CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CARDEN
She was eating fae food and drinking something clear. Not wine. Probably something worse. And she sat with the son of the she-devil herself, talking to him like he was an old friend. Maybe he was. Maybe she was part of their game.
Cold beads of sweat broke out on my forehead. The room tilted just before a wave of intense pain washed over me. My bones cracked, popping one at a time. The pain was so overwhelming, silence was the only sound I could make. Until it ended.
I screamed, but the sound was swallowed up by swelling music and gales of laughter. His laughter and hers. I thought I would die when he moved his chair closer to her and whispered in her ear, and she returned the favor. Imagining her lips on his skin made a growl rise up from deep within the pit in the bottom of my heart. She was my heartmate. Not his.
But he wanted her. There was no denying it.
He watched her like he was equal parts hunter and prey. Like she was beautiful and dangerous, because she was. Arabella might be deadlier to a man’s heart than even Queen Coeur.
Blinding pain erupted as coarse bristles of fur emerged from my skin and my gums stretched to accommodate a new pair of elongated teeth. I rushed past the fae, past the guards, knocking a few over as I burst through the doors holding us in. Nothing can stop me now.
I ran through the hallways, faster than I should be able to, looking for a mirror and finding nothing.
Then it hit me. I’d never seen a mirror in this place. Except for the shard that hung around Arabella’s neck.
I had to find her. I had to see.
Sniffing the air, I caught her scent… She was gone from the table, gone from the room. I tracked the smell of her through the labyrinthine castle until I came to a door where her scent was strong and fresh. She was inside. She’d just gone in.
Rule had been here, too, but his scent was fading.
I tried to grip the door handle, but my pad and paw couldn’t turn it. The metal slipped through again and again, until her voice came from the other side. “Who’s there?”
She was afraid.
She should be afraid.
“Carden,” I answered.
“You don’t sound like Carden,” she replied.
I growled impatiently, “It’s me.”
The door knob turned and her eye appeared in the crack, widening as she took me in. She tried to slam the wood closed, but I was too fast. My paw pushed it open, careful not to hurt her. She quickly backed farther into the room and put distance between us.
“Who are you?”
“Carden,” I answered in frustration. “I need to see your mirror piece.”
She shook her head, putting her hands out and backing away. I stalked forward, trying to catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. When I did, we both screamed. Arabella threw her arms up to protect herself… from me, I realized.
“It’s me, I swear. Arabella, it’s me. She turned me into a beast.”
After a moment, Arabella’s muscles relaxed a little and she peeked from between her arms. “Oh, my goodness. That’s what you called her, right? A beast?”
My heart sank. “Yeah. That’s what I called her.”
“Is this why you were so irritable tonight?” She dropped her arms and stepped toward me, reaching out to take hold of my paw.
“I think so. I feel so many emotions, but mostly rage.”
“Why were you so mad tonight?”
“You were with Rule.”
She shook her head. “You were mad before, when I first sat down with you.”
I didn’t realize why I was so angry with her then, but now I knew. I smelled him on her. She had spoken to him before she came to me. “You’d been with him before you sat down at the table.”
Exasperated, she explained, “I only talked to him for a minute, and then left him to find you.”
A growl tore from my chest. “I don’t like him around you.”
“Well I don’t like it when you growl at me!” she snapped.
“I hate his scent on your skin,” I whispered, moving in close, my chest rising and falling painfully.
“Your teeth are big.” She slowly raised her hand and cupped my face with her palm. “But your fur is soft as silk.” Her skin was warm, her touch light and delicate. Nothing like her. She was the strongest woman I knew. She didn’t complain once during the trial today. Not when the sun scorched us until our skin withered and burned. Not when the grass sliced us. Not when she had to wear the heavy boots. Not when she saw the specter of her horrible mother.
“I’m afraid I might hurt you,” I admitted, sniffing her hair.
She shivered when I placed my paw on her waist. “Then don’t.”
“I’m out of control.”
“Have we ever been in control here?” she asked.
I wasn’t sure. Maybe control was the illusion and everything in life chaos. Suddenly, a strange feeling flooded through my body. It started at my feet and spread upward like wildfire. I jumped away from her.
“What’s wrong?” she yelled.
I gripped my head where the heat was scalding me from the inside.
“Carden, talk to me. What’s happening?”
I had to get out of there before I hurt her. Breaking through the door, I ran away. She cried out for me, chasing me out of the room, but I was fast and lost her among the maze of hallways. I found a door that led outside. The guards keeping watch over it scurried to the side to let me pass through, their spears clattering to the floor as they gasped at the sight of me. To them, I was a monster.
To them, I was dangerous.
ARABELLA
I chased him until he disappeared around a corner and then vanished altogether. “Miss Arabella, you must go back to your room now. It isn’t safe out here. There’s a beast on the loose.”
“Brave?”
“You must come with me,” she insisted, grabbing my arm and pulling me back toward my room.
“It’s not a beast,” I whispered. “It’s Carden.”
She stopped for a moment and then began tugging me forward again. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not safe for you out here.”
“Why did they replace you?”
“The Cursed and Unseen are everywhere. They watch for the Queen, and they were watching us. Queen Coeur was angry that you’d named me. She said we were too close.”
“What will she do if she knows you’re helping me now?” I asked.
Brave was quiet. “Just come along. Don’t you worry about that.”
“I am worried,” I argued.
“I’ll disappear again,” she insisted.
“Wait,” I said, pulling her to a stop just outside my door. “Can you see each other? The Cursed?”
“Only if she allows it. Some of them spy for her, but I can’t see any others. I’ve never been able to.”
“So, there could be someone in my room right now and we wouldn’t know it.”
She didn’t have to voice it. I could hear her thick swallow.
“I’ll go in alone. Thank you, Brave. You’ve once again lived up to your name.”
She let go of me and all went silent. I didn’t hear her move away, but wasn’t entirely sure I wasn’t dreaming all of this up. That she was gone or here. That Carden was a beast and that Rule had fed me and given me water. It all seemed surreal.
Maybe I was still in the game. Maybe this was part of me trying to survive.
And maybe I lay dying somewhere, and my mind was making this entire world and ordeal up to keep my body alive.