I Am A Monster

I Am A Monster : Chapter 60

Chapter 60

We trek all the way back to the castle, which is farther than I could have imagined. For some reason, we've all come to some unspoken agreement not to morph to our werewolf forms. Danielle is on the shoulders of Sabrina, her head lolling sideways.

Amari is still sort of quiet. She's walking a few yards away from everyone else, muttering to herself, occasionally throwing me a quick, scared glance, like she's afraid I'm going to vanish. I don't understand it.

The guards let us in immediately, seeing Amari and Sabrina and bowing. Sabrina gives them a tight smile, but Amari doesn't give them more than a vague wave of acknowledgement, her eyes downcast, deep frown lines on her forehead.

When we get into the castle, I feel Amari's strong, firm grip on my wrist. She leads me up to room 37--my room--and doesn't even hesitate at the door. When we're inside, she shuts the door. I look around and hear the click of the lock.

"Why'd you lock the--"

"I want to talk to you privately," Amari replies, flicking the light on and pulling down the blinds. She gets up on a bed, where her sword is on the pillow.

"You live in here, too?"

She nods mutely, her eyes trained on me.

"What is it?" I ask quietly.

"We found a record of a prophecy in an old book," Amari explains. "That book that Emma was reading."

"Was reading?" I ask, puzzled.

"Yeah--she finished it. Anyway, it said something about after I fought the blonde...that...that..." She looks away from me.

"I'm sorry," I say. "I should have told you--"

"No." She sounds like she's holding back tears. "The prophecy had...had to be fulfilled." I know that it's hard for her to say this.

"So...what did it say?"

"It said"--she looks at me again, her expression unfathomable--"that the ice princess would reawaken and, whatever side she chose, that would be the side that would win."

I gasp. "So--if she chooses the vampires..."

"We'll all be killed," Amari concludes. "We'll become extinct."

"Where is she now?"

"Probably being made comfortable," says Amari. "We have to try to convince her that she's on the right side, right now."

"And what if she goes over to them? Will we stop her? Will we kill her?"

"Bree," she says, "you know yourself not to mess with a prophecy. If she decides she's on the wrong side, and she goes over to the vampires...we can't stop her. You can't alter a prophecy, Bree. You didn't even try to alter mine." There is a hint of accusation in her eyes and tone.

"Amari," I say slowly, deliberately, "I...anyone who's involved in preventing a prophecy, they get killed. Anyone in the prophecy at all. We hold her back, we all die anyway."

"I know," she replies. "That's why you didn't tell me? About the prophecy, I mean."

"Yes," I say heavily, not meeting her eyes.

"Amari, I'm--"

"Whatever," she grumbles. "It's--it's fine...."

But I can tell it's not.

"Listen, Amari, if she goes over to the vampires, it's my fault. I pissed her off in the cave back there, and--"

"Bree, it's not your fault," she interrupts quietly. "It's Jacob's."

"How in the world would it be--?" I don't finish my sentence, seeing her eyes harden.

"When he remarried so quickly, Danielle realized he didn't love her mother at all. Ever. Or Vanessa's, for that matter. Both Danielle and Vanessa's mothers had royal blood in them--faint, ancient, almost gone, but still there. He married them for power, not out of love. When Danielle realized this, she couldn't live with herself. She couldn't live with her father--who, she realized, was nothing more than a power-hungry moron who would stop at nothing to be royalty. She couldn't live with her sister, who was born for no other reason than the fact that her father wanted power. She couldn't live with herself, knowing that she was born under the same reasons that her sister was.

"She was so enraged by this, that her power grew by a tenfold, which is the only reason that, when she was nine, she was able to kill fully-grown, well-trained werewolves that went after her and tried to convince her to come back."

We're both silent. Then I finally speak.

"So...Jacob...is evil?"

"In a way, yes," Amari confirms.

Just then, the door bursts open. Sabrina is standing in the doorway, panting, her hair in a messy pony to get it out of her face. Half of her sleeve is ripped and frayed.

"Amari," she gasps, clutching a stitch in her side, "Danielle ran--ran away...when she saw--her--father."

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