The Beauty

by L. C. Mortimer

  I’d met some incredible creatures and wonderful people since I’d started school. Some girls could shift into mermaids once they were in water. Others could change into animals. There were a few people who could summon fire and there was a rumor that one girl could control the weather, but I hadn’t met her yet.

  Tinkerbell was a fairy whose wings were powerful, magical.

  They glowed.

  No matter where she went, no matter where she was, she could forever see light in the darkness because she could glow.

  And she could do more than that.

  Fairies were known for being empathetic. They could sense the emotions of the people around them. They were strong, and they were brave, and they were fantastic.

  And they could tell exactly how everyone was doing just from a glance or a word or gentle touch.

  Now, as I sat on my floor and prepared to listen to what Tinkerbell had to say, I was nervous. I was anxious. What was she going to tell me about this legend? Was it going to be enough to give me a clue as to where I could find Belle?

  “Once upon a time,” Tinkerbell started again. “In a far away land, there lived an enchantress.”

  “How is that different from a sorcerer?”

  “Really?” She glared at me. “Come on.”

  “Sorry.”

  “And this enchantress,” she said. “Had but one wish: to live a long and happy life. She lived in the forest in a little house and had a beautiful garden. She was known to be the type of person who could grow just about anything she wanted.”

  Yeah, this sounded like a fairytale, all right.

  It sounded perfect.

  Too perfect.

  “And what she loved growing, more than anything, were roses.”

  I looked at Belle’s walls once again. I noticed that in some of the paintings and drawings, there was a small house in the background, and I thought, if I squinted a little bit, I could make out what could probably be perceived as a garden.

  Okay, I was buying it.

  Definitely a garden.

  “And the young enchantress spent her days doing things like making concoctions and potions to help people in need.”

  “Very sweet.”

  “Very sweet,” Tinkerbell agreed. She closed her eyes, trying to remember exactly how the fable went, and I listened carefully. “One day, a man came to the enchantress.”

  Oh no. Instantly, I was alert. Anytime a story had a part where a guy showed up, you knew there was going to be some sort of spat or trouble. No, I didn’t think guys were troublemakers. Not at all. But I also knew that when it came to fictional characters, there was no such thing as a story without some sort of conflict.

  “What happened?”

  “What do you think?” She rolled her eyes.

  “I think something bad happened.”

  “He wanted her to make him something.”

  “What?”

  “He wanted her to create a potion that would make someone fall in love with him.”

  “And she said no.”

  “She said she didn’t do that. She wanted to help people in need. She didn’t want to coerce someone to do something they didn’t want to do. She was an enchantress: not a trickster.”

  “So, what did she do?”

  “The man wouldn’t leave. He threatened to hurt her, to hurt the people she loved.”

  “She could have cast a spell on him,” I pointed out. “And scared him off or made him leave.”

  “She did something else instead.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She went to the garden and she cut a rose from her favorite bush, and she cast a spell on it. She told him that he could make a wish upon the rose. One wish. Each person got just that.”

  “And what?”

  “And his wish would come true, of course.”

  “But there was a catch,” I pointed out. “There was always a catch, right?”

  “There has to be,” Tinkerbell agreed. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t be much of a story, would it?”

  “What was the catch?”

  “He could make a wish, and it would come true, but it wouldn’t come true in the way that he wanted it to.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Tinkerbell shrugged. She hesitated for a moment, and for a second, I thought she might not finish the story, which was too bad. I was really getting into it. I’d never heard a story like this one before. The stories I’d heard growing up had been really crazy and wild and probably not very true.

  This story, though.

  This story held promise.

  “It meant that he needed to be careful.”

  “And was he?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think that if this guy had been careful, then there wouldn’t be a fairytale about him. Would there?”

  Tinkerbell smiled sadly. Then she finished telling me what happened.

  “He wasn’t careful. He took the rose, and he made a wish. He wished that the girl would fall in love with him.”

  “And did she?”

  “She did.”

  “So what was the catch?”

  “The woman the man liked didn’t just fall in love with him. She became obsessed with him. She followed him around. She stalked him. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. The man came to the enchantress and he begged for her to break the curse, but she couldn’t. She wouldn’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “She said there was only one way that the curse could be broken, but she wasn’t the one who could do it.”

  “So who could?”

  “The enchantress said, ‘You will need blood of ice and a heart of stone, and you must make your wish once more, and then the spell will be broken.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, what happened to the guy?”

  “He died. The woman became more and more obsessed and finally, she killed him.”

  “Well, what happened to her?”

  “As soon as the man was dead, the spell was broken. She never really knew what had come over her or what had compelled her to act like she did.”

  “And what happened to her?” I asked, but Tinkerbell just shook her head, and something about the look in her eyes let me know that this fairytale didn’t have a happy ending.

  “Well, crap.”

  “You can say that again.”

  “Why would she be looking for this rose?” I asked.

  Tinkerbell stood up and took a look around the room, and then she waved her arm at all of Belle’s things.

  “Take your pick, Jessica. She’s obsessive. She’s constantly overworked. She’s in advanced classes. She does nothing but study. She’s in the witchmaster’s program, which means she’s literally busy every single day, and she’s always around other people. I mean, damn, when does the girl ever have time for herself?”

  It did seem like Belle had a lot of things on her plate.

  Too many things.

  Had that been her wish?

  Had she wished for a break?

  A reprieve?

  The more that time passed, the more I thought that Belle hadn’t just disappeared. Something had caught her or trapped her. I mean, I thought maybe it had been some sort of abduction, but not now. Now I thought she’d found the rose and she’d made a wish, only, it hadn’t been what she thought it was going to be.

  “She found the rose,” I said.

  “If we find the rose, we find Belle,” Tinkerbell said.

  “I think I know where it is.”

  All I needed was a plan.

  Chapter 10

  Enchanted Academy was a beautiful school and it had modern and elaborate facilities, but it was also a very old school. Old schools contained old magic, and this school, in particular, had a lot of magical items. A school full of fairytales was sure to have a few special things lying around, and it only took a little bit of casually asking to discover that the boys’ dor
mitory had no forbidden floors, nor were there any strange doors that remained locked at all times.

  I was asking Ariel about it when Beast wandered by at lunch the next day.

  “Hidden floors?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are you a treasure hunter now, Jessica?”

  I looked over at him and frowned. I was still mad that he’d tricked me on my first day of school. I was more mad that I fell for it. It wasn’t fair that I’d let him get the better of me. It wasn’t fair that I’d been late because of his strange need to be in control and in charge of every situation he found himself in.

  I turned away, ignoring him, and continued talking to Ariel.

  “So there’s nothing like that,” I said.

  “Nope, nowhere else,” she shrugged. “Honestly, it’s probably just used for storage.”

  “Yeah, storage full of goblins and ghouls,” Beast said, laughing. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He asked, taunting. Finally, I turned around to look at him.

  “What’s your problem?” I asked loudly.

  Suddenly, it felt like the entire cafeteria fell silent. He hadn’t been expecting me to react that way, and he stilled, staring at me.

  “You heard me,” I said again. “What is it that you want with me?”

  “I’m just saying,” he said, flustered. “You seem like the kind of girl who would be into goblins.”

  “You think I want to date a goblin?”

  “You do, you little freak,” he said, laughing. Oh, suddenly, it seemed very funny. A few of his friends started laughing, and then a few other students, and soon everyone was laughing.

  I didn’t even care that they were laughing at my expense. Really, I didn’t. The fact that he was laughing didn’t make any difference at all.

  But I didn’t like the fact that he was being weird and honestly, kind of a bully, for no reason. He’d walked up and inserted himself into our conversation, and then, because he had nothing else to say, he’d started saying random, weird shit that just didn’t matter at all.

  And I hated how, when I looked at him, I just pitied him.

  He wasn’t worth liking.

  He wasn’t worth being attracted to.

  “Goblin dater, goblin dater!”

  I should have punched him.

  I should have swung my fist back and just let myself go.

  I should have looked at Beast and fought him.

  As a former foster kid, I was good at fighting. I was good at a lot of things. And I was oh-so-good at dealing with people like Beast.

  But I didn’t want to cause a scene, and I didn’t want to create problems, and I didn’t want to be the girl that started a fight at school, so I turned around and looked back at Ariel.

  “Thank you,” I said to her, and then I walked away. I started to leave the cafeteria. I headed toward the door, ignoring the shouts. I ignored the yells of “goblin dater” because it didn’t make any sense, and it wasn’t important, and these people were just going along with what Beast said because they wanted him to like them.

  Well, I didn’t care if he liked me, so I kept walking.

  I was almost at the door when I felt a hand wrap around my upper-arm. I stopped and turned, and it was him. It was the Beast. It was the monster. It was the boy with the dark hair and the bright eyes. It was him.

  And he was looking at me like he wanted to say something.

  He wasn’t going to apologize.

  Nah.

  That would make things too easy, now wouldn’t it? Nope. It would be too much to hope for that. I stood for just a second, just the tiniest little bit of time, and I waited to hear what he had to say. He had come after me. He had chased me down because he obviously had something to say, and apparently, it was very important.

  So I waited.

  He leaned close, lowering his lips to my ear. His mouth was so close I could feel his breath against my skin, and then he whispered.

  “Goblin dater.”

  And that was the final straw.

  “I tried to be nice,” I whispered back. I didn’t turn my head. I didn’t look at the crowded cafeteria. I knew everyone was watching us. I could hear their silence.

  “Gob-“

  I couldn’t hold back anymore.

  I ripped my arm free and I spun around. With my opposite arm, I balled my hand into a fist and let that fist connect with Beast’s nose. He fell backwards, shocked and surprised, and landed on his ass in front of everyone.

  He yelled out and grabbed his nose, which I was certain was broken, but I didn’t stop to check. I didn’t even look at him. I just marched the rest of the way out of the cafeteria, and I let the door slam shut behind me.

  I didn’t have time for his games.

  I had a roommate to find.

  Chapter 11

  When I exited the castle, I made my way around the side of the school to the little pink shed. I was almost there when I spotted the girl with the dark brown hair. She was in the same place I’d seen her the other day, and I was glad because I needed her.

  “Hey!” I yelled, and she looked up, surprised.

  “Hey yourself.”

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  If she was surprised, she didn’t let on. Instead, she looked me up and down, as though she was trying to decide whether I was worth her time. People did that a lot, I was discovering. Why? Were they trying to make a decision as to whether you deserved information? Were they trying to calculate how much information to share with you? Were they trying to figure out, just from a glance, if you were a snitch?

  Well, I wasn’t a snitch.

  “Name?” I asked again.

  “Call me Hook,” she said.

  “Whatever. I need you.”

  “I don’t get to know your name?”

  “It’s Jessica.”

  “Well, Jessica, while I appreciate the offer, you already owe me one favor.”

  “Well, then I’ll owe you two,” I said.

  “That’s not really how this works.”

  “Then how does it work?” I asked. I was kind of in a hurry, but she didn’t seem to know, mind, or care.

  “You pay up, and then we can talk about second favors,” she said.

  “I’m in a hurry.”

  She shrugged, unbothered, and leaned back against the school. The only thing missing from her hand was a cigarette. Seriously, what was this girl’s problem? She was older and meaner, and she didn’t really ever seem to go to class. She was always hanging around outside of the school. She was always...

  Well, I didn’t know.

  Because I didn’t really know her.

  “Okay,” I finally said.

  “Okay?”

  “What favor do you need?”

  “I need the fairy,” she said.

  “What?”

  “You’re going to try to tell me you haven’t been hanging around with Tinkerbell?”

  “You need her? For what?”

  “I need some dust,” she said.

  “Fairy dust?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why?”

  “Seriously, Jessica? You want to go there?”

  My eyes went wide and I took a step back. I was so not prepared for this kind of interaction. I had honestly thought that I’d waltz up, ask Hook to help me, and she’d do so with the goodness in her heart. Apparently, I had been mistaken.

  “Okay, okay,” I said. “I won’t ask questions.”

  But why did she need fairy dust?

  What could she use that for?

  “Um, I’ll go find her, okay? And we’ll get this sorted.”

  “See that you do.”

  Hook didn’t look back at me, and I scrambled toward the girl’s dorms. Tinkerbell was hanging out in her room, and if I hurried, I could catch her before her next class. My afternoon classes had been canceled for the day, which meant I had a few hours to get everything together before I went in search of Belle.

  I made my way to the third floor of the d
ormitory and I hurried to Tinkerbell’s room. A quick knock, a quick wait, and then she was there.

  “Hey,” I said, pushing inside the room. “I need your help.”

  “Okay,” she said, obviously confused. I was a little bit excited, and I hoped that I wasn’t being too rude.

  “I think I know where Belle is,” I said.

  “Yeah, you told me. You think she’s stuck somewhere because she made a wish on the rose.”

  “More than that,” I said. “I think I know exactly where.”

  “Where?”

  “Upstairs,” I whispered. “In the forbidden area.”

  “You think there’s just a bunch of enchanted objects up there?” She asked.

  “Yeah, I do, and I can get in.”

  “Okay, how? You don’t have the right charms.”

  “I found someone who does, though. She can get into anyplace.”

  “Who?”

  I thought about Hook and how she’d sworn me to privacy before. I wasn’t about to risk everything just by telling Tinkerbell, but at the same time, I was about to ask her for a huge favor. Should I risk telling her who was going to help me? Or should I lie? I looked at her for a minute and bit my lip. This was a test of loyalty, I knew, and it was going to determine what happened next in my quest for Belle.

  “You can trust me,” Tink said.

  “I know, but you can’t tell anyone.”

  “I won’t.”

  I lowered my voice and looked around.

  “There’s a girl who can make magic flames in her hands.”

  “Hook.”

  “Yeah.”

  “She can get into locked places?”

  “And she’s agreed to help us,” I said, “But...”

  “But what?”

  “She wants some of your fairy dust,” I said quietly.

  I had no idea what I was asking.

  I had no idea if it was a big deal.

  I didn’t really know what fairy dust did and I certainly didn’t know if it was like, a private thing. I mean, maybe asking a fairy for dust was like, asking someone to work for free. Maybe it was like requesting that someone cut a limb off. Perhaps it was like asking another person to name their baby after you. I just didn’t know the level of extremeness that I was dealing with.