by Brea Viragh
Who is the beast now?
“I am not here simply because of your pretty face, Reila Barnes. I’m here because you are a threat to my prestige and status. A threat I can’t control without your acceptance of my ring on your finger.” He waved the gun at me. “Now hold your hands up where I can see them clearly. One hint of magic and I will not hesitate to pull this trigger and blow your brains all over this room. Do I make myself clear?”
I raised my chin to lock eyes with him. His unwavering stare met mine. I refused to cower before him no matter what threats he made.
“I don’t need a spell to deal with you,” I tossed at him. “You are nothing but a sniveling coward who uses your money to get what you want.”
He chuckled grimly. “Coward? Is that the best you’ve got, really?” He sighed melodramatically. “Well, I suppose there may be some truth in that, seen from your point of view of course. But I will tell you what I am not.” His face contorted into a fierce glare. “I am not a fool. I did not come unprepared. I brought along a magician to deal with you.” He snapped the fingers of his free hand and a gasp left my lips before I could stop it.
Gustaf rounded the corner with a glowing gold orb the size of a paperweight in his hand. I felt the power rolling off of it immediately. One word from him and the blast would rip through me, taking away whatever tentative magic I’d begun to harness once again and return it to the wielder of the orb. The force from the artifact ripped the air from my lungs like invisible hands slowly squeezing.
How…
I struggled to think, to remember these last few months for any kind of clue about Gustaf I might have missed. His warning came to mind, yet nothing else hinted at the low hum of magic I sensed from him.
I’d been the fool.
“What—” I began but couldn’t finish, because Gustaf twitched a finger of his free hand and my throat instantly felt gripped by an invisible noose. I struggled for breath, clawing with my own fingers at something that wasn’t there.
“I am a man who knows how to look out for his own interests. And if you have no room in your heart to accept me then you become a threat to my interests. Simple as that,” Gray said. “Gustaf, let her go. I want her to be able to speak.”
The force released me and I staggered down to the floor, coughing and trying desperately to refill my starving lungs with air.
Gray stared at me with a relaxed ease, as though engaged in a game of poker with the boys and already having a strategy in place. My skin crawled the longer he looked at me.
All this, for me? Too bad for him I wasn’t the weak-minded witch he thought me to be.
“What do you want from me?” I tried to ask, though all that came out were grunted syllables not even close to words. Tears burned the corners of my eyes and I hated the fact that Gray could see them.
Woozy and still sucking in air as if I were drowning, I struggled to keep my attention on the gun, as well as on the man with the orb whom I’d been foolish enough to write off as insignificant. Now they made an impressive pair. One equipped with sorcery and the other with a man-made weapon of steel.
How did I fight against the two of them?
Gray bent to snatch at my wrist and drag me to my feet. “I want you and your magic at my side, Reila. I want the security that kind of power offers for me, for my parents. I want to be able to rest comfortably in my bed knowing the whole of Halsworthy is at my fingertips. And if I cannot have you—”
“I would rather die than have anything to do with you.” Hatred twisted inside of me like a living thing, and if looks could kill Gray would have instantly been nothing but a greasy spot on the marble floor.
Gray shrugged and the fur of his ermine coat glistened in the firelight. “Well, that can be easily arranged.”
The attack happened fast. Merek burst into the room with a thunderous roar that split the silence. He dove for Gray a hair too late, the other man turning with his pistol and firing off a shot as the world around us slowed.
I screamed into the explosion of sound. Before I had a chance to react, or even see where the bullet hit, a burst of magic snapped me in the shoulder, and when I jerked around, Gustaf stood there. His knuckles collided with my jaw a second later.
The impact had me spinning, falling down yet again, blood dripping from the rips in my skin. I went down hard. And immediately I knew he’d used the orb to add to his power when his fist landed. Well, well. Smarter than I’d given him credit for, though the cunning didn’t make me hate him any less.
I caught a glimpse of his smirking features a moment before he took advantage of my surprise and fell on me, one hand around my neck as he pummeled my head repeatedly onto the marble floor. Stars danced behind my eyes.
“Clean up your own mess this time, you filthy witch,” he spat out with a grimace. His teeth flashed yellow as blackness crept closer. “Your cruelty will not go unpunished.”
There was blood on the floor at my feet. I saw it when Gustaf twisted my neck to the side. Mine? No. Blood trailing from another body and slowly seeping toward where I lay.
“Merek…”
Every fiber of my being urged me to get up and go to him. He had to survive.
Gustaf yanked me to him in a harsh gesture, chuckling when I grunted, his legs trapping me better than any cage.
I cried out as a swell of his magic battled with mine. My insides felt like lava. Gustaf’s hand tightened further, and the proximity to the orb kept my magic from reacting to save me. My lungs seized. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Could only focus on the narrowing of my world toward that condescending smile.
Damn you, Gustaf.
“Come then, little girl. Let us see what you can truly do,” Gustaf muttered. “I know you have been hiding your truth from me. Come and show me the might of the witch who turned the prince into a beast and brought the kingdom to its knees.”
The old manservant stared down at me, daring me to retaliate. Daring me to defend myself when he knew I was not able to do so. Fury pulsed through me until it came up against the wall of the artifact he carried. The damn thing sapped the last of my energy away from me and funneled it all toward my enemy.
The same way he’d done during my entire stay at the castle.
I saw it clearly now, how he’d dogged me during my explorations, how odd I’d thought it that I couldn’t get a handle on my magic. Gray’s man, installed to keep an eye on me, perhaps even in place long before to watch the prince and report back.
No wonder the town had done nothing to help Merek.
I tried to rally against the force of his grip, his magic. I tried to get to Merek and see if he’d been hit by the gunshot, see what had happened to Gray during their fight. Did either man live or had they managed to kill each other?
I couldn’t bear it.
My eyes shut on a final shudder and in the sanctuary of my mind, my last thoughts were for Merek and whether he’d survived. For Monique upstairs. For the others, Renaldo and Marylynn and the rest. Did they still live?
I listened to the echo of Gustaf’s eerie chuckle before succumbing to the dark.
Chapter 24
Patiently, I waited to die.
Inside my chest, my heart shattered, because I knew no matter how I’d tried, the people I loved had still been hurt. I drifted through the pain until even that failed to register. There was nothing now. Nothing except the calm crackle of the flames in the fireplace and the light waiting at the end of the tunnel. Would I see my father again?
“Not this time. You fight back, Reila. You win.”
The smooth baritone sounded through a sea of black and at once the pressure on my throat eased. I drew in a breath that caused more pain than anything else and thrashed at Gustaf though he was already gone, torn away from me the same way I’d been pulled from the darkness.
My gasps turned into coughs and I rolled onto my side, clawing at the open air.
Too near the fire, the heat from the flames burned into me like a reminder.
Keep fighting. Keep fighting until you win.
I bit my lip and felt a gush of blood accompany the pain. It was time to get moving. Apparently, I wouldn’t be dying today. I opened my mouth to thank whoever had called me from the abyss and saw Gustaf lying on his left hip with his hand on his right leg, putting pressure against a wound so deep I could see down to the white of his bone. Something had torn through his skin and muscle to get him to release me.
Strangely, I felt no remorse.
Rolling over, I struggled to rise to my knees, my chest aching and my lungs aching to draw in enough breath to keep me from passing out.
But when I glanced up, there Merek stood in blood-stained clothes, and I hated seeing the fear in his eyes. I hated the men who had put it there.
“You’re alive. I thought I’d lost you.”
He had one of the swords from the plaque above the fireplace in his hand. Blood dripped from the tip. So that’s what he’d used on Gustaf.
“Are you all right?” He held out a hand for me to take and I breathed a sigh of relief the instant our palms touched.
It took me a long moment to swallow over the lump in my throat and find my voice. “Will I ever be all right?” I asked in return. “Where is Gray?”
I ran my hands over the lines of his shoulders, down his chest and along his sides, searching for the gunshot wound. I’d seen the revolver go off, hadn’t I? Heard the boom of the shot, and yet I couldn’t find where Merek had been hit.
“Little love, I’m fine. Stop your worrying. Gray is over there.” Merek pointed down and to the left. His gaze darkened and when he spoke, his voice contained an icy threat I felt down to my soul. “You will let me deal with him accordingly. Prison is too good for his meddling. I did not kill him outright because I want him to pay for the suffering he has caused.”
Gray was sprawled on the floor, leaning heavily against the wingback chair, legs buckled and cradling his broken arm against his chest, unraveling before my eyes. His thick hair lay around his face, disheveled. The expensive coat he wore was torn in multiple places and blood seeped from a dozen cuts. His shoulders shook with his frantic sobs.
I didn’t feel remorse for him, either, not after everything he’d put us through. “What did you do to him?”
Did I even want to know?
Merek shrugged and I pitied the fool who stood on the receiving end of his wrath. “He wanted to see the Beast,” he told me simply. “That is exactly what I showed him.”
But the cold feeling had crept down into the marrow of my bones. Men like Gray and Gustaf…they wouldn’t stop coming. There would be others to take their place. Once we contained the immediate threat, there would be more.
There would always be more. A groan caught in the back of my throat. We might have made it through this evening with minimal loss but what about tomorrow? The next day?
The village would react once they realized we’d hurt their favorite golden boy and then the real mob would come with more than torches and pitchforks.
“He deserved nothing less for bringing his men here and hurting the people I care about,” Merek was saying. “Did I not tell you I would handle this?”
Merek drew my attention with a swipe of his thumb over my cheekbones. “Reila, don’t cry. We can fix this. I left Gray alive so he can tell us where to find your brother. No matter where Matthews hid the boy, we will find him.”
My brother Thomas. He was in danger as well. I sent up a silent prayer that my mother would be able to locate him and get them both to safety. But even if she did, what then? Would we be chased, detested to the point where we feared daily for our lives?
I had a terrible feeling about the next step of the journey but I knew what I had to do. And I was prepared to sacrifice everything. Gustaf and Gray were only the start of something, the tip of the iceberg. Merek might be strong but I refused to lay the weight of this on his shoulders. It was for me to bear alone.
“I know what has to be done,” I said at last.
The late hour would work to my advantage. Most of the villagers were already tired from a long day of work, not to mention the trek up the mountain for the few who followed Gray. Their minds would all be open and easily susceptible to my next piece of magic. I simply had to ensure it would reach throughout the kingdom.
A huge expanse and little time.
Merek read the resolve on my face and cleared his throat before he spoke. “I don’t like what you’re implying. Please tell me you have something in mind that doesn’t involve another spell.”
I held back a smile for his benefit alone, hoping he wouldn’t see what I tried to hide. “I’m sorry, Merek. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done. Just know that whatever happens next, I do love you and I always will.”
“Wait a minute, what do you mean?”
I was already running. Past him and out the open, demolished front doors away from the sounds of the mob still in the midst of their pillaging and looting. I needed space to work this next bit. I knew it inherently.
Though the snow heaped heavy and weighed down the hem of my dress, I pushed through, uncaring at the cold biting my bare skin. A single thought had a gust of air pressurized around the opening to the castle and sealing it tight. No one would enter and no one would leave until I completed my task.
Behind me I heard Merek roaring for me, calling my name and begging me to come back. To reconsider whatever foolish notion I had stuck in my head.
I didn’t have the physical strength to fight my enemy, no, but I knew the sort of power I had at my fingertips now that I was free.
And I had Gustaf’s orb in my pocket, filled with his magic plus what he’d stolen from me.
I slid to a halt next to the frozen rose bushes at the edge of the terrace.
Reila, no!
I heard his voice in my head as though he stood beside me in the snowdrifts. “I love you, Merek.”
Closing my eyes, I settled my mind, the outside world around me going eerily silent and still. Then I dropped down deep into myself. In my mind I remembered the night five years ago, searching for Merek to lay waste to the man I’d believed wronged me.
I anchored myself in the memory of that power and the spell I’d wrought back then. The shadows I’d long suppressed rose for me to harness now, shadows of power and might with enough force to change the course of history. I intended to do the same again. All the red-hot rage I’d suppressed finally burst into the open and I waved my hands in a circle in front of me, light glowing in the air.
This memory spell would not be an easy one. I didn’t expect it to be, just as I didn’t expect it to come without a cost. I was prepared to pay it regardless.
Take care of my mother and brother. Watch over them the way you have your people and make sure no harm comes. I do this for us all.
In spite of the cold, a layer of sweat drenched my skin and froze immediately. My jaw clenched. My magic rose from the dark pit inside of me until it flowed out through every finger, every toe. It grew and grew until it felt like I rode a wave of thunder through the sky, with enough power to decimate everyone.
This would be the biggest piece of magic of my life. And luckily for me, it came when I called.
Through that power I found the minds of the men still in the castle, prepared to wipe them clean. I found the minds of the creatures in the woods, of the villages sleeping in their cottages close to the forest’s edge, and then beyond. The memory spell would ensure the entire kingdom would forget about me being a witch, forget that Merek had ever been a beast. And along with them…I would forget as well.
Everything.
Pieces of myself began to break off the longer I held on to the magic, the more I struggled to center that power on the minds of the kingdom. I knew they were pieces I would never be able to get back.
I didn’t care.
The air filled with the strength of the magic and the golden glow in front of me burned bright and brighter. Sparks began to fly as the wave radiated out, findi
ng every beating heart and wiping out memories of the last five years, everything concerning Merek and my family. Implanting false memories instead, filled with happiness and contentment.
I was distantly aware of banging on the air shield I kept in place at the front entrance. Merek. He screamed for me to reconsider, knowing the price, knowing we would never again get back what we lost.
It didn’t matter. He would live. And perhaps, in time, he would come to love again.
With the last of my conscious thought, I sent a wave of pure adoration out toward Merek and my mother and to wherever Gray had Thomas hidden. Then I released the spell to rewrite reality and collapsed in the resulting boom.
Chapter 25
The dull thud of boots through the snow echoed in an eerie tempo though I couldn’t place the person wearing them. I heard only the heavy and muffled fall of each leather sole as he drew closer, the thundering of my pulse in time with those steps.
Then someone was down on his knees beside me and I noticed the ragged tempo of his breathing. A thumb swiped beneath my eyes, down my cheek to caress my lower lip.
“Are you all right? Can you sit up?”
I slowly came back to my body and in that instant knew nothing beyond the pulsating agony. Raising my hand to my head, it came away smeared with blood, a lump the size of an egg at the back of my skull.
“Careful now. You don’t want to hurt yourself again,” the man said softly. “You’ve already been through quite enough today.”
Tender hands pressed the small of my back before an arm wrapped itself around my shoulders. I leaned into the comforting warmth of the fellow though I couldn’t see his face. I remembered nothing outside the pain. No past and no present. I certainly had no thought for the future.
There was only the cold ground beneath me, the lump on my head, and the man with the tears in his voice when he spoke to me.
Me…an interesting concept. If I wiggled my fingers they reacted, the same with my toes. My head tilted from side to side but beyond feeling the way my heart beat or the dull throb of pain throughout my body, I felt empty.
