2. Gwen
GWEN
G wen looked down at Charlotte’s hand, some of the stiffness leaving her body. She didn’t deserve her friend’s sympathy, but she drew strength from it anyway. The count’s expectations were like bricks heaped on her shoulders, but Charlotte gave her support freely, and it lightened Gwen’s load to know she wasn’t alone.
She didn’t have a plan, but she knew what needed to happen. Surely if they all worked together, they could come up with a way forward.
“My mother—” She stopped sharply and drew a firm breath. “No. That woman is not my mother.” Some things mattered more than blood. A woman who had spent years using, manipulating, and abusing Gwen without a second thought didn’t deserve the title of mother.
It was still hard to look up and meet the eyes of the others, and Gwen braced herself to hear a lecture on what she owed the woman who had given her birth. But Easton’s warm hand slid into her free one, giving it an encouraging squeeze at the same time as Charlotte firmly gripped her other hand.
Gwen drew another, freer, breath. Was it really that easy?
The past twenty-three years unrolled through her mind, overshadowed by the constant, looming presence of the queen. Even now, Gwen could feel Celandine’s poisonous words burrowed deep in her mind, not yet fully uprooted. No, it hadn’t been easy at all, and it wouldn’t be easy in the future. But here, encircled by people who saw her as something more than the queen’s shadow, she had made a start at least.
She started again. “Queen Celandine has to be stopped. But if you’re hoping I flew in here with a plan for how to do that, I’m sorry to disappoint you. I came back because I knew I had to do something to help my people.” Her eyes flicked to the young girl on Easton’s other side. “I’m sorry that I’m not what you were hoping for or expecting.”
The girl shrugged. “He’s the one who said we needed you and told me to keep watch.” She gestured toward the count with her head. “I could already see how it was that time I went looking for you at the palace.”
“Excuse me?” Gwen stared at her, utterly confused.
The girl smiled, a look of combined sympathy and pity that was almost amusing on her youthful face. Almost. Instead, it made Gwen ashamed of what little use she’d made of her extra decade of experience.
“I suppose it’s understandable enough,” the girl said in a voice that suggested she didn’t really understand. “After all, you grew up with her for a mother.” Her face twisted at her mention of the queen. “And my family appreciated the gold you gave us. My mother is healthy thanks to you.” Her eyes slid away. “But it was obvious you weren’t going to be good for much else. That’s why I found him instead.” She nodded at the count. “But then he insisted we had to wait for you. That we needed you.” She rolled her eyes and fell silent.
The count gave her a stern look—the kind he must have used many times on his own children and grandchildren. The look of someone whose extra years of experience had been used instead of wasted.
“Of course we need Her Highness,” he said. “This is a delicate enough matter as it is. If people think I’m trying to seize power for myself, our side will break into factions and start in-fighting. It will destroy everything we’re working toward.” He softened slightly, looking between each of the three newcomers. “But I will acknowledge that Natalie is the one who found me. Many among the court have become disillusioned over the years, and I was already their leader, but she’s the one responsible for connecting the rebellion at court with the rebels in the city.”
Natalie shrugged like it was no big deal, and the count chuckled softly.
“Oh, for the confidence of youth,” he murmured.
“You did all that?” Easton gave Natalie an impressed look. She was only a little older than he had been when he had confronted the queen and been banished for his effrontery. Was he wishing he had handled himself more like her back then?
If he had responded differently, he might never have been forced to leave. But at the same time, a small part of Gwen had always warmed whenever she thought of him storming in to confront her moth—no, the queen—on her behalf. She appreciated his passion and loyalty even if she hated the separation it had caused.
“It wasn’t as hard as you might think.” Natalie shrugged at Easton before turning to Gwen. “Do you remember how those guards were coming our way, and you distracted them so I could sneak out? I was shocked to see guards manhandling the princess like that. And you’d seemed so timid and terrified as we were sneaking out, too. After I got home, I kept worrying about what they’d done to you after I left. So I snuck back into the palace grounds the next day to find out what punishment you’d received. That’s the sort of thing people are guaranteed to gossip about. But no one was talking about the incident at all. It was suspicious.” She shrugged again. “I found the same guards, and once I’d managed that, I didn’t have to follow them for long before they led me to Count Oswin.”
“You’re the one the guards reported to?” Gwen cried, staring at the count. “That’s why my mother never heard I’d been out in the grounds so close to nightfall! Some of the guards are loyal to you over her.”
“Thankfully they were the ones to find you that night,” the count said. “Of course actually confronting me was a far riskier move than Natalie seems to realize. But happily it turns out we’re all on the same side.”
“That’s not surprising, is it?” Natalie said cheerfully. “The people of the city are on the side of anyone who opposes that woman and her taxes and her bears.” She shuddered at the final word.
“I will refrain from pointing out that I’m one of those bears,” the count muttered. Gwen shifted uncomfortably. As little as she liked to think of it in those terms, she was one of Queen Celandine’s bears too.
“You were one of them,” Charlotte said, looking unaccountably sad. “The enchantment is broken now.”
Instant silence and stillness seized the room as all four of them stared at Charlotte. She blinked back at them.
“Isn’t it?” she asked hesitantly. “Henry’s enchantment broke, and I thought that was the point of including him in the first place. When it broke for him, wasn’t it supposed to break for all of you?”
The count half rose before sinking back into his chair. “The lowlander prince no longer turns into a bear during the day?”
Charlotte gaped at him. “You didn’t know?”
He shook his head. “Like I said, he appeared at night, and the queen has had him locked away in solitary confinement since.”
“Her specialty,” Gwen muttered.
“But wait, are you saying you all still turn into bears at night?” Charlotte gazed wide-eyed between Gwen and the count. “Were you a bear last night, Gwen?”
Gwen shifted uncomfortably. She still wasn’t used to the reality of her nightly transformations herself. Her eyes flashed to the count, remembering the deception her mother had perpetrated on the court. He didn’t look surprised to hear Gwen also became a bear, though.
“Why do you think I was out in the forest so early when you found me this morning?” Gwen asked Charlotte with a sigh. “It’s true I was on my way to your castle, but I had a head start since I spend all my nights outside.” She glanced at the dirty half-window in the basement wall. “And talking of nighttime, it must be close to sunset now.” She glanced uncertainly at the count.
“You don’t need to be concerned,” he said calmly. “I sometimes spend the night at my manor in the city, so my absence won’t cause any alarm at the palace. And my own people are utterly loyal to me. None of them would dream of mentioning that I didn’t spend the night at home.”
“But…” Gwen looked uncertainly at the other three. That hadn’t been her concern. She had never transformed in front of anyone before, and the idea of doing it in front of Easton made her stomach churn. How could he look at her the same after that?
Charlotte frowned. “I don’t understand. Henry definitely turned back into a man. He said he’d never be a bear again. He broke the enchantment. Why are you all still bears at night?”
Gwen forgot her fear for a moment, staring at the count for an answer. He stared back at her, his expression equally blank and confused.
“I was definitely a bear last night,” she said slowly. “And you?”
The count nodded, his eyes narrowing in thought. “The idea of including the prince in the enchantment came from the queen, and it obviously didn’t work as she intended since it was reversed for the prince—his days as a bear, his nights as a man. I suppose that wasn’t the only thing that didn’t work to plan.”
“No wonder she’s been hiding him.” Gwen shook her head. “She’s already made so many mistakes with these enchantments—each new mistake must make it harder for her to hide her errors.”
The count nodded slowly. “Plus, if he’s a human all the time now, there’s nothing stopping him marrying the princess during the daytime—except for the fact the queen doesn’t actually have Princess Gwendolyn stashed in a room at the palace like she claims.” Charlotte made a wordless sound of dissent, and he winced. “Well, there’s nothing preventing his marriage in the minds of the courtiers. Of course they don’t know he already has a wife.”
“But how did he break the enchantment?” Gwen asked eagerly, looking toward Charlotte. “If we know that, we might be able to find a way to break ours as well.” She carefully didn’t look at Easton. Perhaps it would be possible to release herself before he ever had to see her as a bear.
Charlotte’s cheeks turned slowly pink. “According to his godmother, the enchantment did need a royal wedding to be broken, but it also took love. He said…” She paused before rushing on. “He said the enchantment would be broken when he looked into his wife’s eyes in his human form and felt nothing but love.”
The count ran a hand over his head. “Well.” He shot a surreptitious glance at Gwen and Easton, who still sat too close together. “Well, then.”
It was Gwen’s turn to flush, but she resolutely ignored it. “The queen must know that’s how the enchantment is broken. She mentioned Prince Henry’s godmother to me—about hearing what she said to him—so she must have found a way to overhear when his godmother told him how to break the enchantment.” She looked at Charlotte, feeling embarrassed, although she knew she wasn’t responsible for the queen’s actions. “She was monitoring you somehow. I went into her rooms once, and she had a giant portrait of you and Henry as a bear. She seemed to know he would be returning here soon as well.”
Charlotte paled, pressing her hands to her face. “She knew I would…”
She trailed off and went silent, not explaining to the rest of them the terms of the second enchantment—the one that had transported Henry back to the queen. Although the two had broken the original enchantment, they hadn’t succeeded in breaking the second one due to Charlotte seeing Henry’s human face before the necessary three months had elapsed. Charlotte’s visible anguish sent a shaft of pain through Gwen’s heart. It hadn’t been Charlotte’s idea to use that candle, it had been Gwen’s. And she still hadn’t found the courage to confess it to her friend.
Gwen spoke quickly, trying to distract the others from Charlotte’s state. “So the queen’s followers believe—”
“Get back!” The count spoke sharply, his words overlapping the sudden itchy sensation that had sprung up beneath Gwen’s skin.
She sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes jumping to Easton.
“No. No, no, no,” she breathed, frantic but unable to work out what she should do. Should she run out of the basement? Where would she go?
The count surged to his feet, not showing any inclination to scratch the tingling itchiness that must also be sweeping through him. “You all need to stand back.” He spoke forcefully, gesturing to the other side of the basement.
Natalie glanced toward the window. “The glass is so dirty, it’s hard to tell if it’s day or night.” She sounded disapproving but unafraid.
Unlike Charlotte and Easton, she showed no bemusement at the count’s sudden actions. She must know what was happening. Standing, she stretched out her arms and swept the other two along with her toward the far wall.
“There’s no need to be concerned,” she said, perhaps in response to their expressions. “They’re not actually turning into wild animals. They’re just going to become a lot bigger. But they don’t always have full control of their movements during the change. If we’re too close, we might get hurt.”
“You’ve seen it before?” Charlotte gasped, and it took Gwen a moment to place the emotion in her voice. Was it envy?
“Henry never let me see him change,” she added, confirming Gwen’s impression.
Gwen’s eyes went to Easton again, but the tearing feeling—as if she were coming apart all the way up the center of her body—had already begun, and she couldn’t stomach seeing his expression as she changed. She lowered her head, squeezing her eyes shut as she dropped to all fours and waited for the dizziness to pass.
When she opened them again, she saw white fur.
She stared at the other bear across from her. The count had moved back from the chairs, putting space between them, and she was grateful for it because he was huge. Even larger than she was. The sight of his bear form made her instincts twang, shouting at her to run and hide. Her instincts kept forgetting she was a bear as well.
“Gwen?” Easton’s tentative question made her wince and turn further away from him. He moved with her, though, circling until he could see her face. “Is that really you?”
He sounded unnerved. How could he not?
Gwen wished she could hide her face in her hands, but she didn’t have hands. She had paws. And her face was not her own. The princess Easton loved was gone, replaced by a bear.