Reshina
The brutal wind whipped at my cheeks in a flurry of ice in the winter storm, leaving them raw and red. I couldn’t fly, not in this blizzard, so I ran through mounds of snow, using my wings to help guide me forward, away from the man I’d just poisoned.
I questioned my sanity.
I questioned every choice I’d made up to that moment, but the line of the wrought iron fence surrounding the lands of Heartstone Castle loomed ahead, and I marked the end of the hedge maze as the farthest I’d ever gotten away from the Beast.
Had I killed him? Was the venom too much? I turned my head to the yellow glow of the entrance into the Underrealm below.
Or was the poison too little?
A dark figure loomed there, taking up all the space and blocking most of the light. I trekked on, one step after the other.
I owed it to Arthur to leave. To see through to my plans. He begged me to never return, but I would not give up on him. I could never leave him there. My body, even then in the dead of a winter storm, heated at the thought of his mouth on my skin, and I’d get it again.
Goddessdamn us both, I would.
A howl, prickled with an animalistic moan, pierced the air, dampened in the rage of the wind, confirming the Beast had made it to the surface. Arthur was not dead, but by the sound of it, certainly not the same powerful Beast that had hunted me down time and time again.
The iron fence was there—just a few dozen yards. I would make it. I glanced behind me again, a short cry leaving my lips as the great Beast took one more step and collapsed into the snow.
I couldn’t stop now. I had to put my trust in Piffle—in Arthur—that he would survive and I would escape.
Turning away and pushing aside my fear, I saw the truth of the land outside of Heartstone Castle.
The fields beyond the gate were bare—wet and muddy—more proof that Heartstone itself had been embedded into the curse as it grew and grew with each passing year it was not broken.
The storm raged only within the castle grounds, and if I could just reach the black gate with its sharp posts pointing to the sky, I could shift outside of the storm and return to the Brackish Wood.
There, I’d find help. Through my people, I’d find a way to release Arthur from the binds of his curse.
A long howl sounded behind me again, pained and mournful.
I gritted my teeth and dove to the fence, gripping the bars and yanking on the latch at the arched gate.
In a silent reply, it did not budge. It did not comply with the force of my grip, so I searched for a lock, a device refusing my attempt to escape.
There was none, and the harder I yanked on the cold iron, the more my heart gave way to panic.
I unfurled my wings, flapping into the night, fighting against the wind and hovering to the height of the iron bars to fly over the top to the other side.
I met an invisible wall. Banging against it with my fists, I screamed into the moans of the wind.
It’s grown too powerful, I told myself.
I cannot escape the curse by the lands alone.
I tried again and again, using the posts to hoist myself, hovering over the fence, but no amount of force could break through.
I fell back down to the snow, turning at once.
Fear of being trapped forever gripped me, but I shoved it aside, running toward my captor with the cry of his name on my lips. “Arthur!” I screamed, fighting through the snow to the mass of dark fur.
I cried his name again, but the Beast did not stir at the sound.
Through frozen limbs, I reached him. A blanket of snow dusted over his dark form.
“Arthur?” I pleaded, pushing at his side, flipping him over to see the Beast, eyes closed, and still.
“Please! Hear me!” I cupped the side of the Beast’s head, turning him to face me.
“I cannot leave!” I grabbed hold of his fur in my fists, shaking him.
“Do you hear me! The curse will not let me leave this land!”
Met with growing silence, I sliced a sharp nail along my wrist, careful not to bleed onto the snow just yet. I held the open wound over the Beast, pulling on his jaws to open his mouth and let my blood spill into the night.
His head jerked to the side, before his tongue slipped from his mouth. I laughed in relief. A clawed hand reached for my arm, pulling it closer where he licked thoroughly over the small cut. I yanked my arm away, not willing to risk his bite. His claws ripped at my gown, desperate for more.
The ground rumbled when I wiped my blood across the snow. I held onto the Beast as we began to fall through earth and stone. We landed with a thud, and by the time I lifted my head from his bare chest, the man had returned.
Or most of him.
The arms of the Beast wrapped around me, pressing me to his body. We’d landed in my rooms, on my chaise by my fireplace, lit for us as if Piffle had known we’d end up here all along.
Arthur blinked in a blur, groggy and stunned.
“I made it to the gate, but I cannot leave,” I whispered. “The boundary of your land is the boundary of the curse. It will not let me go.”
“Is this a dream?” he rasped, squinting hard, as if trying to wake himself.
I leaned into him, sliding my hand along his cheek. “No, it is not. I cannot leave you, Arthur.”
“It is a dream, then,” he whispered.
“Arthur,” I started, but he ended my words when his mouth crashed into mine.