Hidden Heart (Beauty and the Beast AU)

Discordant Melody

Susato ran as fast as she could, praying she and Barok would get to the manor first. She saw his back, his cloak billowing behind him, as he drew open the doors. He turned and nodded to her. She grabbed his arm, and they rushed inside together.

"We should barricade the doors! Then they won't be able to get in. They'll be forced to turn back!" Susato said.

"Unless their path has guided them to the garden doorway," he said.

"Alright, then we barricade this door then run there as fast as we can!"

"You should have turned back. You would have been safe," Barok said as he turned around to shut the doors.

"I couldn't leave you! I have to stop them from hurting you, somehow!" Susato said.

They pushed the doors shut together. Then Susato turned, looking for anything that could possibly function as a barricade. When another flash of metal hurtled towards them. She cried out as it pierced Barok's cape.

Kazuma emerged from the shadows at their side, another knife in hand.

Susato pried the blade free from Barok's cape and the two went sprinting.

"The balcony in my room. We can use it to escape," he said.

Susato nodded, grabbed at his arm. He hastily lifted her, his claws scraping her shallowly, and ran as fast as he could, his long strides carrying them swiftly towards his room. The side wall did, indeed, brandish a balcony, which overlooked a large tract of the mire. Barok set Susato down, then flung open the glass doors. He turned to look at her.

"Climb down. The petals should still be aglow. Follow one and return home."

"You make it sound like you aren't going with me," Susato said.

"I must remain here."

"You can't! Barok, they...they might kill you!"

He averted his face. "As I have said, I do not know if this curse will follow me. I cannot put more people at risk of sinking into a mire."

Tears wounded her eyes. "Please, come with me! There has to be some way to make them see who you really are. But—but they're so clouded by emotion, by the need for revenge. I can't let you get hurt. Not any of you!"

"I will not harm them. Yet I will not simply lie down and die. If they wish to execute me, so be it. Although I will fend them off for as long as I can. Without rendering wounds."

He drew his sabre. Susato recoiled, stared at the reflections on the blade. Swallowed past the lump beating in her throat.

"I won't go without you!" Susato said. "My father...he said he believed me. He said he had a feeling something about all of this has been strange since the beginning. If we go to him, maybe he can convince Kazuma-sama and your brother, too!"

"As I said, the risk is too great. I will make a final stand here. Even if I fall, perhaps then...so too will this mire. And the danger will depart along with me."

"You can't die! You deserve to be freed from this mire, not buried in it!" Susato pleaded.

"Oh, we won't bury him."

Susato startled and whirled around. Kazuma stood behind her, katana drawn, hatred distorting his face.

"Kazuma-sama! You must not fight him!" Susato said.