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If there’s one thing I’ve always prized about myself, it’s my control. If he can make me so out of my mind…
I shudder and pull the small fur tighter, even though it’s little more than a cape. It doesn’t really cover anything.
And I get hot anyway as I hurry into the great room.
My sudden impulse to leave the room feels reckless. I don’t even know where he is. I keep every sense alert as I go.
I stop in the great room only long enough to pause by the fire. It’s always roaring.
Who keeps it stoked? The beast? What seems like an endless supply of firewood is stacked almost to the ceiling in a small inset in the stone wall a few feet from the hearth. Is that where he goes when he disappears? To hunt and gather more wood?
How long will he be gone? Other than the wind, I don’t hear a thing.
No screams from below.
Nothing.
The castle is quiet, apart from me rustling around as I grab one of the thinner pieces of wood from the stack.
I did a little exploring yesterday before I started washing the room. In fact, I only grabbed the bucket so I’d have an excuse in case the beast found me wandering. But he stayed away for so long. Most of the daylight hours.
This is something I’m counting on today as I nudge the end of my stick of firewood into the blaze at the hearth.
The castle does have more furnishings in some of the many stories below. Because of the vaulted ceilings on each floor, the main part of the castle is only eight stories tall. This is apart from the tower turret where the beast keeps me, which extends another six stories into the sky.
I can’t imagine how old the place is, or where on earth we are for this place to still be standing.
My mind was full of these questions yesterday, but I don’t bother with them today.
I’m on a mission for different answers, no matter how doomed it might be.
I might not be in my right mind, but I don’t know who would be after last night.
I—
I felt things. Yes, obviously I felt the… the sexy things. The orgasms that about popped my head off.
But it was more.
I don’t know how to be that intimate with someone and not feel things. I don’t know how to receive that much pleasure, to be brought to such heights and not—
I have to know if I can trust him.
I have to know if he’s lying.
I’ll go crazy if he keeps doing that to me, and I don’t know if he’s—
So after the end of my long piece of firewood catches light, I don’t think. I wrap the base of it with the fur from the bed, then I turn back for the stairwell.
And I start back down the stairs. Down from the first floor into the darkness of the unlit floors below.
Down and down I go as the fire starts burning its way down the log. Sparks and bits of fire fall onto the pelt I turned inside out to cover my hand holding it.
I jog faster. The flame sways wildly every time as wind from above blows down the spiral stairs.
I focus on my feet and keeping my balance, so I don’t tumble into a fiery heap.
The fire quickly consumes the stick as I continue down, but I don’t stop. I keep going into the darkness beyond.
I will have my questions answered.
I will find out what secrets the beast keeps in the dungeon.
Chapter Twenty-One
HANNAH
The dark is intimidating. Colder than upstairs somehow, even without the icy gusts.
Maybe it’s my fear of what I’ll find here. Or maybe it’s everything else finally catching up with me. My feet feel like lead blocks the more steps I run down.
So many floors up top. How many stories down does it go?
Dear God, why did whoever built this place dig so deep? What did they need to bury down here?
I’m all-out shivering, the fire burning perilously down the wood. It’s almost licking the hide now, and my hand underneath.
I’ll have to cast it aside soon.
How far down?
It’s quiet. No screams.
I wish I could pretend I’d never heard them. And never seen the blood on the beast’s chest.
But down below, fire aflame on the whole stick of firewood now, I see the bottom floor.
I don’t let my steps slow. Now that I’m here, there’s no turning back. Even though obviously there is.
Throw the damn stick away and get your ass back upstairs!
I ignore my flight response.
But the little voice in my head continues. Why do I have to know, anyway? The Beast is gone. I could flee for the light around the lake right now!
I clench my teeth. I don’t have enough stamina to make it there yet, I don’t think. I need answers.
