Page 71 of Beauty

“I weren’t sleeping. I was just resting.” Duffy looks up atus. “I need me rest. I think I might have a vampire to kill.”

I sigh. Fuck all. Duffy can’t be pleased about theengagement. “Brother, you knew you couldn’t marry her.”

He shrugs and closes his eyes once more. “Always knew. Don’tmean I won’t protect her.”

“Well, rest up. We move out tonight.” I open the door andrealize Bron isn’t waiting.

Bron is gone.

ChapterTwenty-Two

Bronwyn

I promise myself that when I make it to the tower,I’ll change into good old peasant clothes. My second-best dress is hardlymaking it easy to run through the fields. It seems to catch on everything asthough invisible hands are trying to reach out and grasp me and pull me back.

I feel the tug of Lach and Shim. By now they know I’m gone.The phooka stayed behind to create some chaos, but before he left me, he taughtme how to throw up some mental shields. According to the phooka, I’m wide opento the men I dreamed about most of my life.

I pull my skirt free of a branch. It tears. Like everythingelse in my life right now.

And I didn’t even know they were real. They spent theirwhole lives understanding that I am a real, actual living creature, but Iwalked around thinking I was insane. And everyone else thought I was crazy,too. And now Lach and Shim think they can just walk in and take my virginityand my blood and cart me off to goddess only knows where.

And that damn dog won’t stop following me. It startedtrotting after me as I left the village, and it hasn’t given up yet.

“I don’t have anything to feed you.” I stare back at theanimal. It’s a pretty thing. She. For some reason I’m pretty sure the dog isfemale. There’s something delicate about its features. The dog—who might alsobe a wolf—sits back on her haunches as I find myself snarled in a bramble bush.“You don’t want to go where I’m going. So shoo. Shoo, dog.”

The dog snorts, her muzzle lifting in a fashion that makesme think she’s laughing. And it doesn’t move until I do, then the dog simplytrots along behind me.

“Fine, but you’ll see. I’m going on a long journey.” I roundthe final curve and my tower is close. It’s tall and dominates the countryside.It’s been my home for almost four years.

It is my prison.

“She didn’t care about me. Not really. I think that’s whathurts worst of all.” I watch for a moment, trying to figure out if anyone is inthe tower. I think not. The phooka claimed the others are all still in thevillage, waiting for the best time to flee back to the Unseelie plane.

The wolf sits beside me and gently nuzzles my hand as thoughasking me to continue.

“You’re a weird wolf or dog or whatever you are.” I stand upand start to move. I only need one thing, really, but I’ll change clothes, too.I need the knife. I can’t leave without it.

The wolf barks, an impatient sound. Well, maybe the phookaisn’t the only strange creature I’ll meet today.

“I’ve spent almost half my life with Gillian, and I justfound out she never cared about me at all. Not the real me. She only saved mebecause she wanted me to marry her brothers. She told them to impregnate me sotheir claim would be indisputable.”

The wolf growls low in her throat.

I stop and look around for the threat. The courtyard iscompletely empty. Then I realize why the wolf growled.

“You didn’t like the sound of that. Did you? I didn’teither. They used me. Gillian pretended to care about me and protected me frommen only because she wanted me to be a virgin when her brothers took me.”

There it is again. The deep growl.

I get to one knee. I’m not sure how, but this wolfunderstands what I’m saying and seems to empathize. I’m pretty sure no one elsewill. Everyone else will say this is what royals do. They trade their daughtersand sons in exchange for treaties and alliances and land. My own brothers’engagement was made in an attempt to bring Maris’s family’s great wealth ofresources into the Finn family line.

“I know I should have understood that any marriage I makewill not be one of love, but I’ve lived as a peasant for far too long. I’vewatched the way they live and how many choose mates based on love andaffection.” I reach out and stroke the wolf. Maybe it isn’t so bad to have acompanion, even one who can’t talk back. “The real problem is that I’ve lovedthose men all my life, and I didn’t even know they were real. I loved them.Never wanted anyone else. And all they want from me is an alliance.”

The wolf seems to shake her head, but then she growls andgets to all fours, the hair along her spine standing straight up.

I stand to face whatever is coming my way.

Niall. He walks out of the tower, placing something in hispack. The guard changed into what looks like traveling clothes, divestinghimself of his armor and cape. He wears suede pants and a tunic, with bootscovering his feet.