Page 151 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
The choices had been obvious, as his father had chosen the witnesses least likely to blabber if anything went awry.
It’s fine, it’s fine. You’ll be fine. She’s going to free you. Your curse will be over soon.
One of them, anyway.
The Enchantress took her place in the circle, staring up at the sky, revelling in the moonlight like humans bathed in sun.
“Should we not wait for the full moon?” the Duke asked.
The Enchantress shook her head. “The full moon amplifies dark magic. We want the reverse, here. Don’t want the monster to get out too strong.”
“And… the outside?” the Duke continued, sounding as nervous as Dimitri had ever heard him.
For once, Dimitri found he was in agreement with his father. He’d prefer to be inside, in the cellars, away from people and open space.
Just in case.
“My power is rooted in nature,” the Enchantress explained. “The closer I can be, the better.”
That made sense, and Dimitri didn’t question it. No one did. In lieu of Adeline, he looked to Mrs Minton, to Thomas. They both gave him weak, hopeful smiles.
You’ll be fine,mouthed Thomas, as if suggesting a thing could make it true.
He’d feel better if Adeline were here. He thought back to that moment in the library, where he’d come so close to telling her, hoping, praying, that she would stay with him.
Or that she’d tell him not to do it.
His head swam with fantasies of her throwing her arms around him and begging him not to go through with it.
Don’t do it, don’t do it. I love you just as you are.
If there were some way of being with her, of living the rest of his life with her at his side, he’d brace it. He’d endure. The monthly transformations, the pain, the headaches… everything. He’d endure all of it to be with her.
Beautiful, warm, wondrous creature.
But that path did not exist.
And so there was only this one.
“Are we ready?” The Enchantress began.
Only a chorus of non-committal sounds and a few grudging nods echoed over the lawn. The Enchantress turned to Dimitri, as if seeking his approval. He could barely give it.
“Do it,” his father insisted. “I grow weary of this dallying.”
The Enchantress smiled, but there was no warmth in it, no more than an icicle could imitate fire. “Of course, Your Grace.”
She waved her hands. Light ruptured across the grass, pooling across the ground, forming a circle with Dimitri at the centre. The light was a burning, blistering cold, a blast of air so frightfully full he felt like his flesh was being cleaved from his bones. He shuddered under the pressure, collapsing on the ground, pushed further and further to the brink of pain.
His left arm started to snap.
He’d expected this, this reversal of the transformation as the monster was wrenched from him. What he’d not expected was the feeling of cold lava seeping into the rest of him. He tried to concentrate on what the Enchantress was doing, the movement of her arms, the words she was speaking, but all of it was lost to a roar of wind.
Pain erupted along his spine.
Something was wrong.
He stared down at his hands, and found his right mirroring his left. His nails twisted into talons. Fur clawed up his arms.
