Thorn in the Rose {Book 1 Of The Once Upon A Time Chronicles}

Chapter 54: A Kept Promise

"Adrien, what are you talking about? None of them are being held hostage. He's not trying to take me."

He shakes his head. "She told me you would say that. She told me he's been brainwashing you this whole time so that he could make you stay here in that dungeon. He's been doing this for years, and I won't let you be his next victim. I won't let him."

"Who's she? Who told you this?" I ask.

"I did," echoes a voice from the dark passage just beyond. A voice I was hoping to never hear again.

We all turn to watch as Belle casually walks into the room with her hands behind her back and her lips twisted into a cruel smirk. I can hear low growls rumbling from Henry as his body shakes with rage.

"What are you doing here?" he hisses.

Belle shrugs. "I live here, don't I? This castle has been my home for as long as it has been yours."

"You don't live here anymore. I tossed you out, remember? And I told you to never come back."

The corners of my lips curl upward as I watch her shift uncomfortably still hurt by the memory of being cast out into the pouring rain like the animal she is.

"You're right you did cast me out. And do you remember how I told you that would would regret it?" Nobody says anything and this causes her smirk to grow wider. "I tried to make things work between us. I really did. But your actions that day made me realize that we could never be together like I wanted us to."

"Poor me," Henry says his tone laced with so much sarcasm it makes me want to burst out laughing.

She laughs, and it's not a sweet one either. No, this is the kind of laugh that sends shivers down spines. The one that plays roles in nightmares and strikes fear into the heart of any man.

"You're right. Because, darling, if there is one thing I want you to realize today it's that you shouldn't have made an enemy out of me."

Looking over at Adrien she nods. I wait for the arrow to start flying through the air, but it doesn't come. Instead, Adrien drops his bow, pulls out his knife and while screaming runs toward Henry and tackles him to the ground.

The pair wrestle on the ground punching wherever they can. The occasional roar echoes from Henry as Adrien manages to slice to stab a part of his body.

Grabbing my knife from its sheath I try to rush toward them but I'm stopped by a sharp pain in my head. I try to fight the pain and keep going hoping that the fear of watching Henry die would be enough to drive me forward. But the more I move the more the pain increases. Dropping my knife I sink to my knees and hold onto my head screaming from all the pain.

"Valerie!" Maurie yells with concern.

The group rushes toward me but the second they get close they too are overcome with the same kind of pain. Dropping to the floor they too hold onto their heads screaming. I manage to turn my head slightly looking up at Belle who is standing off to the side with her hand raised and that damn smirk still on her lips.

"Stop him. Stop hurting them. Take me instead."

She shakes her head. "It's too late, Valerie. You brought this upon all of them. Besides, living in those woods I realized that I don't need any of them. Not even him. So, I'm going to kill you all and rule in this kingdom by myself. The way I should have done all those years ago."

Twisting her hand the pain grows to an almost unbearable state. I sink lower and lower until my face is pressed against the dirty floor.

"I thought you loved him!" Maurie screams at her.

"I did, but he doesn't appreciate everything I have done for him. All the sacrifices I have made for him. I allowed them to stay here, I gave up practicing magic. I even killed for him."

My grandfather came to this castle to try and prove my uncle's story.

He didn't come home.

Dead in the woods mangled by some beast.

I did not kill your grandfather.

Looking up at her with horror in my eyes I stutter through the pain, "You killed Adrien's grandfather, didn't you?"

She twists her hand increasing the pain in my head causing me to release a guttural scream.

"Valerie!" Henry yells.

"Don't say her name you beast!" Adrien yells.

Another roar fills the air, and I know that Adrien must have stabbed or cut him again.

"I didn't have a choice. He was going to expose us. I tried to get rid of him the easy way but he recognized me from some story his friend told him. I couldn't let him live," she says with no guilt in her whatsoever.

"You... used... magic to... call the... wolves," Maurie mumbles through the pain.

She shrugs. "It's a simple spell. Now, that's more than enough talk."

I close my eyes waiting for death to come and take me home when suddenly the sound of metal slicing through flesh rips through the air followed by a gasp and the thud of a body hitting the ground. The pain vanishes as quickly as it came and I start to slowly open my eyes. I gasp in shock when I see Belle laying dead on the floor blood pooling at a cut in her chest. A cut right over where her heart would be.

The looming figure still gripping the blood-soaked sword in their hand spits on her body, the wet substance landing on her face.

"That's for Le Fou," Gaston says. Dropping his sword to the floor he rushes over to me and held me sit up. "Are you okay?"

Despite the ordeal I just went through I manage to smile. "Well, I'm not dead so I guess that's a start," I chuckle.

Laughing he helps me up, and together we help the rest of the group up each of them muttering thanks to him.

"Not that I'm not grateful for the rescue but what are you doing here?" I ask.

"I went to talk to Adrien and I saw him following an old woman into the woods. I was worried so I followed them here. I was hiding in the passageway when I heard her confess to killing my friend."

My eyes wander back to her lifeless body. Her eyes are still wide open capturing the shock that just hit when she felt the sword pierce her flesh. She may have died too quickly for my liking but it was a much deserved death nonetheless.

Miss Potts walks up to the body and just like Gaston spits on her face. "Rot in hell you bitch."

Our shock at her sudden action is interrupted by the sound of a larger body hitting the floor and a roar echoing through the room.

I spin around gasping when I see Henry collapsed on the ground with a knife in his leg. I quickly search for Adrien eventually finding him standing a fair distance away from Henry with his bow back in his hands and aimed for the kill.

"This is for my grandfather," Adrien says as he lets go of the string.

The rest all happened in slow motion. The arrow was released, my feet hurling me toward Henry and the protests from all my friends as they watched me run toward the danger.

A flashback of a particular training session with Gaston surfaces in my mind but it's his words to me that day that take center stage. 

"You run towards risk and danger like it's an old friend. And that Valerie Bernard will be your downfall one day."

"Valerie, stop!" Gaston calls to me, but I don't take much notice.

I promised I wouldn't let any of them die, and that's a promise I'm going to keep.

I throw my body in front of Henry once again spreading out my limbs to block as much of his as I can. I won't let you die, I think as I watch the arrow come flying toward me and buries itself into my chest.