Arthur
It wasn’t until the Beast woke that I registered what Reshina had done.
In declining my help and setting me with a task I found interesting, she had distracted me enough to attempt an escape from the boundaries of Heartstone Castle.
But the Goddess did not yet grasp the will of the Beast.
He roared, transforming before I could stop him and there we were, racing through the corridors once again, leaving deep scars in the stone as we slid around corners with one single purpose.
HUNGER. MINE. OURS.
I didn’t attempt to rein him back, my own desires for the Goddess far too developed and my heart buried too far underground to be considered a man with morals any longer.
I wanted the Ravenfae Goddess to end me, but not until I’d had a taste, a mouthful, another moan, another sigh, and she ended me in a different way tangled in my bedsheets.
The Beast made it to the surface in record time, focused on the hunt, hardly sniffing the air before bolting forward, leaping over the frozen hedges like an echo of the last time she’d attempted her escape.
Her black feathers reached high above the castle towers. She was flying upwards instead of racing the Beast to the edge of my lands. Clever Goddess. The Beast prowled below her, circling and watching. Waiting for something to happen.
“She’ll escape. There’s nothing we can do.”
WAIT.
My mood turned sour watching her climb. Reshina was leaving me and I’d only just gotten to touch her. To know her. To show her.
WAIT.
“What exactly are we waiting f—”
Reshina fell from the sky in a rush of black feathers, shifting to her Ravenfae form mid-fall and landing in a heap of black lace at the feet of the Beast.
His roar echoed through the gardens and he bared his teeth, encasing her under his form. He nestled into her neck, opening his maw for another bite when the ground shook. She’d beaten him to it, opening her skin and bleeding into the snow before his teeth could sink into her flesh again.
I pulled her to me as we fell and the Beast melted away, leaving the man twisting to take the fall for her into the corridors of the Underrealm.
Rock, dirt, roots—I shielded her from all of it, wrapping my arms and legs around her, never dreading the landing, but already grieving the moment I had no excuse to hold her to my chest.
My back slammed into solid stone, cracking below me. I inhaled sharply through my teeth, still holding onto frozen wings, both of us heaving sharply, adjusting to the warmth and the position we were in.
“I had to try,” she panted.
“You were right to,” I gritted, pain seeping into my spine as my heart slowed.
She lifted her head from my chest, pulling herself out of my grasp.
“I flew up, thinking the Beast couldn’t get to me and I’d be able to escape across the land from there.
But I couldn’t get any higher and then…my power…
it just left me. I tried to stun him but that didn’t work, either.
I managed to shift, but I could no longer fly. ”
I tested the strength of my back, deciding I’d be left bruised instead of broken.
I sat up, running my hands through my hair.
“You are confined to this curse. It’s unlikely you’ll escape through leaving its boundary.
The Beast was waiting for you to fall.” I shrugged, rising to my feet. “He knew you would.”
She met my stare. “I cannot stay, Arthur.”
I nodded, starting down the empty corridor. “I know,” I said gruffly. “I know.”
That night we dined together. She answered my questions about what she was searching for in the books she requested.
She wanted to know more about the Underfae.
When they’d settled in Revelry and where.
She wanted to know what they looked like, what habits they possessed.
I was well aware I had no such books that could answer her questions.
The Underfae had been little more than footnotes in faekind history.
The most I’d ever found was that they dwelled in the Underrealm, preferring the dark cold stone to sunlight and fresh air.
But Reshina didn’t need to know I couldn’t help her.
She only needed to know that I was trying.
One day she’d grow impatient enough to truly leave.
Until then, I’d discover all of her I could.
The way she found humor in Piffle’s transformations.
The way she cut into her food, spearing little more than a nibble, taking all the time in the world to eat just one meal.
I savored those dinners together as they continued.
Each day for weeks, I looked forward to them when I woke and mourned them when they ended each night.
With Piffle’s help, I planned each one, just waiting to hear what she thought of the savory dishes and decadent desserts Piffle excelled in creating.
The Beast roamed the surface less and less each day, relinquishing his hold sooner so I could return to Reshina for our evening meal.
He ate less, complained less, and only looked forward to one thing.
The Hunt.
Everyday for three weeks, Reshina attempted an escape.
Most often when I slept, I’d wake to the Beast tearing through my room and rampaging up the stairs into the freshly fallen snow.
Now, she’d tear into her skin well before he caught her, falling into the Underrealm as the Beast leapt after her, leaving me to transform, attempting to break her fall each and every time.
My back was sore muscles and dark bruises, never healing over before more appeared in tandem.
I didn’t care. I’d take on more, forever, if it meant I could take a moment to breathe in the scent of her skin as we landed.
If it meant I had an excuse to sift my fingers through her hair pulled tightly atop her head, but loosened in the fall.
After a month, it was routine. After a month, I resisted asking for more, taking more. After a month, I’d grown into a settling. And settling was a dangerous place to be.