Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
HANNAH
Oh God, the smell.
That’s what hits me first as I pull the door open.
If I thought the castle upstairs needed cleaning, I had absolutely no clue what filth actually looked like.
It’s murky and dark except for the dying light I brought with me, and that’s burning dangerously low.
I pinch my nose and remain on the threshold, too terrified to step inside initially.
“H-hello?” My voice trembles embarrassingly. “Is anyone there?”
A metallic rattling answers my question. Oh hell. There’s definitely something down here. Maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe this is just where he keeps... livestock or something.
But then eyes reflect my torchlight. Startling white in the encompassing darkness.
I stumble backward.
I’m more shocked than I can express when an electric light suddenly illuminates overhead. I don’t look up at it, though, because there’s far too much else demanding my attention.
Mainly, the figure who apparently activated the lamp.
Those eyes blinking at me from the shadows.
I’m so confused.
He appears—
He’s—
Just a man.
A strikingly handsome man, albeit rather grimy. Though he’s clearly made efforts to keep his face clean. But the rest of him...
His arms are bound with chains from elbow to wrist, and his legs are similarly restrained from knee to ankle. Heavy, oppressive chains wrapped multiple times. At the wrist and ankle, thick iron shackles secure everything, similar to what Beast first placed around my neck.
He’s wearing tattered clothing so filthy I can’t determine its original color.
“Jesus Christ,” I step forward despite the disgusting stone floor beneath my bare feet.
He raises one shackled hand. The metal links clatter ominously, and I trace the chain’s length to where it’s anchored in the wall.
He’s standing, but I notice a crude bench, and in the corner, what appears to be a rudimentary toilet—essentially a seat with a hole leading to God knows where.
“You must be the consort,” he says in lightly accented English. His facial features remain remarkably composed, hand still extended in a stop gesture.
Then he stretches and clenches his jaw like he’s experiencing neck pain. His eyes bulge slightly and dart toward the corner.
He sighs as if mildly inconvenienced, still grinding his teeth, then looks back at me.
“You need to run. Right now.”
“What?” I ask, not sure I heard correctly.
His neck swells as he continues stretching it at what appears to be an impossible angle. His eyes bulge further.
“RUN!” he shouts desperately.
I stumble backward several steps.
Just as his head rotates completely around like something from The Exorcist.
And there’s another goddamn face on the opposite side!
I fall backward so fast I land hard on my tailbone.
This face isn’t refined or clean. It still looks human, but the expression is... unhinged. Genuinely evil, I swear. Behind him, a tail rises, lashing back and forth through the air.
I scream involuntarily. I’ve never witnessed anything like—
But my cry awakens something else lurking in the darkness I hadn’t noticed until now.
In the corner I’d overlooked because nothing had been moving in it is another... another... creature.
Initially, when it raises its head, I assume it might be similar to my Beast. It has some kind of animal-like skull. Eyes that fix on me.
And human arms.
But then there’s a second set of arms.
And a third.
Each is bound with heavy chains like the... other one.
It opens its maw and releases a sound that makes my blood freeze, and I realize this is the source of those screams and howls that have been carried on the wind up to our chambers.
When I scream again, unable to contain it, the multi-armed creature comes charging at me. Moving on legs and one set of arms in a grotesque gallop.
The two-faced entity starts laughing maniacally, then, with inhuman speed, also lunges toward me.
I shriek, scramble to my feet, and flee up the pitch-black stairs.
The sound of straining chains, savage snarls, and hellish screaming follows behind me.
All I can think is, oh God, oh God, oh God!
There was no time to secure the door.
My torch has gone out completely, and I’m running blind up an endless spiral staircase while nightmare sounds echo below me. My bare feet slip on stone worn smooth by centuries, and every step threatens to send me tumbling back into that horror.
What is Beast? Questions hammer through my brain as I flee upward, my lungs burning from the climb and terror.
What does this make me?
I thought I was falling for someone dangerous but ultimately good. Someone who could be gentle despite his monstrous appearance.
But if he’s keeping... those things... chained in his dungeon...
If he’s the one who put them there...
What kind of monster am I sharing a bed with?
My legs shake as I finally reach the main floor, gasping and sobbing. The warm air feels like paradise after that frozen hell below.
But nothing feels safe anymore.
Nothing feels real.
Everything I thought I knew about him, about us, about what we’ve been building together...
How can someone who touches me so tenderly, who seems to care about my comfort, who’s learning to have conversations...
How can that same person be responsible for whatever nightmare I just witnessed?
Unless...
Unless I don’t know him at all.
Unless everything between us has been a lie.
The sounds from below have faded, but they echo in my memory with crystalline clarity. Those eyes. That laughter. The chains.
So much for trusting him with my heart.
I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly aware that I’m nearly naked, covered in dungeon filth, and completely alone in a castle with someone who might be far more dangerous than I ever imagined.
The question now isn’t whether I should escape.
It’s whether I’ll live long enough to try.