My body sways from side to side, synching with Dante's slow movements. He shakes his head and neighs as the monstrous collection of clouds hovering above us rumbles. I know my focus should be on the storm that's about to rage above me and the immense danger that I'll be in once lightning starts to crack the sky, but no matter how hard I try I can't seem to pry my thoughts away from the discovery I made earlier today. My grip on the purple book tightens as fragments of sentences twist and twirl and dance in my head, but no matter how hard I try I can't seem to piece them together. How am I supposed to tell Maurie that the woman he lives with, who granted does seem to be horrible, is the reason he no longer had the book that could help him, could help all of them? Unless of course his theory about me being the key is real, which I still don't believe. A loud rumble of thunder echoes above me bringing me out of my thoughts. I grab Dante's reigns and with a quick flick of the wrist, I have him move from a trot to a gallop.
As I reach the castle's iron gates, large droplets of rain start to tumble from the sky. The booms of thunder grow louder and louder, and I quickly slide off the saddle and pull Dante into a small section of the undercover area that Amelie made for him the other day. The poor horsey needs a home here too, don't you think? His neighs grow louder and he starts trotting round and round in a squiggly circle with a shaky body as the sky continues to roar.
"It's okay, boy, it's okay. We won't be here too long," I say as I smooth his slightly mattered mane. Settled by my words he saunters over to the furthest point away from the entrance and lays down.
As I hurry towards the door, the sky is pouring with rain. Upon opening the door, I brush my damp hair aside. Fighting against the sudden winds that picked up out of nowhere I push the doors closed behind me. Sighing, I lean against the closed door and glare at Maurie who is standing by the staircase laughing at me.
"You having a good time over there, Mr Nice and Warm? Is my discomfort making you feel better about yourself?"
"I would be lying if I said I'm not finding your situation amusing," he says with the corners of his lips curling upward in a small smile.
"How did this storm pick up so quickly? It wasn't anywhere close to this bad in the village or the forest." An unnaturally loud crack of thunder rattles outside, and I jump away from the window beside me that shakes and cracks from the force.
Maurie chuckles as he reaches over into a dusty wardrobe, pulls out a mostly decent blanket and hands it to me. I give the ancient thing a quick shake before wrapping it comfortably around my shaking shoulders.
"Storms around here develop a lot quicker. I've always assumed it's part of the curse. It seems the land within the castle's boundary was affected by the spell as well. The plants died and can never grow, the sun never touches this place and anytime there is a storm like this one it, as I said, develops quicker and is worse than ever."
"I didn't know magic could have such an effect on the area around it."
"Magic is a force all on its own, one that is stronger than anything in this world. It can give the wielder anything that the desire but it always takes something in return. And, from what I've learned these last couple of decades the stronger the spell the bigger the consequences and the more one must sacrifice. It's no wonder the old witches went to great lengths to hide their spell books containing their strongest spells."
"So a couple of plants died and the sun is allergic to you guys, that doesn't sound like such a major consequence to me."
He smiles with amusement and shakes his head at my bluntness. "That's because despite the effect it has had on our lives the spell that was done to him and this place is a mild one, strong but mild. The immortality granted to all of us is probably the only part of the spell that took the most."
I make a sound that can only be described as a mix between a laugh and a scoff. "Yes, I suppose being granted the ability to not age and live forever would take a lot," I look out through the window at the rotting plants in the distance, "Okay maybe it didn't take too much but still."
"We should consider ourselves lucky magic didn't want to take more from us."
"What do you think happened to all the people who left, do you think the effects of the spell stayed with them?" Strangely, after all this time I've been coming here I never once thought about all the other people who used to live here. Beast... Henry said that there were hundreds of servants living here at the time the curse was cast, and I know they all ran away, but I never questioned it further nor did any of them tell me anything else about them. Although I suppose nobody wants to think about people who abandoned them.
He shakes his head. "I've never thought about them much, but I doubt the effects of the spell remained on them. You have to... Oh, how can I explain this? For the consequences of a spell to affect you, you either have to be the direct recipient of the spell, like Henry is," His expression morphs into one of regret, "I mean like Beast is."
I giggle at how hard it is for him to say Beast. "It's okay he gave me permission to call him that so I highly doubt he would care if you called him by his real name in front of me."
His eyes hold a curious gaze, but the joy he feels from the news I just shared is unmistakable. I sigh and shake my head. "Don't look so excited because nothing happened."
"He has hated the sound of his real name since the curse began, so trust me this is a big step. besides," a mischievous gleam shines in his eyes, "another petal fell when you were here the last time."
A pit starts to form in my stomach; pretending that his and Fabienne's theory about me being the clue to breaking the curse is going to be a lot harder to push aside if these damn petals keep falling while I'm here.
"That doesn't mean anything," I quickly snap.
"Keep telling yourself that."
"Don't use the phrase that I taught you against me."
He rolls his eyes. "Let's just get started so that you can get out of here as soon as possible. I'm sure your horse doesn't want to be stuck in this weather."
I dismissively wave my hand. "Oh, he's fine. I put him in the undercover area that Amelie built for him."
A look of concern flashes on his face, and the pit in my stomach grows bigger and bigger the longer it remains.
"Then we need to hurry. Amelie is great but she's a singer, not a builder."
"Well, it didn't look too bad to me."
"That's cause you weren't here during her last... building phase. You know know green shelf in my office, the one by the window?"
"No."
"That's because she didn't put the nails in correctly and it fell through the window."
I can feel the colour drain from my face and my hand shoots to position over my mouth. "Oh God."
Another loud bang of thunder roars outside. The windows shake and I can briefly hear Dante neighing from his enclosure.
"Let's get moving," Maurie says.
With a swift turn on his heels, he starts racing toward the stairs with me trailing not too far behind him. We head up to his office, and while I close the door behind us Maurie takes the book and immediately starts translating the ruins.
"If you think I'm the reason the curse is breaking then why do you still need the book?" I ask as I sink into a nearby chair.
"Well, as I said you being the key to breaking the curse is only a theory; although, with recent events, I'm starting to think it's true," A harsh glare from me wipes away the smirk from his face. "But, in case I am wrong, the answer to the curse should still be in this book," he flips over to the next page and smiles, "In fact, I think this should be the chapter that contains it or at the most a clue that will lead us to the actual cure."
"What have you gotten so far?"
With a furrowed brow, he flips through his pages of notes. "The curse is called The Curse of the Rose. It was created by a powerful Enchantress hundreds of years ago when a cruel and vain man refused to shelter her during a storm. She cursed him to turn into a beast very similar to what Henry has been turned into and the curse was set to remain in place as long as a rose because that was what she tried to bargain with him when she needed help. The spell will be broken once the last petal falls, only I still don't know how they started falling."
"So that man's curse was broken?"
"According to the legend it was. It also says that this curse is more commonly known as the curse of jealousy."
"Not gonna lie, The Curse of the Rose sounds a lot better than that."
He chuckles. "I agree, but it makes sense. Magic doesn't just take something from the user when a powerful spell but it also requires them to put an emotion into it. Magic is a complicated and powerful thing that works best when the user gives everything they've got into it, including emotion. You can't be bland when you say the spell, you have to mean every word you're saying. This spell needed to be fueled by jealousy because that's what the Enchantress felt looking up at the rich man's home, she was jealous that someone as cold-hearted as him could have everything while she was made to suffer."
"So the person who cursed Henry was jealous of him or felt jealousy toward him?" That doesn't make sense with Belle, he loves her, or at least used to how could she be jealous of him?
"It would seem that way..." As he continues to ramble I sink deeper and deeper into my trail of thoughts. Belle loves him but you can be jealous of someone you love, right? No, that doesn't sound right. So that could mean that maybe she didn't do the spell. But then why would she give Gaston the book if she didn't put the curse on Henry? Only the person who put the curse on him would want him to stay as a beast. But again that makes no sense because she loves him, and if you love someone I would assume you want them to be happy, and he certainly isn't happy as a beast. Why is this so complicated?
"Valerie, are you okay?" Maurie's voice yanks me out of my trance and I have to lean back in the chair to catch my breath and center myself again.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about everything and got overwhelmed. It happens to me sometimes I just need to relax."
"What were you thinking about?"
I suppose it's now or never. If Belle is the one who put the curse on Henry then at least Maurie needs to know.
"Gaston didn't steal the book, it was given to him... by Belle."
I notice his eyes widen, and I can't tell if he is shocked or horrified. He stands there, completely still, and it feels like an eternity before he finally breaks the silence by clearing his throat.
"Are... are you sure about this? What if he was lying to you, or he simply got his memories mixed up? Old people do that sometimes?"
I shake my head. "He doesn't get his memory mixed up and I believe him. I think Belle gave him the book so that you couldn't figure out how to break the curse." I take a deep breath and wait for him to say something, to say anything, but all he does is stand motionless with that horrified look still shining in his eyes.
"Why would she do that?"
"Cause I," Here goes nothing, "I think she's the one who put the curse on him, on all of you."
I wait for the outburst, but instead of throwing a fit and trying to tell me that I'm insane or getting ahead of myself because of how she is. But, it never comes.
A small smile tugs at his lips. "I thought I was the only one who thought so."
"Wait, also think she did it?"
He gestures for me to sit back down. I follow him to the bench by the window and we sit side by side. "Before the curse, Belle was a maid here at the castle. Ever since she was a child she had a crush on Henry, but with him being the prince and her a servant girl he didn't pay her any attention. He was always surrounded by other women and I know she hated this. Years went by and the curse eventually happened which as you can imagine changed everything." I nod. "She wasn't my immediate thought when I was trying to figure out who would curse him, but after seeing how happy she was with everything and then learning that she is a witch well, let's just say my suspicions began to grow. And this revelation about her giving away the book only makes me more sure she did it."
She had a long-term crush on him. he would only pay attention to other women, jealousy is needed for the spell, she's a witch, she gave away the book, and everything is pointing to Belle. "We should tell Henry, he deserves to know the woman who claims to 'love' him is the reason he was cursed."
As I'm about to rush toward the door he grabs my arm and pulls me back. "What are you doing?"
"You can't just rush over to him and tell him that someone who has been a big part of his life has been lying to him for ninety ears and is the reason he was cursed in the first place. It will destroy him, and we can't do that until we get more proof."
Rage bubbles within me and as much as a part of me agree with Maurie I still can't help but wonder if maybe telling Henry is the best thing for him. It's bad enough he will one day find out that the woman he loves cursed him but on top of that he has to find out that two people he trusts had suspicions about it and never told him. But I can't break his heart, I can't risk being wrong and ruining everything.
"Fine, we can tell him when we have more proof," I say with a sigh.
"There must be a record of the spell somewhere in her study. I'll search for it. Meanwhile, you can talk to Gaston again. Maybe Belle told him something important when she gave him the book."
I nod. "I'm on it."
I don't know how much I trust this plan, but it's all we got. I'm sure if my father were still alive he would tell me to forget about these people and run. He may have been a man of honour but magic and vengeful witches would have been his breaking point. I've always respected my father and at a young age, I vowed to live my life the way he would want me to, follow all his rules and do everything he would. But not this time, this one is different, I'm willing to risk this danger because I have to help Henry. I will help him, no matter what it takes.