Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 74631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Then he changes. Right before my eyes. From beast to prince. Relief and disbelief are a maddening thing. The magic and the castle, the last weeks of my life, they are a fantasy that is too fantastical to ever be believed. The prince was never gone.
The transformation is difficult for my eyes to take in. His body seems to blur, shifting even as I watch. There’s cracking of bones and the torn clothes fall. I do not know where to look because all of him is changing at once. He is bared to me. Eventually his features smooth out into the man he was when I entered the tower. His chest heaves as if he cannot breathe, and his expression is anguished. His blue eyes shine in the moonlight that comes through the tower, and his hands ball into fists at his sides. He no longer has claws, but I can see the tension in him. The prince may have the form of the man, but he still carries the pain of the beast.
He bares his teeth, gritting them as if to master his feelings.
I take a deeper breath to regain control of my own. I can’t help but to hold him, to wrap my arms around him. He barely holds me back but when I pull away from him, he searches my eyes for something, but I cannot know what.
“My father—” I begin.
“He should not have come here,” the prince says, his voice taut with the words. I can hear his anger in them and perhaps fear. His gaze lingers on my father, and he says, “What have I done?”
THE PRINCE AND THE BEAST
Elle watches me with bright, wary eyes and does not seem to know what to do. And as I stare at the old man lying in the corner of the tower, I do not know either. She trembles on her feet, her face flushed, and her hair mussed as if it was tousled by the magic.
“He…” She swallows, dropping her hands to the front of her skirts.
I go to him before she can finish. The back of my hand to his mouth. Relief floods through me as warmth graces my skin. “He’s breathing.”
“Father,” she cries out and rushes past me to him. She cradles his face in her hands, and I feel shame and agony. I made her a promise I knew I would not be able to keep. For the beast is brutal and knows nothing of promises.
“Will he be all right?” I dare to ask her, knowing all too well how much he means to her.
With glassy eyes she looks up at me. “He’ll be okay, I think. I just need him to wake.”
I answer, my voice rough. “I could have killed him.”
“But you didn’t.” Elle smiles weakly. “You are not only a beast. You are also the prince, and when it mattered most, you knew that.”
I do not dare glance down at my body. I do not know if what my own eyes see matters anymore.
“Please”—she looks up at me—“will you help me get him to bed?”
I can only nod, not understanding her demeanor. She is not angry or afraid. For a moment a spark of hope goes through me.
“What do you see when you look at me now?” I ask.
Her eyes travel over my body but quickly return to my face. “You are a tall, handsome man with wavy dark brown hair and blue eyes. I can see your blue eyes.” Elle stands and leaving her father for only a moment, she steps closer as if to make sure they are blue. She nods to herself, her shoulders relaxing. “I can see you just as you were when I came into the tower. That is not how you look when you…when you are the beast. You are taller, with gold eyes, and you have a wolf’s features.” She looks down my chest and then blushes.
“Your clothes have torn,” she tells me, though I know they have. The beast tears them from me. It is not the first time. “When you…change, they tear.”
“When I change?”
“Your body…I wish you could see what I see.”
That is what I have seen in the mirror every day since the witch laid the curse on me. I almost step to the mirror to prove Elle wrong, but after all that has happened and with almost all the petals from the rose fallen off the stem, I no longer want to look. The beast has retreated. He is not fully gone, but he seems to recognize that this man from the village—Elle’s father—is alone and harmless. Even if he wanted to steal her away, he could not do it. Even if he wanted to hurt me, he could not do that either. He tried to fight me with his bare hands. That is no way to confront a beast such as myself.