by Hazel Parker
The garden was gone, and in its place was a forest.
The dream thought came again. I pinched my arms just to be sure, felt the pinpricks of pain. Then I remembered my panic earlier, and I knew it hadn’t been a dream when I left the stable and came here. I knew that rusty smell of blood was real.
But nothing made sense here because the sky was a clear black with no moon and no stars—and no, not even rain. There was no ceiling, and there were no walls, and all I could see were green fields and trees that were bigger than any palace could hold.
The blood…I spotted a couple of drops to the right. Like someone in a trance, I followed it, wondering if I was stupid and if I also left common sense behind. A quick look back showed me the same entrance I came from, but this time, I could only see darkness on the other end. I should go back and alert the authorities. I should go back and get out of here, take Kyle with me.
Lucas.
But the instinct inside me warned me to keep moving, and so I did.
It would have been beautiful if it wasn’t so eerie in its lushness, and I tried to be careful. I didn’t make any sound, but my body felt cold and stiff. I could feel something in the air—something sinister and not right—and soon I was sweating like a pig on a cold night.
Footsteps sounded, and I raised the piece of wood. I half-expected Lucas to appear, unharmed, maybe with a little wound on him. The urge to call his name came, so I followed it.
“Lucas?”
The footsteps came faster, and something rustled in the bushes. A figure stepped out.
My blood ran cold.
It wasn’t Lucas. It was a monster—a monster that looked like a lion, except it wasn’t a lion because it was so much more grotesque. It looked like some kind of beast covered in mud, with rough slabs for skin and claws like black talons. It growled in my direction.
Then it started running.
My heart in my throat, I turned around and ran, forgetting all about taking a stand. My eyes zoned in on the darkened entrance, and I willed my feet to carry me faster. Behind me, I could hear it—the sound of the beast’s footsteps following, one pounding step over another as it picked up speed. An inhuman growl split the air, and for a moment I thought I was done for.
A hand shot out of the entrance and grabbed on to my arm. Then I screamed as I was pulled back out, getting a glimpse of the beast behind me leaping through the air.
The crash on the tiled floor was painful, but it almost didn’t register as I found myself back in the room, inches away from the garden entrance. It shook with a powerful force, and I scrambled away, my heart in my throat. But nothing came out, not even a sound. All I could hear was a voice calling out my name—a familiar, concerned voice, and I turned my head and found myself looking straight into Benjamin’s gray eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“You’re seriously asking me that?” I could hear my own voice shaking, and it took me a while to realize my whole body was, too. I pointed towards the garden. “You need to start explaining.”
A grave look entered his expression, and his next words were spoken soberly. “It’s a long story.”
“I have all the time,” I said.
“What are you doing here? This is a restricted area, Liz.”
“I know it is. I followed your brother.”
His face changed, and now he looked more…careful. “My brother?”
“We were…” I swallowed, then looked down. “We were together in the stables. But he was gone when I woke up, and there was some blood. I followed the trail, and it led me here.” I grabbed his hand, kneeling up. “Ben, we have to find him. He’s not safe here. You can explain later, but you can’t deny that monster tried to attack me. If this is some kind of pet you have or if I’m dreaming…”
“You’re not dreaming.”
I nodded firmly. “Then we need to do something.”
I let go of his hand and made a move to stand up. But Benjamin’s hand clamped around my arm, and the force of the grip had me staring at him in surprise. It propelled me back down, and I watched a pleading look enter his gaze.
“Liz…”
“Ben, what are…?” My words died in my throat as I felt pain on my arm. At first, I thought he was squeezing tight—but another look had my blood running cold again as I realized that it was no longer a hand squeezing my arm.
It was a claw.
I removed my arm from his hold, then stared at him. He was changing—changing right in front of my eyes, his skin turning darker and building in on itself until it became the same protruding slabs that were in the beast earlier. He growled at me to stay, even while his human voice told me to run. But there was no running away from this because he was blocking the door out of this room and was advancing on me rapidly. I scrambled away and crawled on my knees, but I felt those claws sinking on my ankles, felt the pain so excruciating as the smell of blood permeated the air.
Benjamin was a monster.
The crown prince was a monster.
He dragged me back by my ankles, and the pain almost had me going dizzy. But my hands clutched on to whatever they could find, and finally latched on to something hard—the wood that I’d brought with me.
With one last burst of energy, I turned my body and hit him with all my might. The force of it had him howling, then growling, before he finally let me go. This time, I managed to scramble from the floor and get to my feet, but every step felt like pinpricks of needles were being pushed into my skin. I gritted through it, looking at his slumping form on the floor.
He wasn’t slumping for long. Benjamin—no, the beast—stood up on its two hind legs. Its gray eyes stared at me hungrily, and I knew what that look meant: he was going to kill me no matter what.
I knew there was no choice in the matter.
He launched an attack. I hit him with the wood again, which cracked under the force.
Then I ran into the garden.
Chapter 21
LIZ
The first monster wasn’t in the forest when I got there, which gave me enough leeway to make a run for it. I headed straight towards the trees on the left, a different direction from where the first monster had popped up. I picked up a rock and kept running, ignoring the surge of pain in my ankles that traveled through my body. I had to because there was no telling when those two monsters were going to attack.
The awareness that I was defenseless slid into my mind, followed by the reality of Benjamin’s nature. I didn’t believe in monsters, not until now, because they were just fairy tales told to children to get them scared and asleep early—at least, that was what I’d been told. My life situation had left me no time to wonder, as I was too busy earning money and keeping us out of the streets as long as I could.
But now…
There was a magic forest inside the palace’s west wing, and there were two monsters. One was the crown prince.
The other was someone I still didn’t want to think about.
Footsteps sounded behind me, making me go still. I frantically hid behind a tree, gripping the rock tighter in my hand. The most I could do was hurl it on the monster’s head, enough to do some damage around the eyes—but that certain thought had my hand shaking.
It was Benjamin.
How could I hurt Benjamin?
The footsteps got closer, and a low grumble came. Goosebumps slid all over my body, and I raised my hand—
A blur appeared in front of me. With horror, I realized that I’d miscalculated and the monster was coming from the front. I threw the rock and it hit the monster’s shoulder before it was shrugged off. Claws grazed my cheek—
Another monster launched itself on us and removed the other one from me.
I landed on the ground and cried out as blood spurted everywhere. I crawled out of there, then stood up and broke into a run away from the trees. The clearing came soon enough, but the wrestling creatures followed me, rolling over and over on the grassy field as they attacked each other.
/> It was a horrible fight as skin scratched skin, drawing blood. Neither of them let go, and the sounds of their howls filled the air and turned the night even colder. My feet were rooted in place, buckling slowly as they finally gave way to the pressure of the pain. The two were still blocking the entrance, which meant I was trapped.
My hand reached for another rock, readying myself as I slowly backed out of there.
The first monster, who was Benjamin, kept trying to attack me, but the second monster…it was trying to drag Benjamin back and prevent that from happening, and the next few seconds made me realize the second monster was actually defending me. I stared in shock, unable to believe what I was seeing with my eyes.
The second monster slammed into Benjamin, knocking his head on the ground. Benjamin’s monster slumped, growling one last time.
He didn’t get up this time.
I watched his form—watched it transform again, losing every monster flesh there was until Benjamin was in its place, naked. Breathing harshly. His eyes were closed, and his hands were still claws.
The monster beside him stepped towards me, an almost stalking movement. I took a step back, then froze when my eyes met blue.
Familiar blue eyes.
He growled. He snarled, but he didn’t come closer. My mind screamed at me to leave, but my body wasn’t responding at all.
This monster—Lucas—stood still, too. Then he transformed just like Benjamin did, turning into his human form in a gradual manner. All the while, his eyes stayed on mine, remorseful and in deep pain.
“I’m sorry,” he rasped in a strange voice.
Then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he lost consciousness right then and there.
Shaking, I slid down, too. I stared at the two slumped forms, willing my heart to beat slower. I was never one to turn blank when faced with rough situations, and this had to be the roughest one yet.
I let my mind work, the way it usually did even when too many things were happening around me. The restricted west wing, Lucas trying to drive me away for so long, Benjamin’s frequent disappearances…
The scars on Lucas’ back…
Everything started making sense now, but that didn’t stop it from being so horrible.
How many people knew? Did the queen know? Was she the one who set this odd garden up?
Had the two princes ever hurt anyone?
Just as that last thought entered my mind, I saw the dark entrance turn lighter, a flash of brightness that was brief. Then a familiar figure stepped in, taking in the surroundings.
I was on my feet in an instant.
“Kyle!”
Oh, God.
I hobbled towards him, sidestepping the unconscious forms and taking his wrist. His eyes widened, but they weren’t focused on me.
They were focused on the two men.
“You discovered them,” he said.
I blinked in shock. “You know?”
“I followed them a few times,” he muttered distractedly, striding over towards them and kneeling down. He studied them closely. “They’re both breathing.”
“Yes. They’re alive. Kyle…?” His words flashed in my mind—his dream murmurs. They weren’t dreams.
Kyle looked up. There was pleading in his eyes, and his hand clamped on my wrist. He finally noticed my ankles, and I saw the worry come. “Are you…?”
“I’ll be fine. Flesh wounds.”
“Liz. We have to help them.”
A part of me wanted to yell at him. But the bigger part of me knew he was right—I couldn’t leave them here, injured and unconscious. I kneeled down, careful not to hit my ankles on the ground as I watched the two forms. Benjamin was still breathing sharply, and Lucas was barely breathing—but they were both breathing, and that was the important thing. I gingerly touched some parts of their bodies, noting the injuries much like I did before with Benjamin.
I started with him first, heaving a sigh of relief when I determined that he was okay. There were some injuries there where Lucas’ claws sunk in, but they weren’t bleeding too badly, and he didn’t seem to have any broken bones.
Lucas was a different case altogether.
There were a few broken bones on his ribs, something I didn’t notice earlier because he didn’t look injured at all. Below his shirt, there were deep scratch marks, and I didn’t think Benjamin had anything to do with that. I remembered the blood in the stables, wondered if he was trying to hurt himself while he was transforming.
My breath stopped when I got to the side of his lower torso. There was a gaping wound there, bleeding profusely, but the blood was dark, and the grass was soaking it up. I gasped. Then I ripped at the bottom of my dress and asked Kyle to remove his shirt, placing both over the wound. I guided Kyle’s hand to press and stop the bleeding, then stood up as my mind warred with two thoughts.
As if he read what I was thinking, he shook his head. “I’ll be fine. They usually sleep before they get better.”
At a loss for words, I grasped at what I could. “How come you never told me that you knew?”
He seemed to consider the words before speaking. “I wanted to, but you had too much on your plate. I didn’t want to add to it.”
I sighed. “Next time, add to it, okay? I need to know these things.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
It didn’t take me long to get out of the forest and back into the room with the garden. Then I slipped out of the room, taking a second to gather myself as I looked around. Everything was normal here, save for the rainstorm that was still going on outside.
I couldn’t ask help from anyone yet, not unless I knew they knew. But I did have a first aid kit in my room, and that was the first plausible option to at least fix a little bit of this mess.
Okay, game plan: clean their wounds, make sure they weren’t going to bleed to death.
Then find the queen and talk to her.
I’d never talked to the queen before, not even when I was introduced as a princess, as it was assumed that we’d already been introduced in private. The prospect of finding her now and trying to wake her up was taxing, but what choice did I have in the matter? No ruler was clueless about what was going on in her own palace, and I was pretty sure that garden setup wasn’t just done by those men.
I tried to analyze it all in my mind, furiously thinking up all the clues that were just lying in front of me. My ankle was a bit better now, just snapping rather than prickling in pain, and that allowed me to quicken my steps as I tried to navigate myself to my bedroom, then back to the west wing. There was no time to lose, and I practically ran around the first corner I saw—
And bumped into a figure who squeaked softly.
My eyes widened, and so did hers. She took in the sight of me—probably a mess, considering where I’d been and what I’d been up against—shock filling her face and a soft gasp emitting from her lips.
Then Princess Ana was striding forward and touching me everywhere, her hands doing a check before I could even speak.
“Oh, dear. Are you okay? Are there any injuries? Did you get hurt?”
Oh, no. I took a deep, inward breath, willing myself to act normal and scrambling for an excuse. “I’m okay. I just—”
“Did they hurt you?”
The question had me staring. She stared back, then nodded her head firmly and started talking too fast.
“I knew it would come to this, but I still believe they couldn’t have meant it. But oh! We really need to get you bandaged up. How can you still walk? Are you not feeling confused? Numb? I’m afraid of internal bleeding.”
I shook my head and held up my hand. “Hold up.”
“Let’s get you checked out. My room is safe, and I have some medical background. I promise not to tell anyone—”
“Ana—”
“—about this, you don’t need to tell anyone, too—”
“ANA.”
She stopped talking, and I inserted myself.
“I’m fine. I�
�m really fine, so don’t worry about me. How long have you known? Why didn’t you tell me?”
She bit her lip. Then her cheeks reddened so badly that I thought she was going to spontaneously combust in place. “I followed Prince Benjamin one time, thinking I could spend some time with him. I saw him and his brother…I saw it. I couldn’t tell anyone, and I think the queen knows.”
“What do you know?”
“That they turn into…animals every night. And they do it here in the west wing to prevent others from seeing.”
That was the gist of what I knew too, I guess. There was still a puzzle that needed to be solved, and I wasn’t going to get my answers here.
But I needed to get them.
“I’m really sorry, Liz,” Ana said softly, and I could see the concern on her face. Instinct told me it was sincere. “I would have told you. You know how close we’ve grown. But you’re a princess, and—”
“I’m not a princess.”
“What?”
I sighed, then took her hand. “It’s a long story, and I’ll explain everything to you soon. Everything. But for now…can you go to the room? Can you see to the two princes?”
Her eyes widened. “What happened to them?”
“Benjamin tried to attack me, but Lucas fought with him. They injured each other.” I looked down. “Actually, I think Lucas tried to injure himself so he wouldn’t attack me.”
She gasped.
“My brother’s there, and they’re in human form. He’s watching over them. Can you…?” I held the kit out to her, which she took without hesitation. “Thank you, Ana.”
I started walking away.
“Where are you going?”
I didn’t look back, but I called out my answer.
“I’m waking up the queen.”
Chapter 22
LIZ
It didn’t take me long to wake the queen up in the most effective way I could—by causing a commotion loud enough to wake the entire household and getting my hands handcuffed behind me. Minutes later, I was taken to the main throne room, where she sat fully dressed and eyed me with the most unreadable expression there was.
