But now… I splashed water on my face, breathing into a fresh towel Piffle had left me. Now, all I saw was the remains of a Beast. A man not thoroughly human, but a monster’s disguise staring back at me.
I wiped at my scar, remembering the day my father had given it to me. The curse had always been so far away, always something that was his problem to deal with, not mine. How foolish and young I’d been back then. How naive was that man, certain the future his father had faced did not belong to him.
MINE.
The voice was my own, but dark, broken…sure.
I’d learned to separate myself from the Beast these past twelve years, but having Reshina here, I felt us colliding with the same goal.
I knew so much of her life and she knew nothing of mine.
I was nothing to her—just an annoyance, a mark in her long life to sometimes remember but mostly forget.
MINE.
The rumble came again and I left the mirror, no longer wishing to see the man I’d become, who craved this woman.
Who wanted this woman.
Who would consume this woman given the slightest chance.
My obsession with Reshina, the Goddess of the Ravenfae, had begun long before the Beast took me. But I hoped it would end with my last breath and a dagger from her hand into my heart.
CHAPTER 14
Reshina
In silent curiosity,I allowed Piffle to heal the rest of my wounds. I’d been sent to the Underrealm for less than a day and I’d learned so much in that time. I needed to settle. To think.
I tested my shift into a raven a few times before I was satisfied that I was not permanently damaged, and after leaving my rooms for less than five minutes, the Changelingfae brought me a sleeping gown of deep emerald silk along with a black robe cuffed in black lace. I wondered where he’d gotten it on such short notice of my arrival, but was too exhausted to ask, my body needing rest to renew the power I’d spent stunning the Underfae and healing from their teeth marks.
“Piffle,” I started absently, brushing the tangles from my long black hair. “What more can you tell me about the Underfae?”
He shuddered, fluffing up the pillows across my bed. “You know what I know, Mistress. They need the dark. They take their sustenance…through…” His black eyes widened for dramatic effect as he finished. “...blood.”
“And they’ve always been this way?”
He shrugged. “They have since Master André’s curse. I’ve been here at least as long as that.” He finished the last pillow andfolded the sheets back. “Please say you’ll not go back. Please promise, Mistress. Not just for your sake, but for the Master’s.” Sighing heavily, he took my hand as if I were a child, leading me to the bed, pulling the covers over me as I slipped inside. “If you wander down the western corridor again, he will follow. He will always follow you.”
“Always?” I questioned, covering a yawn.
He nodded vigorously. “Now that you are bound as his captive to this curse, the Beast will follow if ever you are in danger. Or if ever you try to leave his lands. Or if ever you do something to make him truly angry. Or if ever you?—”
“The Beast will always follow me if I get to the surface?”
“Yes, Mistress. He will be called by the curse to drag you back, so do be careful.” He shook his head, blowing out the candles around the room. “You are relatively safe from the Beast here in the Underrealm, but anywhere on the grounds above…he will come for you.”
Fascinated, I remained silent, thinking through how I could test Piffle’s assertion.
“Goodnight, Elegant Goddess. Shall I wake you in the morning with tea and breakfast?”
“Yes, Piffle, thank you,” I murmured, turning across the soft silken sheets, my eyes already fluttering to a close, my mind already formulating ways I could escape the binds of this curse—for one curse upon my soul was more than enough.
CHAPTER 15
The Beast
NOT HERE.
