Chapter 1
Chapter one
In A Kingdom Far Far Away
The Beast was but a man tortured. He’d never known the warmth of love and only the cold, icy tendrils of arrogance.
The day he laid eyes on her, it was the first thawing of his stone heart, for she did not run from him or beg him to spare her life.
Instead, she stood tall and faced him with courage despite the fear she must have felt.
-Tales from Meridea, Volume I
The light flashed across the dark wooden floor and was quickly trailed by the pouncing of paws that sought to destroy it.
However, the light was persistent in its continued existence and merely moved a few feet down to hide beneath a blue chest of drawers.
A fierce growl followed a small thump; nevertheless, the light persisted.
“Let him have it, Luci. The poor beast is about to lose his mind.” Brielle giggled.
Shifting the small mirror in her hand, Lucinda angled it to catch the light of the sun pouring in through the open window, blue curtains rippling with the spring air pressing in.
The orange fur ball that was Calcifer let out an indignant shout as he tried to follow it and instead hit his head on the chest he had been under.
Luci set down the mirror and gave the creature her sternest face.
“That’s what you get for stealing milk that doesn’t belong to you.” She pointed a finger at him for added emphasis.
Calcifer merely crawled out from beneath the chest and met her stare before licking his paw and going to curl up beneath the window where the sun’s rays settled just right to provide warmth. Within mere seconds, rumbling purrs filled the room.
Luci sat up straighter on the bed and shot Brielle a disbelieving glance, gesturing to the beast. “Do you see? He is immune to consequences.”
A fond smile fell over Brielle’s perfect heart-shaped lips, which were small and pale. “And why should he be punished in the first place? It isn’t his fault; he gets thirsty at night.”
Rolling her eyes, Luci let herself flop back onto the mountain of baby blue blankets piling Brielle’s bed. They coated her form like a nest, perfectly contouring her as if made for her. Satin and cotton mix together in a perfect symphony of comfort.
“It was for you, not the cat!”
A sweet melodic chuckle came from Brielle as she patted Luci consolingly on the head.
“I’m sure he feels plenty sorry,” she tried.
Lifting her head, Luci found the creature sprawled out on its back, eyes closed, and purring even louder than before. She let her head fall back with a grunt.
“Looks really sorry,” she grumbled.
Brielle’s lilting laugh was punctuated by a sharp intake of breath that ran a chill down Luci’s spine.
The blood rushed from her head too quickly as she sat up and surveyed her friend, who was more like a sister.
Brielle's thin hand reached for her right knee, which was buried beneath blankets. Her eyes were slightly sunken, and even her face was paler than usual. Worry, familiar and consuming, wrapped its hands around Luci’s throat, constricting her breath.
“I’ll go get your tonic,” Luci said as if suddenly realizing she could do more than stare.
As she scooted herself off the massive bed, Brielle reached for her. “No, don’t. I’m fine, I promise. I just want to enjoy the first day of spring with you and Calcifer.”
Concern ebbed and flowed throughout her in that all too familiar sea. Helplessness.
“Bri, you are in pain,” she tried.
Her friend’s smile was small and consuming. “No more than usual.”
It was probably a lie wrapped in a small truth.
Brielle had more bad days than good, though she would try to convince anyone who asked differently.
Most people would have lost themselves beneath the pain she endured every moment, but not Brielle.
She was the epitome of grace and dignity.
When the powers that be designed her, they had placed an angel in her frail body.
It was the only explanation for how she was.
A small hand slid into Luci’s. “You know what Mrs. Blakesley always says-”
“Too many sweets will make your teeth fall out,” Luci said, soberly.
Brielle snorted. “No, the other thing she says.”
“Young ladies should not snort.”
Her laugh was a balm to Luci’s worries.
“The one about frowning.”
Luci sat up straight and thinned her lips, attempting her most severe and disapproving countenance. “A young woman who frowns too often will find herself with a face full of wrinkles before her time.”
Squinting her eyes, Brielle leaned forward, studying Luci before pointing at her. “Look, I can see one forming right there.”
Luci gently swatted away her hand and settled in close to her, resting her head on Brielle’s shoulder.
Breathing in the smell of elderberry and ginger, Luci let herself soak in the moment.
As far as days went, today was better than most. Winter had been hard.
The cold seeped into Brielle’s joints and made her bones ache.
Her tonics took most of the pain, but they also made her sleepy, which was more of a hardship to her than the pain.
That was the thing about pain. It made Brielle’s thirst for life insatiable.
She was desperate to enjoy the moments that weren’t wrapped in swollen joints and painful movements.
“Spring is finally here. It’ll get better,” Brielle said, echoing Luci’s thoughts as she so often did.
The breath Luci took was from deep in her soul.
One that resonated with every fear she ever had, but tempered by the gentle rise and fall of Brielle’s chest. The winter had been hard.
Even though they never left Blythe Manor and Mrs. Blakesley made sure to quarantine any servants who showed a hint of ailment, Brielle had gotten sick twice.
The second time, the body aches and fevers had been bad enough that Luci’s fear had swallowed her whole.
It was an experience that she wished she could rip from her mind instead of falling back into the memories over and over.
“Read to me?” Brielle asked quietly.
It was an attempt to pull Luci back from her thoughts, but an effective one.
Luci hadn’t been able to say no to her friend since they were five years old and found each other.
Reaching for the leather-bound book on the light blue nightstand, she settled back into Brielle.
A fresh spring breeze wrapped around the open room they shared, a rush of trees outside settling over them.
Some days, the walls of magnolias surrounded by navy blue were too confining, scratching at Luci’s mind, but today, with the promise of spring, it was a comfort.
“Where were we?” she asked, gently brushing Brielle’s thin blond hair to the side. “Oh, yes, the beast just saved her from the wolves.”
“It was very romantic.” Brielle hummed.
A snort that Mrs. Blakesley would wholeheartedly disapprove of broke from Luci. “Except for the part where she wouldn’t have needed to be saved if he hadn’t held her hostage and scared her.”
The smell of fresh strawberries blew in with the breeze, and Brielle hummed softly next to her.
It was as if the winter hardships were forgotten amidst the promise of spring.
Blythe Manor, among its heritage as a noble house, was also the foremost strawberry producer in Meridia.
It was early for the strawberries to bloom, but it also felt like a well-deserved boon.
“Maybe we can convince Archie to make a strawberry shortcake?” Brielle asked, clearly drinking in the familiar smell as well.
Luci rolled her eyes, fighting back amusement. “You could convince Archie to give you his firstborn son if you wanted.”
Brielle’s lips thinned, eyes drifting to the open window. “He feels sorry for me.”
Guilt, strong and oppressive, coursed through Luci.
After twenty years at Brielle’s side, she should have known better.
Should have known the way her mind would run with the simple jest. Pity was an emotion that Brielle was well acquainted with and despised.
Her body may have failed her in many ways, but she was strong of mind.
“Archie would do anything for you because he loves you, Bri. There isn’t a soul who has met you who wouldn’t do anything for you.
Not because of this,” Luci gently placed her hand over Brielle’s swollen knee before placing it over her heart, “but because of this. You are everything good and kind in this world. That’s why. ”
Silver lined Brielle’s eyes as she blinked rapidly.
The emotion clogging Luci’s own throat was making her vision blurry.
She wished more than anything that she could show Brielle the way she saw her.
She has shown her strength and resilience in the face of adversity.
There was no one who deserved happiness more.
“Sometimes it’s hard not to wonder what I would be if I hadn’t been born this way. Would I be dancing at court every night? Would I be in love? A family?” Brielle said, tears streaming freely.
The lines of Luci’s jaw ached with the heaviness that she fought against. It was hard to hear Brielle ask the questions that plagued her.
Not because they weren’t valid, but because Luci’s only wish was to see Brielle happy, but there were some things not even fairy godmothers could do.
Even a happy life surrounded by love would struggle to find peace.
“I know.” Luci wrapped her arms around Brielle and snuggled in closer to her. “I’m sorry, Bri.”
There were so many words that fought to escape her.
To tell her she didn’t need those things or that Luci would never leave her, but that they would only comfort her, not her friend.
Luci knew Brielle better than she knew herself.
Sometimes Brielle needed to feel the unfairness of it all.
Luci could only be there for it, for her.
It was a helpless sort of feeling that carved away at her insides till her stomach hurt.
That was the thing about love. Love made you want to do the impossible, but there were some things not even a fairytale could fix.
“It’s fine.” Brielle lay after a few moments. “Court is horrendous anyway. Do you remember the last time we went?”
As well as she remembered her own name. Unwelcome memories washed over Luci, and she shivered dramatically.
“I try very hard not to,” Luci murmured gravely.
A small laugh from Brielle. “What was that girl’s name?”
“Lady Annabeth.” Luci wrinkled her nose in disgust.
Another, more genuine laugh. “She said I smelled like rotten strawberries, and you shoved her into the pond.”
Honestly, she should have done far more than that. Brielle hadn’t heard the other insults the noble girl had strewn across the lush summer grass. The things she had called Brielle. The pond hadn’t been nearly enough.
“Ten years isn’t long enough to be away from that dreadful place. All the nobles preening and prancing. Comparing whose estate was the largest or who was closest to the royal family.”
Luci made a gagging sound.
It usually would have earned her a laugh from Brielle, but today the sorrow of life had found her. It was evident in the long sigh that accompanied the rise and fall of her chest.
“Do you ever wish you weren’t forced to stay with me?” The question was quiet, a whisper in the wind.
Luci shot up and stared at her best friend with incredulity coursing through her like a tempest sea.
“How could you ask me that?”
At least Brielle had the decency to drop her eyes, pale cheeks going crimson, as she reached for her long blond braid nervously.
“I just–I know you love me, but don’t you ever wonder what it would be like to meet someone, fall in love? Have children of your own? See the world? Have an adventure?”
“I’m fairly certain the first few of those would negate the last, but neither way. I am happy with my life. Loving you isn’t a burden, Bri. You are my home.” Luci only wished she could make Brielle understand the truth of it.
It was hard to remember life before she came to Blythe, but what she did remember had been hard.
Life had been cold and unforgiving. Even if she didn’t have those memories, she had seen the Meridian court and found it wanting.
She had been tolerated there only as Brielle’s companion, but everyone looked down their noses at the lowborn girl who had been a gift to the sickly aristocrat.
She heard their whispers and witnessed their sneers.
Not one had tried to see Brielle for the beautiful soul she was.
As for love, Luci had never witnessed a love truer than what she felt for Brielle.
She supposed the only romance she’d seen was between Brielle’s father, Sir Trevion, and her stepmother, Lady Margaret Treveon.
That had hardly been a love match and was more like a business transaction.
Sir Treveon had the land and the title; Lady Margaret had the money to feed his ambition.
Fifteen years later, all they had to show for their marriage was polite inquiries and posturing in public when necessary. It certainly didn’t inspire Luci to go out into the world to find a love of her own. All she needed was right beside her.
Having enough of the conversation, Luci cleared her throat and waved the fairytale book in her hand.
“Let’s see if that overgrown cat can earn his redemption.”
Wrinkling her nose, Brielle shook her head. “Don’t call him a cat, it ruins the allure of him.”
Luci raised an eyebrow, “Oh, what about horns, a tail, and an eight-foot frame covered in fur is exactly alluring to begin with?”
Waving a hand as if Luci couldn’t possibly understand, Brielle settled in against her, warm and familiar.
The small smile that sat on Luci’s lips was proof that this was all she would ever need.
“The fire crackled while Beauty tended to the Beast’s wounds…”