Arthur
Reshina’s scathing glare twisted to confusion. “Your death, my freedom? What in Revelry are you talking about?”
I huffed a short laugh. “You don’t remember the conditions that can break this curse?”
“Of course, I do. Your captive must love you as both man and Beast, saying so with true feeling. Something your mother failed to do for your father, apparently.”
“No, she didn’t love him.”
“Or,” she continued, “You must die of old age, as I assume your father did, at which point your curse will pass onto your son.”
“I don’t have a son. Nor can I have children. I made sure of it.”
She glanced at my groin then back to my eyes. “You’ve maimed yourself?”
“Hardly. It’s a simple procedure that guarantees I won’t be passing this curse on.”
She folded her arms, cusping each of her elbows.
The stance was regal, reminding me that this woman was used to having power over everyone she met.
“I’m not lingering in this forsaken place until you wither and die, Arthur.
And I certainly won’t be saying the former, so the sooner you get me an audience with—”
“I don’t have to die of old age for this curse to break, Reshina.”
Her eyes twitched as she narrowed them. “You actually want me to kill you?”
I widened my arms, gesturing to my torn clothes and broken skin. “I’m offering you a simple way out.”
“Despite your assumption of my character, you’ll find I’m not a Goddess who cares so little for a mortal’s life.”
“I am far from mortal now.”
She cocked her head. “You are human.”
A wolfish grin grew across my lips at her confusion.
The Beast rumbled that one word again, but I shoved him down.
He was weak here in the Underrealm, which was the only reason he didn’t emerge as my gaze trekked across the soft candlelight along her skin.
I took a step closer, finding that inching myself nearer calmed both the Beast and my aggravation.
“I’ve not been human for the past twelve years, Goddess. ”
Reshina was a good pretender. I barely caught the slight swallow as her throat bobbed or the way she shifted inward slightly, or the way her heart picked up its pace as I came closer.
“Underfae?” she whispered.
My head moved slowly side-to-side. “Something…new.”
Her eyes of rich brown, dark as the frozen earth she’d fallen through, widened. “What are you then?”
Realizing I was inches from her, inhaling her scent, I backed away, shoving my hands in my tattered pockets. “I do not believe it has a name. I’ve searched the annals of the Underrealm countless times, but the library has been—”
“Library?” she interjected. “Here? Below ground?”
An honest grin washed over me. “Yes,” I voiced breathlessly.
“Perhaps I could find something there to get out of this curse another way. Would you show it to—”
“Mistress!”
Piffle came racing around the corner of the corridor, huffing and puffing. “Master! I ran as quickly as I could!”
I cleared my throat, giving even more space between us. “Piffle will see to your wounds. Can I expect to get some sleep? And that you will refrain from venturing down corridors you should not?”
The Changlingfae was already mumbling to himself, stepping around her, looking over her bite marks.
She’d healed them well already—most of them no more than circled bruises across her skin, with the exception of the one across her chest that I’d guessed she used to bleed into the snow and escape the Beast. Clever Goddess.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she chided, moving out of Piffle’s grasp. “I’m already mostly healed. Piffle can attend to you.”
“I insist that our guest be taken care of first. I may not look it, but I remain a gentleman.”
“Don’t be so stubborn.”
“I assure you, Goddess, I always will be when it comes to you.” I waved my hand, already heading down the corridor. “Piffle, see to her care before you enter my rooms.”
“Yes, sire!” he squeaked before shouting, “BANDAGE!”
Golden threads wrapped around Reshina’s chest. She clicked her tongue, raising her arms and chiding Piffle.
I chuckled, leaving the scene before she questioned why I wanted to stay.
Wandering from one corridor to the next, I found my way back to the door of her room.
I stepped inside, picking up the full waxed bottle of yagsmead I’d meant to leave for her before I realized she was gone.
I had guessed correctly where she’d wound up.
Ripping paper from the parchment by the writing desk, I wrote her a note.
Consider taking my life as a favor.
Think about it.
I left the bottle and note next to her bed, staying only a moment too long, thinking of pressing my nose into the settee where I scented she’d been for the last few hours.
Proud of myself for avoiding the temptation, I stoked her fire and left, shuffling through the halls to my own room behind the great black door at the bottom of the stairs that led to the surface.
Gripping the cold basin of the washing room sink, I inhaled long and slow, looking up into the cracked mirror to see the man she’d seen.
Haggard. Unkempt. A thick growth of hair across my chin, jaw, and neck—I hadn’t bothered to shave in the days before she came, and now, as I rubbed at the scruff, I thought it might be time to consider my appearance for a change.
Once, long ago, I found myself to be an attractive man.
But now… I splashed water on my face, breathing into a fresh towel Piffle had left me. Now, all I saw was the remains of a Beast. A man not thoroughly human, but a monster’s disguise staring back at me.
I wiped at my scar, remembering the day my father had given it to me. The curse had always been so far away, always something that was his problem to deal with, not mine. How foolish and young I’d been back then. How naive was that man, certain the future his father had faced did not belong to him.
MINE.
The voice was my own, but dark, broken…sure.
I’d learned to separate myself from the Beast these past twelve years, but having Reshina here, I felt us colliding with the same goal.
I knew so much of her life and she knew nothing of mine.
I was nothing to her—just an annoyance, a mark in her long life to sometimes remember but mostly forget.
MINE.
The rumble came again and I left the mirror, no longer wishing to see the man I’d become, who craved this woman.
Who wanted this woman.
Who would consume this woman given the slightest chance.
My obsession with Reshina, the Goddess of the Ravenfae, had begun long before the Beast took me. But I hoped it would end with my last breath and a dagger from her hand into my heart.