Ha.
Well unfortunately for him, not only had I fled without any roses, I'd intentionally left them, as opposed to forgetting them.
Sighing, the man raked a hand through his hair. “Well, lead me to the beast, won't you?”
I chewed my lip again at that. “Um, yeah, about that. I can try, but I don't know where it is…”
Although there was also the irony in leading a strange man to do something I'd been unable or unwilling to accomplish myself, there was also the fact that I really couldn't lead him to Shao's mansion if I tried.
Oops.
His expression twitched with irritation, and I forced an uncomfortable smile. I mouthed an apology, but he crossed his arms and huffed, unwilling to acknowledge it.
He grumbled some more to himself incoherently, and I waited, my hands gripping each other as I awaited his final decision.
I didn't think he'd leave me alone here to die, but it was possible I'd have to wait with him for days to weeks before he either found Shao's mansion or gave up on his search, and I wasn't even sure his carriage was anywhere near us, if he'd brought one at all.
Oblivious to my thoughts, the man inched closer to me, filling me with discomfort.
“Tell me where the beast lives,” he said, jabbing me in the shoulder. I winced.
“I told you,” I said. “I don't know where he lives. All I know is that there's a clearing somewhere in the forest, and from there, you just need to follow the footsteps for a couple hours.”
“Again. You expect me to believe you magically found your way to the beast's den, then left without any roses only to get lost?” He barked out a menacing shell of a laugh. “Spare me.”
“I know how illogical it sounds, but—”
He shoved me back with both hands, causing me to scream.
My back thudded into the tree's sharp, strong grooves, and I suspected it'd bruise later.
My vision shifted and blurred. “I—”
“Where are your roses?” The man screamed into my ear, drawing so close I could smell his rancid breath.
“I don't have—”
“You lie,” he said, louder this time.
“N-no, I'm—”
With a forceful sweep, he punched the tree an inch next to me, causing the bark to splinter and shower the surrounding air; one of the shards scraped at my chin, drawing blood.
I squeezed my eyes, my chest throbbing painfully.
He knew my sister. They were friends. We probably lived in the same town, or at least in adjacent neighborhoods.
He was supposed to be nice and take me home.
What was going on? What was wrong with him?
As the thousand questions whirled in my head, the man snatched his arrow from the tree and pointed it at my throat.
Perhaps to encourage him and celebrate my death, a dozen ravens swooped to the trees and began singing a morbid song of caws and rattles, encircling us as they danced in strange, messy patterns.
The man grunted, but he otherwise seemed to take little notice of them.
I couldn't help but laugh at this bizarre, impossible situation.
“Are you mocking me?” He lunged with the arrow; whether by a last-minute spark of self-control or because he’d only meant to threaten me from the start, he stopped its motion only an inch away from me.
His eyes bulged as he stared behind me.
He took a thudding step back, then another. His gaze wavered. Forgetting about me, he thrust his arrow at whatever he was looking at.
No longer risking death by arrow at the smallest movement, I turned my head to know what could possibly have terrified this large man—and looked in the eyes a slobbering golden wolf thrice my size. It bared its sharp fangs.
A terrible, salivating growl pierced my eardrums.
Deafening thumps and growls swallowed up my senses, and I saw but barely processed the man as he lifted his bow and took several proper shots at the creature before taking a slow, shaky gulp.
He looked at the trees surrounding us, and took several deep breaths, as if he were consoling himself that we would both be safe. The trees would protect us.
Until the wolf snarled once more and lunged for us.
The seemingly invincible trees crackled beneath his knife-like claws as they twisted down—then collapsed with an anticlimactic bam.
Squealing, the man shoved me at the wolf; I'd be sacrificed so he could flee.
I shrieked.
Chapter 8
As the man scurried away, the wolf looked languorously at me, then back at the man, then back at me.
It made its decision; snarling again, it opened its mouth wide as my head, preparing to chomp down.
I squeezed my eyes shut and began screaming crazily, endlessly, like a maddened harpy until my throat was sore and no more sound would escape my throat.
And I remained alive.
With a heaving breath, I fought every cell in my body to open my eyes and look in front of me, where swirls of silver and gold sparkles swirled away from the wolf's shape like pixie dust, revealing…
A man.
Shao.
His forehead and hair were slick with sweat, as though he'd been running.
His pants were stained with dirt and grass stains, particularly at the knees, as though he'd tripped several times.
One of the ravens that had been circling us perched onto his shoulder, jutting its chest out, and I realized it was the bird I'd seen in his room earlier.
My lips parted as I gaped up at him.
“Are you alright?” He asked in that wickedly familiar, devilishly beautiful voice. He gave the bird a little pat on its head, and it made a caw of pleasure. When I gave him a judgmental look, he said, “It’s only thanks to her and her friends that I found you in time. If she hadn’t helped, you’d be—”
He shuddered, and I did, too.
“You can communicate with her?” I asked.
“She’s enchanted,” he said. As if that explained anything. “She’s also the one who’s been carrying all the letters back and forth.”
A part of me wanted to question and doubt him, but after what I’d just seen, I decided I had no choice but to accept everything he said without question.
Before I could say anything else, he added, “I'm sorry. I was shortsighted—I forgot you wouldn't be able to return home, and if I'd realized, I'd had made you wait for someone to pick you up.”
I felt almost vindicated by his apology, although the feeling was overpowered by my confusion.
Had he rushed all the way over here just to apologize to me and fetch me a carriage?
That was… surprisingly decent of him.
It would have been a given from anyone else, but it sent a ticklish thrum up my spine that the beast had cared so much he was almost dripping with sweat from sprinting.
I should still have been furious at him for deceiving me, but… he'd saved me. And I was too exhausted right now to fight him.
“I’m surprised you weren’t attacked by wild beasts,” he said. I licked my lips, remembering how scared I’d been of just that scenario.
“Honestly, me too, especially considering how loud I was to attract hunters to help me home.”
His eyes widened, and he gave a noncommittal hum. “Perhaps that was why. The wolves around here will devour anyone who seems them in self-defense—but they try to avoid conflict at all cost and stay away from humans when they can.”
I snorted. “Of course, you’d know that. You're a werewolf, aren’t you? Is that the real reason you were exiled?”
I'd always thought they were the stuff of legends, but unless I were dreaming or delusional, they obviously weren't.
Shao chuckled. “No, but I understand why you'd think that. Unfortunately for you, werewolves don’t exist.”
I didn't think my expression could have gotten stupider, but… it did.
“You just transformed from a wolf, and you're telling me werewolves don't exist?”
&
nbsp; I scoffed as I rose—then began to collapse back down, my body rendered unable to support itself by fatigue and shock.
Just in time, Shao held me by my waist, helping me up; I yelped, feeling oddly dizzy and hot, and jumped away as soon as I was standing, pushing my weight against a remaining tree instead.
“It's magic,” he said matter-of-factly. Like that explained anything. I harrumphed.
“Yeah, magic called shapeshifting.”
“Nope. That was an illusion. The tree’s destruction involved an illusion, too, to cover up the small magical explosion.” With another smile, he gestured towards his hand. I belatedly realized he was holding thin yellow strips of paper—the same ones I'd seen in his room. “Witch magic.”
I flinched back, only to stumble again, and Shao made a strangled noise somewhere between a sigh and a laugh as he reached out his empty hand.
I took it gratefully, knowing I didn't have much of a choice, before I gave up and let myself down onto the grass with his support.
“You're a witch, then?” I asked, looking up at him. “Is that why you were exiled? I thought witches were exiled fifteen years ago.”
Realizing how well the timing lined up, I gasped.
The banishment of witches had been quite a controversial, unfathomable ruling by the king, especially—if not exclusively—in the upper classes, since the super-wealthy were the only people who could afford to hire witches in the first place.
Shao dropped into a squat to look at me level in the eyes.
“No, but Sol—my youngest brother—sent me some talismans bootlegged from abroad for protection,” he said. His brother’s name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “I laughed at his face, thinking I'd never need them, but…” He shrugged. “They came in handy today, so I ought to thank him.”
I cocked my head. “Talismans?”
“They're… ah.” Shao trailed off to think.
His eyes dimmed as he gave up on finding the words to explain, then brightened again, and with a sharp intake of breath, he turned back to me with his eyes sparkling.
I couldn't help but giggle at just how readable he was.
His confused eyes snapped up to mine, and I almost lost my breath—and myself in his gaze.
Considering he'd spent most of our time together cooped up indoors or being sullen, I hadn't had the chance to notice them before, but they were an electric blue that sent thrills of shock through my spine.
I tore my eyes away, and I was tempted to curse at how hard that was.
“Look here,” he said. My eyes widened; was he asking me to look back into his eyes? Why?
He'd cast a spell of charm on them, hadn't he? Nothing else could explain this.
Frustrated, I closed my eyes as if in rebellion, only to hear a soft crunch, followed by a pop and a crackle. My curiosity forced me to look.
There was a sizzling electric rainbow in front of me, and without thinking, I touched it to see if it was real.
It tickled my skin as it wrapped around into a ring that snaked through my fingers, and I giggled.
“What's this?” I asked.
“An illusion,” he said.
“There's no way—” I giggled again as the tickling grew stronger, and I had to speak the rest of my words in between fits of laughter. “I can feel it!”
“Illusion magic can affect all five senses,” he said. “Most of the cheaper spells only affect sight or sound, but my brother has always splurged when it comes to family.”
I suppressed my sigh of disappointment as the snaking rainbow dispersed into specks of light that faded away, and looked back at Shao's hands, which were still holding several “talismans”—and one torn one.
“Don't tell me you tear them up to release the spells,” I said.
“I've never seen anyone more observant,” he drawled, and I resisted the urge to smack his shoulder playfully.
No, it wouldn't be playful, I decided, remembering the reason we'd parted in the first place.
The memory sobered me, and Shao's eyes shifted with a mix of guilt and hurt when he saw my expression change.
“Did you invite me to live with you because you'd heard about me?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.
No doubt he'd heard about me from letters to his nobles. The driver who'd led me here had suggested as much himself.
After hearing about all the ways I'd been eagerly pranked, Shao must have decided to try messing with me himself. See how far he could take things before I fled, the last vestiges of my already negligible pride in tatters.
So, it was odd he hadn't tried anything with me at all other than save me.
A beat of silence passed with Shao's eyes boring into mine, and I forced my gaze down, unwilling to torture myself with the strange torrent of emotions I'd experienced moments ago.
“Yes,” he said, and I felt myself sagging despite the obvious inevitability of his answer. “But I think I know what you're going on about now, and I'd like to correct it.”
I laughed bitterly. “If you're going to lie to save face, why don't you stop now? You ended up stopping yourself from whatever stupid things you planned to do to me—or make me do—so you have nothing to feel guilty over.”
He collected his talismans into a neat pile before setting them on the grass, and he sat down more comfortably. The raven on his shoulder croaked as it hopped several times for balance, and I almost smiled.
“Beatrice,” he said, his voice filled with so much weight that I couldn't help but want to trust him. “I've been stuck in a mansion for most of my life, and the only person who contacts me regularly is my reticent younger brother who detests most of the Perintan nobles. Do you really think I'd condone their idiotic schemes?”
“How am I supposed to know you're telling the truth?”
“You can't, but I'd like you to.” He shrugged. “I can't tell you to trust me, since…” Grimacing, he had to exhale before he finished his sentence. “Since I spent most of our time together locking you out, but do I seem like the type of person who'd harass others, or do I seem like a reclusive idiot who'd do anything to preserve his isolation?”
Had he just called himself an idiot?
“No one wants to be isolated—”
“I never said I wanted to be,” he said, and I pulled a face. Did he even realize he was contradicting himself? As if to answer my silent inquiries, he amended, “I've always hated being alone, but it's the only thing I've ever known. Barring my family miraculously deciding to accept me back, it's the only thing I ever thought I'd be comfortable with, considering how much time I've spent with my mind as my sole companion.”
I nibbled my lip as I lost myself in thought. “Then why did you offer a cure just to invite me to live with you?”
Shao licked his lips and tugged at the grass, which easily tore away from the ground. He winced as if he'd hoped they had more weight to them, and he played with his talismans instead.
“My family,” he began, then trailed off. I waited for him to resume, but he shook his head.
“Tell me.”
He sighed. “My father was one of the nobles you sought help from when your father first caught the misfortune. Of course, I’ve heard about you. My family's comments were never flattering.”
My fingers reached for my elbows, giving them a tight squeeze.
I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was—he had, after all, said his parents could afford to spend fifty million without crashing their lifestyle. Those noble families numbered in the twenties or thirties across Perintas, and I hadn’t missed any in my quest to save my father.
“You’re impulsive. Shameless and irresponsible. Childish and hopelessly optimistic. You have no regard for social mores and propriety, much less others’ opinion of you.”
My nostrils flared, while my back straightened and prickled with objection. “That’s not—”
“Your family was the center of gossip between us for months. The other nobles mocked you. Bo
th to each other and to your face. Yet you continued harassing them for aid they refused to give—aid they had no reason to and would never give.”
“N-not for free,” I said weakly, but there was little strength in my voice. “Not always for free. Especially in the beginning, we offered to pay them back in the long run, with money or with paintings—”
“Your father is an incredible artist, I’ve heard, but there are dozens as good as him. No matter how many paintings he creates, he is not worth fifty million.”
“He’s the best artist in Perintas, which you’d know if you’d ever seen his works, and it’s disgusting to put a monetary sum on someone’s life like that.”
“I don’t disagree, but it’s reality. If his works merited fifty million, why isn’t he…” He trailed off, tugging at the collar of his dress shirt.
I glowered at him, daring him to continue, but even he, the infamous deadly beast with dangerous magical artifacts, didn’t quite bring himself to cross that line.
Gnawing my lip, I looked away, then glared down at my feet with enough agitation to dig a hole through them.
He didn’t apologize, though. I didn’t expect him to.
With a gulp, he added, “And there was never a way for you to earn back even close to that money. Most nobles considered you an irritation, you know.”
He wasn’t wrong.
He was right, and I wrapped my arm against my stomach, feeling sick. “If you felt that way, you shouldn’t have—”
“I wished—I wished so desperately—that someone had fought for me like that, too,” said Shao, his voice shaking. “That someone had trusted me.”
My eyes widened, and my breath caught in my throat.
“I wondered about you a lot,” he said, his tone almost… wistful. “I knew nothing else about you, but I wanted to meet you. No. I wanted to have met you, befriended you, before I was cursed.”
Licking my lips, I reclined back against the tree behind me, then winced when it squeezed the skin of my bruised back, reminding me of the altercation with the man.
Never mind that. I didn’t want to remember it.
A Kiss like Roses: Fairy Tale Synergy Book 1 Page 6
