She would want vaulted ceilings and chandeliers and everything that spoke of a palace.
I hurried back down the stairs to the main ballroom.
I burst through the doors and saw them immediately: Beast hunkered near the harpsichord and Astra standing in full confidence a few feet away. She smiled to see me. His eyes widened.
Astra was in the silver dress, glowing like a princess in the sunlight from the tall glass windows. I was like a forest demon crawling from my bush lair, my dress tattered from the reaching branches, my face scratched and bleeding.
“Beauty, you’re just in time,” Astra said. “This beast has asked me to marry him, and I’m so pleased you’ve come to hear my answer.”
Beast looked at me with agonized yellow eyes. “Beauty, I didn’t—”
“Astra, please,” I panted.
But she’d already said it, head raised high, chin tilted up: “Yes, ugly beast, I will marry you.”
“No!” I shouted, as if force alone could negate it, could hold the enchantment at bay. Even though it was too late, I ran for him, and Beast met me in the middle, catching me gently as I sagged. His claws pressed into my arms like thorns, but I only clung tighter.
Astra laughed. “It’s too late, Beauty. How does it feel when someone takes something from you?”
“Please, don’t. Don’t marry her.” It didn’t make sense to beg him as if he had any choice in the matter, yet it was all I could think to do.
He was babbling just the same. “She told me you sent her. She told me this was what you wanted.”
“My sister’s very familiar with secrets and lies,” Astra said.
It was lucky for her I’d lost both swords.
I waited for a transformation, for Beast to vanish, for any kind of change at all, but the seconds passed, and nothing happened.
“What is this?” Astra demanded at last. “I’ve broken the curse. Beauty, I heard you with Father. You insisted there was a curse.”
I couldn’t explain it, but I was glad all the same. Gently, Beast released my left arm, pressed his first knuckle to my cheek, where it came away streaked with blood.
“You came through the forest?” he whispered.
“I am an undefeated pirate queen. I did what I had to.”
I was afraid. I’d thought I wasn’t, but when I looked at him and thought of marriage and love and everything that lay along the road of life, the fear was still there, like orange embers in my belly, waiting to be stoked. But the waiting fire was weaker than the overwhelming current that had pulled me back to his side.
“Ask me again.” I curled my hand around his, held tight. “I’ll say yes this time.”
He shook his head. “You don’t have to.”
“I want to.”
“No!” Astra shrieked. “He’s mine. He asked me, and I said yes. This time, I’ve won.”
