Savage Beauty

by Casey L. Bond

  Tsk. Tsk. They should be more responsible in autumn. The whole forest could become cinders due to their carelessness.

  Weaving recklessly through the forest, Terigon’s horse suddenly faltered and fell. Terigon was thrown to the ground and rolled down a small embankment, only stopping when his stomach wrapped around a boulder. I jumped off my broom and threw him onto his back, straddling him and holding him still with my broom and thighs.

  “What the hell are you…? Witch,” he breathed. “What do you want?” he asked venomously.

  I removed my knife and smiled. “I want your tongue.”

  “Why?” he gritted, trying to buck me off.

  “I need one for a spell, but Malex specifically suggested I take yours.” His eyes widened as I whispered in his ear. “You must have really pissed him off.”

  I used a spell to keep him quiet, and then held his arms, legs, and jaw open with magic until I was finished slicing. By the time I tucked his thick tongue into my bag, Terigon was gagging on his blood, tears running into his cropped blond hair.

  Hatred radiated from every inch of him and he flashed me a look that promised retribution. I stole his memory of the event just in case he decided to lash out once I was untethered from Aura.

  I took to the air just as his men came to his aid. A few moments too late for their liege, unfortunately.

  Leaving him there, bleeding on the ground, felt good. Hurting him made me feel strong and untouchable in a time when everything in my life was bad, and when I felt powerless to stop the darkness I knew would come with Phillip’s death.

  And then I began to cry, because the good feeling was gone; in its place was something horrific. I was a monster, just like Aura, just like our mysterious father. Who could attack someone, cut out their tongue, and then feel good about it? A beast, that’s who.

  A savage.

  Someone not worthy of the love of a prince, or a man like Phillip.

  I should have known better than to let my heart feel anything again. This was William’s younger brother. Only a beast could fall for their first love’s flesh and blood.

  Everyone who loved me died. Aura made sure of it. I knew that if she found him she would punish him, but she’d found him first and punished him anyway, simply because she was a demon dressed in fine gowns who lived in a palace of blood and bone, hidden just beneath the soil.

  Curses, I hated her.

  Phillip would never want to become fae, and I wouldn’t blame him for not wanting to be like us. This was all Aura’s fault. Wiping my tears away, I began to laugh. Hers was one death I would revel in. I would end her and not feel an ounce of guilt for doing so.

  The only problem was the last ingredient. Malex said I had to get a rose from her garden during the daytime, but how? I couldn’t pluck it while sleepwalking, and I couldn’t drag it from the dream into reality.

  But I could send Ember.

  Malex was chatting with Phillip when I returned, both men chuckling at something they’d shared. I smiled as they stood up. Phillip’s eyes raked over my form-fitting britches and lit a fire beneath my skin.

  “Did you get it?” Malex asked excitedly, eyes glittering. His eyes flicked to my neck, which was sticky with blood.

  “Have I failed you yet?” I answered dryly.

  “No, you haven’t.”

  I took off my bag and belt and dropped both in my spell room, locking it behind me. “One final ingredient.”

  Malex nodded. “One final ingredient.”

  I toyed with the idea of telling Malex my plan to get the rose. He’d helped me thus far. Surely I could trust him. My battle with Aura was only making me cynical and paranoid. He would find out soon enough, anyway. I would soon be at the entrance to his cave, ingredients in hand, ready for him to help with this spell.

  “I’m sending Ember to retrieve it.”

  “She’s your familiar, but that doesn’t make her immune to death, Luna. Her life isn’t tied to yours.”

  That’s what he thinks, I inwardly scoffed. That was the first thing I did when I took her as my own, in case Aura caught her somehow, although I was wary enough not to share that little tidbit. Ember could retrieve the rose and return it to me. It was the perfect plan. She was small and nimble, fast as lightning. She could slip into the garden and back out before anyone even knew she was there. And if the toxin sprayed her, she might get sick, but she wouldn’t die.

  I gasped. Maybe I could do the same with Phillip! If it worked, it would stop the toxin from further poisoning his body. “Can I bind my life with Phillip’s?” I asked hurriedly.

  “A human cannot be bound to a fae,” Malex said pointedly. But the message was loud and clear. If Phillip became fae, it would be possible to bind our life forces and save him. Assuming that killing my sister didn’t remove the toxin from his body. Maybe we needed a plan B, though...

  “I hope you have a backup plan, Luna,” Malex added, seeming to read my thoughts. “If the toxin harms your familiar, she might fail you. I would get it for you,” Malex said, “but I can’t.”

  “Why can’t you?”

  “I can’t cross into Virosa. When you sprinkled the binding dust to hold Aura in the palace yard, that dust bound all fae from crossing it.”

  “But I’m fae and I can cross it,” I quickly argued.

  He grinned and continued, “Except for the one who did the binding. You’re the only fae who can get into the yard and into the palace now.”

  Damn it.

  Magic always demanded too steep a price.

  I looked at Phillip. He seemed fine now, but I knew what darkness was spreading through his body.

  “It’s almost dawn, and I need to go,” Malex said abruptly. “Phillip seems to be feeling fine, so don’t worry about him when you sleep. Hopefully, I’ll see you three tonight at the cave,” he said, petting Ember on the head. She rewarded him with an angry hiss and stalked into my bedroom.

  We would definitely be there. Ember would retrieve the rose and meet us back at the house. Even if she got sick from doing so, she’d bring it back. She wouldn’t let me down. Not now, when we were so close to being free.

  Once Malex strode out the door, Phillip and I stared at each other, silent words tumbling in the air between us.

  “I need to get cleaned up,” I finally said. As I started toward the bedroom to get a change of clothes, my feet stalled when I noticed Phillip looking at me in the strangest way. “Are you okay? Did you and Malex get along?”

  Did he tell him about his blood? I wondered.

  “It was fine. We talked about you, mostly.”

  My face heated. “I’m not sure I want to know what you were saying.”

  He just grinned and my heart broke. It confirmed the resolve in my heart that I didn’t want to live a single day without seeing his smile. Fighting the thick knot in my throat, I told him, “I’ll be right back.” Walking stiffly to my room, I grabbed a dress and underclothes and went outside to wash up.

  The sun was about to lodge itself between the eastern mountains. I’d scrubbed the blood from my hair, skin, and clothes, and was walking back to the house when I saw Pieces perched on the sill. “What do you want?” I asked crossly. “Aura will be awake any moment, and she already has a better spy than you’ll ever be.”

  Pieces squawked and then took to the air, dropping a single petal from her beak before flying toward Virosa.

  “I need a whole rose, not part of one, you blasted bird!”

  I hated Aura.

  She thought this was funny.

  I hated to ask my familiar, because more than likely, she would be sickened from the toxin, but it was the only way. “Ember?” My heart dropped as she came to me. “I need a favor, but please know I would never ask you if I didn’t need it so badly.”

  A tear fell from my eye when she rubbed her face in my palm, ready to do whatever I asked without hesitation. “I need you to bring me one of Aura’s roses.” I picked her up and held her to my chest. She knew that if
there was any other way to accomplish this task, I wouldn’t send her. There was an unavoidable chance Aura would see her and capture her. I couldn’t go, Malex couldn’t retrieve it, and Phillip was sick; although I wouldn’t risk Aura getting her hands on Phillip, even if he was perfectly well.

  Of all of us, Ember had the best chance of getting in and out of the garden without Aura knowing. Now, if I could only find a way to keep Pieces busy...

  I called for a fox, stroking Ember’s fur. The fox came and laid down beside me. “Keep the bird of Virosa, the dove they call Peace, busy for a time.”

  He nodded and leapt away.

  This could work.

  Phillip saw me petting my familiar and took her from my arms. “Are you okay?” he asked. “You seem out of sorts.”

  “I’m tired,” I said. It wasn’t a lie. The sun was almost up and I was tired. Tired of fighting so hard, tired of sacrificing, tired of feeling hopeless and helpless.

  More than that, I was terrified that when I woke up, Phillip would already be dead.

  He helped me to the bedroom and darkness fell over my vision. I could feel his lips on mine. “Goodbye, Luna,” I thought he said.

  Inwardly, I clawed for him, screaming for him not to leave me yet.

  chapter nineteen

  PHILLIP

  Ember padded toward the door, but she looked back when I spoke. “Ember, wait. I’m going with you.”

  I knew Luna needed a rose from Aura’s garden, but there was no need for Ember to die since I had already been poisoned by them. The damage was already done. I could pluck one and bring it back, and if I became too weak to make the return trip, Ember could bring it back to Luna without being subjected to the toxins the blooms could expel while on the vine.

  I prayed I was right about that, and that they couldn’t hurt Ember once plucked. Malex told me there was a way I could help Luna, and a way he could help me. He’d handed me a vial of his blood…

  “This is my blood. If you feel like you’re dying and you decide you’d rather live, drink it.”

  “What will happen when I do?”

  “You’ll become fae.”

  I digested that for a long moment. “But I’ll live, right? I’ll be able to come back to her?”

  He nodded. “You won’t have power, but you’ll be alive. Immortal.”

  “How do you know this’ll work?”

  “Because I’ve done it once before. The transformation will be excruciating, but you’ll survive it.”

  “This sounds an awful lot like vampyre lore.”

  Malex smiled. “Vampyre lore was born from fae fact.”

  “Does Luna know?”

  “I told her before she left. She wants to try to kill Aura and see if that works to kill the toxin in your body, but in the end, she’ll leave the choice up to you. I just wanted to give it to you early in case that choice is stripped away today. I know what you’re about to do.”

  “How?”

  “You have a determined gleam in your eye; the gleam of a man who’s about to save the day or die trying. You love her.”

  “I do.”

  “Then help her. This’ll help you if you need it.”

  “Why are you helping me?” I asked shrewdly. “I know you want her.”

  “Luna will never want me if she knows I had the chance to help you and didn’t. Besides, she still owes me a favor, you know.”

  Of course I knew. And I knew that Malex would have her if he truly wanted her. She’d blindly given her word in exchange for his help.

  “Besides,” he added, “if she kills Aura and decides that being queen isn’t for her, someone will need to see to Virosa’s people.”

  Malex was strange, but Luna trusted him, I reminded myself. And he was right – I was determined. If this would help Luna, I would retrieve the bloom. Apparently Malex couldn’t cross the barrier he and Luna made to trap Aura inside of Virosa’s palatial grounds, but I could.

  And if worse came to worse, I could turn into a faery.

  I couldn’t believe I was really contemplating changing into a faery, but there it was. It wasn’t the life I would have wanted before coming here. I would’ve thought it a curse, but now? Luna meant everything to me.

  I tucked the vial into my pocket, patting it to make sure it was secure.

  “Don’t break it,” Malex warned. “It’s your only chance if Aura finds you. And know that if you use it inside the barrier, inside the garden, my blood will change you, but you’ll be bound inside as well.”

  Two things I knew for certain: One, I didn’t want to die. I would drink Malex’s blood and turn into a fae if it meant staying alive and being with Luna. Two, there was something I didn’t trust about Malex. Maybe it was how he vacillated between wanting Luna & wanting the favor she owed—the one he never let her or anyone else forget about—or how he admitted to wanting Virosa now. His motivation for helping Luna just didn’t seem to add up. Also, there was the predatory way he watched everything. Maybe it was a trait all the full-blooded fae shared. I wasn’t sure since he was the only one I knew, but it made my hair stand on end.

  I shook my head and stepped onto the porch, the sun warming my face and skin, and Ember and I set out for Virosa. “I need you to lead the way to Aura’s garden,” I told her. “Stick to the woods for as long as you can.”

  The walk would be long, and I already felt the effects of a fever coming on, but Luna needed the rose. Without it, she’d never escape Aura. I pushed my body forward, through the heat of the day that still left me shivering. Through brush and trees and creeks and bogs.

  By the time we arrived at the edge of the woods surrounding the palace, it was midday. The sun was high. I needed to pluck a rose and get out of there as quickly as possible. “Stay here, Ember. If I need you to take the rose, I’ll yell for you. Be on the look out for Pieces.”

  Ember rubbed her face into my hands, a peculiar sadness in her eyes. I stood up from where I crouched and wiped the cool sweat from my brow. At first I was worried I wouldn’t know where the original barrier was that kept Aura inside these grounds, but upon seeing the palace I noticed a stone fence surrounding the manicured yards and the roses from the forest. That was where Luna would have separated her sister from the world. With the additional barrier spell, Aura was trapped inside the palace now, unable to roam the grounds. But she’d know I was here if she bothered to tap into my mind or whatever she did.

  But this was a risk I had to take.

  For Luna.

  For us.

  I jumped the stone fence and entered the palace grounds, sweat pouring from my head and body. My legs felt wobbly, but I pushed forward and into the roses just past a stretch of lawn that was already turning brown with the autumn season.

  There was no sign of Pieces. No sign of Aura.

  No indication that anyone knew I was there.

  Then I heard a commotion, a bird squawking, and saw the source: a fox was chasing Pieces, its lupine body leaping up into the air to try to snatch a claw or wing.

  Standing on a balcony on the highest floor of the palace was a woman in a red gown, her hair the color of spun gold, watching the fox and dove. I darted forward and crouched behind a rose bush, panting from the exertion.

  I plucked one of the roses, removing the thorns so that I or Ember could carry it back without injury.

  “What are you doing in my garden?” a voice boomed. It sounded as if she were right beside me, but she was still on the stone balcony, her hands braced on the railing. “Did my sister send you?” she asked conversationally.

  I stood up and began backing away.

  Across the lawn.

  “Welcome back, Prince Phillip. I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”

  I kept backing up. I was half way to the wall.

  “I guess you’re looking for an antidote. You don’t look so well, Prince,” she tsked.

  Almost there. I tossed the rose across the stone wall and Ember grabbed hold of the stem between her teet
h. She hesitated.

  “Go, Ember,” I hissed.

  “You won’t find a cure in the roses. Only death lies in the blooms. But you already know that. Did Luna need one for her little potion?” She laughed, her tinkling laughter ringing out across the lawn. “What’s the matter, Prince? Cat got your tongue?”

  Just then, the ground began to tremble. Roots sprang up from the earth and wrapped around my ankles when I tried to jump over the fence, dragging me back into the garden. I clawed at the ground, at the bushes, shredding my palms.

  The vines dragged me on my stomach, further into the walled garden. I managed to flip onto my back and hurriedly reached for the vial in my pocket. I drank it down in one gulp and waited for the change. The liquid was black and thick as tar, but tasted sweet. Sickly sweet. Her roots lifted me to her balcony.

  “What do you have there?” she asked, a wicked smile tugging her lips. She tore the vial from my hands and sniffed the inside. “Sorghum?” she guessed. “Yes, it’s a thick, sugary sorghum, tinted with,” she sniffed again, “charcoal.”

  “No...” He lied? I felt as if I’d been punched in the gut. But then a worse thought filtered through my mind. If Malex lied about giving me his blood, what else was he lying about? I struggled futilely against the vines that held me. “Let me go! Luna’s in trouble.”

  “My sister is always getting herself into trouble,” Aura said with a sigh.

  I ticked off the information I knew to date. Malex was supposedly helping Luna make a potion to separate her from Aura’s lifeforce. He was either lying about that, or he actually wanted them separated. But why? Why pretend to help and then lie?

  What possible reason would he have for helping to unbind them?

  “What is it?” she asked quizzically.

  “Do you know Malex?”