Beast within the Beauty || A Beauty and the Beast Retelling

Chapter Thirty-Four || To Return to a Beast

My throat ached. For a moment, it felt as if I were drowning—the immense warmth, the peculiarness, the realization of all that had been lost between this stranger and I. I kept my mouth shut, lest it pours some foolish sentence I would later come to regret.

"It is I who must apologize to you," he confessed, "for having left you and deserting you of a proper childhood—for dictating to you my wishes without having first learned your nature." His bearded cheek grew wet with tears. "I am so sorry that I'd taken that from you."

"No—no, not at all," I whispered stiffly. The urge to comfort him spurned from some unfamiliar corner within my chest that I could not ignore. Yet, the ability to speak such words failed me and so I settled upon patting his back awkwardly in hopes of soothing his sobs.

"Look at your old man," he said lightly, as if trying to humor me. "How pitiful." He pushed me back and took to wiping his cheek. "I think it best if we mount our steads and depart now—" His eyes widened, as if only now realizing some grand fact. "Ismae, child, what happened between you and his lordship?"

"He sent me here for fear of what the bewitchment entailed should I be there to witness it." I went to stride Maverick, relieved that he had given me an excuse to step away. "And before you ask, no, I had not succeeded in maiming him, much less killing him as you had once encouraged."

"That is not what I had intended." A frown crossed his face. "And there is still much I must tell you." He signaled to the rest of his men. He called out, "Mount your horses! We shall set out now and arrive at the Beast's castle by nightfall." Once his horse spurred into motion, he asked, "Are you still with me?"

"I am listening." Hardly. My mind raced and crashed with brittled thoughts and I could hardly keep pace with lord Ambroise. My father—even the thought of it sounded odd.

We began to ride. "Before anything, I think it only reasonable that you know this: I have never intended for you to murder him when I asked you to wed him. I held it in confidence that no harm would be dealt to you in his company, either."

I suppressed the question upon my tongue and instead said, "You seem to hold him highly. I had expected you to speak of him with a critical eye."

"No—never." His stallion failed to keep up with Maverick and I found myself slowing only slightly. "What of you, child? What is your opinion of him?"

"That is of no matt—" I stopped myself from uttering those words. There was very little for me to lose in honesty. I drew a breath. "Raoul...was kind to me and treated me well." My heart ached, suddenly filled with the urge to release every concealed truth. "He had warned me of the curse cast over him and the castle."

"What of him?" he prodded.

I pressed my lips together. "His company was pleasurable enough."

"And yet, still you left him?" Though he spoke in jest, I detected a hint of bitterness in those words—it was as if he was disappointed. And it pained me that I cared of it. But rather than dally on my silence, he asked, "What state was the castle in when you had left it?"

"I am not entirely sure," I admitted. "But I do fear that the curse had begun to seal the castles' fate. Raoul was rather insistent on sending me away as not to witness it."

His voice became grave. "I fear then that they may have already met their fates." He urged his stallion faster. "The curse that consumes his lordship and that castle is one older than the roots plunged beneath the very forests that surround it. If that curse had already taken them...God save us all."

"And you? How is it that you know all of this?"

"Ah, child. There is much you do not know about me and I am afraid I cannot tell all of it to you." I loosed a breath. "But, for the sake of quelling your curiosity, know that I had been a resident of that castle."