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“Marius, stop. You have done enough.”
“Until she heals, I will not feel such a way.”
Katharine paced into view. I could see the top of her hair and the colourless, ripped dress she wore. But her expression was hidden from view as I watched from my perch.
“If I turn up with yet more unbelievable goods then they will sure catch wind of my visits. You do not know what they will do to me, to Mother, if they find out. And before you fret about not letting them harm us, you forget you are the princess kept trapped in a tower.”
“Waiting for my prince charming to turn up and save me,” Marius droned, spurring a weak laugh from Katharine. “If only it were that simple, little one.”
“I do not hear any crying or screaming from your Claim. Has he settled into his final days?”
My breath hitched as she looked up. I rocked backwards, just in time for her gaze to miss me.
“Do not speak like that, Katharine.” I could not see Marius, but I could imagine the pinching of his expression as he spoke. How he likely brushed the loose strand of white hair from his forehead, lips turned down.
“Have I touched a nerve?”
“Perhaps you have. He has settled well… considering. Did you want me to call upon him so you can thank him for saving your life from the blood hounds?”
Katharine folded her arms across her narrow chest. “It was not his blood that healed me—”
“Ahh,” Marius interrupted. “I finally see what you came for.”
“It worked on me, it might help my mother. I promise I will not ask for another thing again.”
She wanted Marius’s blood. A vision of him biting into his own wrist with his monstrous fangs before letting his dark gore drip into Katharine’s waiting mouth filled my mind. How her broken body had reformed and healed before my eyes.
Yet another example of the power he held.
“You would take that risk but will not pawn some useless item I can give you for coin?”
“There is no medicine left for her, Marius. I, we, have tried everything to better her state. You should see her coughing. How it racks her body and leaves her exhausted for hours. This is no state for anyone to be in. She told me of your kindness when it was her who visited you. Can you not do it for her?”
I expected him to refuse further. To tell her of what a dangerous risk this would be. Marius did not know what would happen to her. But if my mother or the coven caught wind that Katharine visited, theywouldpunish her. If they saw the truth of what she requested from him this evening…
The thought alone turned my stomach.
Katharine was a desperate girl, looking for an equally desperate solution. Come to think of it, I had heard of a woman who was sickly in the town. She lived in a ramshackle house on the outskirts. It was likely why I had never seen Katharine before if that was where she lived. There was never a need for me to leave town that far.
“I will do it. For you. For Paloma. But you must be careful. It is at your own risk as to what happens when you give her it.” The warning in his voice caused my fists to tense into balls. “For you both, I hope this works as you wish it will.”
“Marius, thank you.”
Marius stepped into view, enough that I could see his crown of white hair. Katharine wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into his chest. “Do not thank me yet, little one. Return and tell me of its results, will you? I suppose it is a nice thought that I can help someone beyond this entrapment. For all it is worth, I hope it works.”
“So do I.” Her voice was muffled as she kept a hold of him.
I rocked back, unable to witness anymore. Guilt riddled through me. It felt wrong watching such a personal moment. So I left them, padding back to my room on bare feet, as quietly as I could muster across the panelled flooring.
Marius is not a beast.
I found myself losing tears as I picked up my walk into a run.
He is not the beast.
How could someone care so much about life, when those beyond this castle cared little about him?
In that moment I saw the truth, I understood it all. The realisation clear to me as I burst into his chamber. A room he never slept in. My vision blurred so much that I almost tripped. I threw myself onto the bed, unable to calm my breathing. My chest ached. I pressed a hand into it, trying to still the feeling of it cracking clean open.
