Black Magic ▸ Prince Adam

III

"You are one headstrong child." Agathe put her hands on either side of Celeste's face. "Be safe, my dear." She said before kissing her forehead. "Do not be scared to fight anything or anyone that gets in your way, but also know when to run."

Celeste smiled at her mother. "Don't worry, Mama. You raised a fighter." She kissed Agathe's cheek before leaving the hut and sprinting back to the village.

Many villagers had horses, but there were only a few that would be willing to help Celeste in a time of need. Pere Robert would lend his horse to the girl, but not without asking dozens of questions. Plus, the church was in the middle of the crowded village, running through everything would bring much unnecessary attention. Instead, she chose to run to the first people in sight that would help her, easily shoving through some villagers.

"Gaston, I need to borrow your horse!" Celeste almost shouted, bringing the villagers attention to her as she ran to the man and his aide.

Gaston looked at his sidekick in confusion. "LeFou, did you just hear what I head?"

"I believe Celeste said she needs to borrow your horse."

"That's what I thought." Gaston said before facing the brunette. "Surely you know me better than to ask something like that, Celeste."

Celeste wanted to scream in frustration. "It's an emergency, Gaston!"

"What is it?" The war hero asked, becoming serious and furrowing his brow in concern. "What happened?"

Celeste wanted to kick herself. Maurice and Belle's safety was extremely important, however, getting Gaston involved would only make thing worse. He would constantly use it against Belle and infuriate her and Celeste in the process.

"Don't worry about it, I have it under control." Celeste finally said, going with her gut feeling not to tell him.

"Clearly you don't if you need my horse." Gaston shot back, crossing his arms over his chest. "Just tell me what it is and I will take care of it."

Celeste groaned in annoyance. "Gaston, I really appreciate you trying to help but I need to do this myself." She told him before turning to LeFou. "Can I borrow your horse? Please?" She begged.

LeFou was torn to say the least. He knew Gaston would give him hell if he let Celeste take his horse but the panic and urgency was practically radiating off the girl. He sighed and handed the reigns to Celeste. "Take care of Betsy."

"Thank you." Celeste sighed in relief, quickly hugging her friend before mounting the horse. "I owe you!" She said as she kicked Betsy forward.

"Just come back safe!" LeFou called, an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

"She better come back alive or I'll kill her myself." Gaston said, watching the girl ride the black horse into the forest. It didn't matter how much the two fought, he still cared for her.

————

As grateful as Celeste was that Gaston didn't follow her, a small part of her wished he did. She had absolutely no idea where she was going, the forest was an unknown place to her. She had let the horse guide the way within the first hour. She figured Betsy would know the way better than her seeing as Gaston and LeFou went hunting almost every day. As they got deeper into the forest she became even more anxious.

Betsy veered around a tree that had been split in half, which only concerned Celeste more. Had it split before or after Maurice got lost? How about Belle? Had either of them come that way?

"Betsy, I sure hope you know where you're going because I don't."

The woods only got thicker as Betsy continued on and Celeste's anxiety grew every second it got closer to dark. The anxiety turned into confusion when she saw snow on the path, completely ignoring how cold it had gotten. "Snow in the middle of June. Totally normal." She told herself, not believing it for a second. "Nothing remotely weird about this."