He had to be in there, though, just as the girl Ameena used to be must have been inside of her.
My heart broke a little, and not just for me. This started with love. All of this came because two people couldn’t imagine facing a cold world without each other’s arms to shield them.
And the thing was, I understood that. I understood it more than I ever could have explained. But that didn’t absolve them of their actions, and it didn’t change the facts.
“Say your goodbyes,” I grunted to Luca, feeling us slipping from Ameena’s grasp. “And make sure they’re good,” I said, thinking of Abram. “She’s going to have to live with them for a long time.”
Luca’s red eyes lightened. They were blue now, like Huntsman’s. And they were full of something so primal and human that it had to be either fear or regret.
“I…” His tone was light, almost like a child’s, and he turned his face from me to Ameena. “I love you,” he said. “And I’m so very sorry, my love.”
And then her grip on him proved to just not be enough.
We started to fall again, but then, again, we stopped. Ameena crouched over the side of the cliff. Her hand was wrapped around Luca’s leg. Her face held more rage than I had ever seen before.
“You think you can hurt me? You’re an ant, an insect on the face of a world you could never hope to understand.”
Blood, my blood, began pouring from my nose, eyes, and mouth. It wafted toward her on the air, and she took it in, drawing more and more of my power.
“You are nothing!” she screamed through the unmoving lips of her bull head. “Absolutely nothing! And I’m about to prove that to you.”
With newfound strength, she whipped us both forward, sending me flying through the air above her. I tried to keep a hold of Luca, my only bargaining chip. But I lost him in the fray.
From the air, I watched Luca hit hard on the grass of the cliff. He was safe.
But I wasn’t.
Ameena caught me, grabbing my throat with her massive and disgusting hand. She hoisted me over the cliff, letting me dangle there.
I was a rag doll she was about to rid herself of. And I couldn’t stop her. All I could do was suck in choking gasps around her hand, trying futilely to pry her fingers from my neck. Blood dripped down the front of my face, blurring my vision and running past my lips.
“You thought you could stop me?” She scoffed. “No one can stop me. Death itself must relent in my presence. The Brothers made me immortal. They gave me everything. And, in return—with your powers—I’m going to show them what I’m really capable of.” She squeezed hard against my windpipe. Still, I knew she wouldn’t choke me to death. She would’ve to let me fall, let me go, if she wanted the ritual to work. She hissed. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
“I’d rethink that.” Abram’s voice boomed with surprising energy.
Looking past Ameena, I saw Abram had broken free of his confines. He stood behind Luca, who had been pushed to his knees. Abram pulled her pet’s head back and held his claws at Luca’s exposed neck.
“Drop her off that cliff, and I’ll rip out his throat.”
“He’s stronger than you,” she said, voice wavering.
“Not right now he’s not.” Abram’s eyes glowed with a gold I had never seen before. “At this moment, there isn’t a thing in the world more powerful than me. So let me make myself clear. You will give her back to me.”
Ameena glared at me for a long moment, then turned her attention back to Abram. “No.”
“I will kill him!” he roared.
“I don’t doubt it,” she answered. “And when you do, I’ll bring him back. Like I’ve done a hundred times over a thousand years. And, with your girlfriend dead, Luca and I can be together forever. You have no cards to play here, Beast.”
Abram’s eyes went blank. He looked past Ameena to me, hanging seconds away from death. “I’m so sorry, Char.”
“It’s okay,” I answered hoarsely. “It’s okay.”
He tilted his chin toward Ameena. “What about me?” he asked, letting go of Luca and walking toward us. “Trap me instead.”
I tried to tell him to stop, but Ameena’s grip had officially cut off the last of my air. I couldn’t push out another word.
“Stop where you stand!” Ameena said, lowering my body enough to let Abram know she wouldn’t hesitate to drop me if he came much closer. He froze where he stood, and she continued: “Now tell me—what rubbish are you rambling on about this time.”
“You need someone to be trapped. That’s the way you negate the original spell. You trapped the first Sleeping Beauty in a coma. You trapped Archibald in his castle. It’s why you put Briar to sleep to draw more Supplicants here, because you felt Archibald breaking free of your grasp and you needed help for your magic to keep him there.”
“Get to the point,” Ameena warned.
“Charisse is powerful. She’s very powerful, but at her core, she’s a human. That’s what makes her different. You kill her like this, you get the powers and limitations of the form she’s in now. And, in case you haven’t realized it yet, she’s something of a novice. Think of how much more powerful you would be if you waited until her powers were mature, until she had reached her full potential.” He shook his head. “You could rule the world. Even the Brotherhood.”
“The Brothers!” she spit out, an antsy irritation about her tone.
I’d never heard of the Brothers before Ameena mentioned them, and from the sounds of it, neither had Abram.
Abram continued, unmoved by her correction. “No one would be able to stand against you. You would never have to worry about anyone ever again.”
“Nice try,” Ameena said, lowering my body even more. “But what you’re forgetting is that I need the power now.” Her hand trembled. “So, if you’ll excuse me—”
“Right!” Abram said, holding his hands out to let her know he wasn’t finished. “You want her power so that you can be with Luca without someone having to be trapped. That’s shortsighted, though. Be with Luca and grow Charisse’s power for the future. You can have it all. All you have to do is trap someone.”
“Who?” Ameena asked.
“I already told you,” Abram said. “I can help you.”
No! My mind screamed, but the words wouldn’t come out. I stared at him pleadingly. Abram, don’t you dare.
The Conduit squeezed my throat tighter, as though to make certain I wouldn’t get another word out. “You’re a base creature created from a lesser Conduit. It might take millennia for Charisse to fulfill her potential. You won’t be able to carry magic like this for that long.”
“But you would,” he answered.
Ameena’s eyes narrowed.
“My curse, the one the lesser Conduit gave me—she didn’t just turn me into a beast…she imprisoned me as one.” Abram stepped closer. “I could give you this curse. I could trap you in your body—in your powerful body that will last for the rest of all time. You would be your own anchor. As long as you lived, forever and ever, you could be with Luca. And it would afford you more than enough time to let Charisse become powerful enough to fulfill your grander plans.”
She looked over at me. Was she actually considering this?
“So I would take your curse, but not your person?”
“That’s right,” Abram said evenly.
“No,” Ameena answered.
“You need someone to be trapped for Luca to be free,” Abram continued in a rush. “You yourself would be the one who is trapped. You, in your immortal body. You wouldn’t have to trap someone else ever again—you wouldn’t have to rely on other, lesser beings. You wouldn’t have to fight back against someone trying to undo your enchantment. Surely you see how perfect that is?”
“Perfect, but for one thing,” she said. “Once Charisse grows into her power, there’s nothing to stop her from destroying me. If she’s as potent as she seems, how would I get her to give me her abilities once they outmatch my own
?” A smile stretched across her grotesque bull-face. “I’ll tell you how.” She looked over at me. “With love.” Looking back at Abram, she continued. “I will take your curse onto myself, but I will also take you. You will come with me. You will be my prisoner, and serve me for as long as it takes for Charisse to grow in power. Once I deem that power sufficient, she will cede it over to me in return for your freedom. Agree to this, and I will let her live. Do not, and she dies now.”
“No!” I choked out, but it sounded more like a gurgle.
“Agreed,” Abram said without missing a beat.
She threw me toward Abram, and our bodies collided. He stumbled backward, but he kept standing and didn’t hesitate to scoop me into his arms.
“How could you?” I screamed, pounding fists against his chest. “You had no right to agree to that! To just give yourself away!”
“It’s all right,” he whispered into my ear. “It’ll be all right.”
“Yes,” Ameena said, moving toward us. “After all, it’s just a few millennia. It’ll fly by.” She outstretched her arm. “The curse. I’ll take it now.”
I squeezed Abram tightly, then he pushed me off and walked toward her.
I winced as he placed his hands in hers.
“You understand that, when transferring one’s curse, the recipient has to freely accept it,” Abram said.
“Of course I understand. I’m a First Order Conduit.”
“You have to say it,” he told her. “You have to say the words aloud to initiate the process.”
If she could have rolled those bull eyes, I figured she would have as she answered. “I accept this man’s curse into myself for now and all time.”
With those words spoken, Abram began to glow bright gold. The light moved from him and settled onto Ameena. He breathed heavily as the last of the light left him, then he let go of her hand.
This was it. She was going to take him away. And I wouldn’t see him again for—what, two thousand years? The idea seemed unfathomable.
“I can feel it!” Ameena gleamed. “I can feel my own curse being negated from within me. I can feel your curse trapping me!” She looked over at Luca. “I can feel the—Wait, what’s happening to you?”
Luca was beginning to transform. The fur, muscles, and fangs of his beastly form dwindled. Slowly, he was turning back into the boy from my vision. But why?
“Luca, what—” Ameena bowled over. She too was changing. Her hands, long and gangly, were shortening. Her bull’s face was morphing into something much more human in shape.
They were…they were changing back.
“What did you do to me?” she asked, and this time, her voice came from her exceedingly human-looking mouth.
“You did it to yourself,” Abram said, settling over her. “My curse comes with all its attributes.” He looked over at me. “All monster, no magic. Remember?”
“Oh, God…” I murmured. He knew what he was doing the entire time. He gave her the curse to cut her off from her magic. To render her powerless.
Suddenly, the air behind us shimmered. An invisible veil fell from the world and, with a loud pop, the black castle became visible to me (and probably the rest of the island) again. I wonder how they were going to explain that.
A door from the castle swung open. Huntsman, Satina, and Ramsey strode through it. Huntsman had his ax in hand, Ramsey carried an unconscious Briar, and Satina looked royally pissed. She threw up her hands, freezing Ameena in place.
“You took it all!” the Conduit screamed, now completely human.
“Not yet,” Huntsman said through gritted teeth.
He reared back, the head of his ax poised to come down on Ameena’s head.
“Go on!” she cried. “You can’t kill me! You people might have tricked me out of my magic, but you can’t undo what the Brothers did. This body is immortal. You can’t kill it!”
“Perhaps,” Huntsman answered. “But I imagine I can still cut it into a thousand living pieces.”
He began to swing, but Luca stumbled toward him, a skinny boy with shaggy hair and tears streaming down his face. “No, brother, please! Leave her be!”
Huntsman stopped short. Looking to Luca, Huntsman’s eyes widened as hurt flashed through them. It was clear he hadn’t seen Luca like this in a very long time.
“She’s a monster, Luca. She turned you into a monster. She’s killed more people than either of us can count. She deserves to be punished.”
“Then so do I,” he said, his voice shaking. “You think I’m some victim to all this, that she spelled me and made me do these things? She didn’t. These choices were mine. I did what I did because she asked me to, not because she forced me to. I did those things because I love her.” He closed his eyes. “So if you must do this to her, then you must do it to me.”
Huntsman glared at his brother for a long moment. “So be it,” he said, voice heavy with regret. Then, shockingly, he reared back his ax.
“Huntsman,” I said, darting to his side and taking his arm. “Let’s think about this for a moment.”
He growled. “There’s nothing to think about. Stop making this harder than it has to be.”
I called over my shoulder to Abram. “Make sure no one goes anywhere,” I said, then I lowered Huntsman’s arm, and he didn’t resist. “Talk to me.” I pulled him a few feet away. “Is everyone okay?”
“They’ll be fine,” he said gruffly, ticking his gaze toward the others. His attention lingered a moment longer on his brother, still standing guard by a frozen Ameena. “Once I found them, I was able to lead them to safety, but that does not change what I must do, Charisse.”
“No, it doesn’t. And I don’t want it to,” I said. “See, that’s the sort of person you are, isn’t it? You save people. You lead people. But if you do something like this—if you kill someone you used to love—it’ll change you.” Dalton and Lulu flashed through my mind. “And I, for one, don’t think this world can afford to have you change.”
“Justice is justice,” he answered flatly. “Regardless of my emotions, it must be served.”
“And it will,” I answered.
His eyes narrowed.
“Just trust me,” I said, patting his shoulder and moving away from him.
“You like to trap people,” I said, walking toward Ameena. “What is it you said, ‘lost for eternity’?”
She glared at me, but could do little else with Satina’s hold on her.
“Well, let’s see how you like it.” I let my emotions—and there were a lot of them—flow through me as I grabbed Satina’s hand. “I’m going to need your help with this.”
Ameena scoffed. “Oh, what now, you’re going to trap us in that castle for the rest of eternity?”
“One of you,” I said, motioning toward Luca. “I have another spot picked out for you.” I looked toward Archibald’s castle.
“You’re not serious!” Ameena’s body seemed to struggle against Satina’s hold now, but it was useless. She wasn’t the stronger Conduit anymore. “We-we’d kill each other.”
“Oh, sweetie,” I answered, as the magic swirled around, doing my will. “Like you said, you can’t die. It’ll just be one long honeymoon.”
As they both vanished, I smiled. “Let’s see how that misogynistic asshole likes that.”
Abram sidled over to me. “You know, with both Ameena and Archibald trapped forever, we’re going to have to find Grimoult a new royal family.”
“I may have an answer for that,” Satina said, running fingers through her hair. “You see, there was a reason Ameena chose Briar to be the new Sleeping Beauty.”
“I know,” I said. “Because of the persuasion Ramsey put on her.”
“That’s barely a spell,” Satina said. “The reason it worked so well on her, is because she shares blood with the person it originated from.”
“You mean…you mean Briar is related to…” I shook my head, unable to even finish the ludicrous thought.
“She’s
the original Sleeping Beauty’s great granddaughter five times removed,” Satina said. “Unfortunately not related enough to have blood that’s of any use to me. She’s just a human.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I muttered. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
Satina waved her hand dismissively. “I told you what you needed to know, when you needed to know it. You should thank me for not telling you more sooner.”
“Well, I would have done fine to never know I made Briar a freaking queen.”
“Hey!” Ramsey breathed from the ground. “I think she’s waking up!”
Briar’s eyes were, in fact, fluttering open. And the thing was, I didn’t really hate her anymore.
It was funny how things worked out. I thought about that for a long time, standing on that cliff with people who had—against all odds—become something close to friends.
We talked for hours after that, laughing, reminiscing, and fighting off sleep as—for the first time in months—rain fell over Grimoult.
Epilogue
“I can’t believe I don’t get a castle,” Briar said, rolling her eyes. She stood beside me at the airport, with Ramsey holding her hand.
It had been three days since she woke up, three days since I banished Ameena, Luca, and Archibald to their respective prisons, and three days of hearing Briar complain about every little thing.
As one might expect, it had taken her all of two seconds to get used to the idea of being royalty.
“I mean, just because all the castles on the island are being used as magical jails or whatever doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get my due. Can’t they just, like, build another one or something?”
“Honey.” Ramsey smiled, a freer look on his face than I would’ve thought imaginable five days ago. “The country’s been through the biggest drought in over five hundred years. I’m not sure now’s the best time for massive spending.”
“Fine.” She sighed, resting her head on Ramsey’s shoulder. “But as soon as there’s a crop of something, I’m buying diamonds.”
Sleeping with the Beast: an Adult Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Conduit Series Book 2) Page 24
