The Beast stood framed in the doorway, his shoulders heaving as he gasped for breath from running. His face looked crumpled, defeated. Bo was actually shocked to see the expression that played across his features. She couldn't put a name to it, but it made something in her chest call out in response.
The Beast stepped into the entrance hall, his footsteps hurried and short. He began immediately pacing back and forth. "No luck?" he asked.
"No, sir," Chan replied.
"I can't find her, either!" he exclaimed. He ran his hands over his buzzed hair and turned on the spot as if he couldn't figure out what to do with his energy. As he rotated toward her, the Beast's eyes landed on Bo as she stood on the third step down.
Relief washed over his face so heavily that Bo nearly apologized for no reason. She took a few more steps down, but he bounded up the steps and met her halfway down. By the time he was within a few inches of her, though, his face had transformed from relief to an intense glare she'd seen when she'd first arrived at his house. A shiver ran down her spine.
"Where were you?" he demanded, his hand smacking the bannister and making Bo jump.
"I was in my room, where do you think I was?" she retorted. His tone was clearly angry, and she immediately went on the defensive.
"You weren't. I went up and looked when you didn't come down for dinner."
Bo opened her mouth to argue, but realized she'd been caught. She sighed and narrowed her eyes. "Okay, look, I'm sorry. I fell asleep on the roof and lost track of time."
"The roof."
"Yeah, the roof. I have to go up there to escape all these little disloyal spies." Bo pointed specifically to Chan, the only one she recognized. The robot gasped as if he was offended by these words.
The Beast ran a hand over his eyes. "Fine. Just don't do it again," he said, his voice becoming more even.
"It's not my fault," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "Keep the Service-Matons out of my personal bedroom, and then I won't have to climb onto the roof to have a moment to myself."
The Beast's lips pressed together, his nostrils flaring. She thought for a moment that he would yell at her again, perhaps ban her from the sky room and her viewing screen for a few days, but instead he released his balled fists and turned away from her.
"Fine."
She watched in astonishment as he walked down the stairs. She'd only been trying to get a rise out of him. Yet, here she was with a promise of her room's privacy being kept. She didn't know how to react, so she just stared at his retreating back until he was gone from view.
---
Despite his insistence that he looked ridiculous tracing tiny letters out of a romance novel, the Beast was a fast learner. Only a few days and he was already capable of reading a few small sentences on his own. He still forgot many of the rules Bo told him over and over, but overall he wasn't doing that bad. Bo actually felt a little bit of pride in the fact that he was sticking with it and could learn so fast. She didn't like thinking that it might be due to the alien's advanced IQ, but she did like to think that maybe she was a better teacher than she'd thought. Aston had given her hell about a gun tutorial she'd tried to give the younger teens once, but now she'd taught an alien to read. She finally had something to hold over his head.
It wasn't until a moment later that she'd probably never meet Aston again to get a chance to hold it over his head.
The Beast glanced at her from across the table, his hand pausing in mid-word. She tried to force a smile, but found that she couldn't. In fact, she only wanted to go upstairs and climb into bed. The house suddenly felt so awfully suffocating.
The Beast returned his attention to the page, and frowned. "Please tell me Lady Wastrel is going to find out that Count Bane is lying about Sir Sterling being dead sometime soon. She's going to die of heartbreak and he's only just down in the dungeon. It's so frustrating that they're so close to each other, but don't know it."
"I know," Bo said, pulled into a conversation by the undeniable lure of the love life of Sterling and Wastrel. "She's going to have to go through a little more suffering, but I promise they end up back together by the end of this book."
"Someone needs to take Bane out. Why can't he just let them be together in peace?"
Bo raised her eyebrows. "Are you becoming invested in this story?"
The Beast exhaled and threw his hands up in the air. "Who wouldn't be! It's like the book was made to trap you inside and never let you out."
"Now you feel my pain! I've been dying alone with no one to talk to about the story!" Bo replied. "Wait until you get to the second book. There's these zombie creatures, and Sterling has to save the city from them. And Wastrel gets involved with witches and it pits Sterling against her. It's amazing."
The Beast's eyes grew. "They do all that within just the last half of this book and the start of the second one?"
Bo nodded. "It gets insane. We need to increase your lessons so that you can catch up with me."
With this new motivation, they continued on for a few more hours, covering the reunion of Sterling and Wastrel, and finishing the book on the cliffhanger ending.
"How can something feel so long and short at the same time?" he said, shutting the novel and staring at the cover. Bo had admittedly begun to help him a little more than he needed, in the interest of advancing through the book faster, but he was more invested when he had steady movement. As long as he was paying attention and following the words she spoke with his finger, she thought he was still doing good. He glanced up at her. "Tomorrow we have to start book two."
Bo shook her head. "I know we said we have to increase the lessons, but tomorrow I'm taking off."
"What?" The Beast's brows furrowed.
"It's my birthday, and I want to spend it doing what I want," she replied.
"Birthday?"
"Back home we have a special dinner. Since I won't be allowed to do that this year, I wanted to at least have some freedom." She cleared her throat against a lump that suddenly formed.
The Beast, perhaps realizing he was the cause for her not being able to spend her birthday with her family, didn't put his foot down and remind her that she was his servant. Instead, he gently stacked the books and writing materials, and then stood up.
"Let's get some air," he said. He offered his hand, but she ignored it and got to her feet on her own.
They walked out of the front door and down to the garden, and began the lap that she was so used to. She'd walked it countless times with him over the days she'd spent teaching him to read, and even more on her own. It had become frustratingly familiar. She knew exactly where the Service-Matons would be pretending to prune trees and bushes, and know exactly when they would scan her and send their reports to each other that she was accounted for.
It was quiet for a few minutes, the only sound their boots scuffling across the gravel. Bo stared at the little rocks, wondering how the rain from a week ago had been back in camp. She hoped they'd gotten enough to last until Aston could fix the filters. Maybe he had already fixed the filters. She was fairly certain he'd gone ahead with his thieving plan the moment she'd left the camp. It made her both annoyed and heartsick.
"Are you all right?" the Beast asked. She glanced up at him, catching his eyebrows tilted in concern. She looked away quickly.
"Fine," she replied.
"There's something wrong," he said. He stared at her so hard that she knew he must be trying to gauge whether she was going to make a break for it again. She took a step away, sensing that he might try to take her arm in some attempt to keep her from bolting.
"Well, I highly doubt that you want to hear what the matter is," Bo said, staring at the clear sky, "because you're the only reason that it exists."
The Beast didn't say anything. They went another circuit around the garden, and then he pulled her over to the stone bench with a gentle touch on her arm. She stretched her neck and arms, cramped as they were from hunching over books all day.
"I know you wanted to be alone on your birthday, but do you think you could spare me the hour right after sunset?" the Beast asked.
"Can't I have one day with no work?" Bo asked.
"It's not work. I promise. It's something you'll enjoy."
Delicious food sprung to Bo's mind as a possible candidate. She knew the Service-Matons were fully capable of making a sumptuous birthday feast, and she didn't exactly want to say no to something like that. Even if she had been planning on curling up in bed and obsessing about home while simultaneously crying for the entirety of her birthday.
"All right, I can probably make it," Bo said. "But if it turns out to be work, I will totally do a full on peasant uprising on you."
The Beast smiled. "I'll have Madame fetch you tomorrow."