Page 9 of Fate & Monsters
He glared in my general direction as if as unsure as I was.
“For your... impudence,” he said slowly, choosing his words carefully, “you will stay here. As a guest.” It was a command, not a suggestion. His hardened mask slammed into place as he strode toward the door. “Follow me.”
“You cannot make decisions for me!”
I choked as his hand collared my throat. My heart thumped and a pulse rippled through me. Backed into the chair, breathing hard, trapped in place by a single hand. He hung over me, baring his teeth in a vicious sneer. My muscles tensed and I failed to swallow over the pressure on my neck.
“I can and I will,” he dipped his head to my level, speaking into my lips until I could taste the command on his tongue, “because you’re caught in my web now, little thief. You’re mine. All mine.”
Red flared at the edges of my vision. No one owned me. Even as a human I wasn’t some possession to claim. I jerked my chin from his grasp and shoved at his chest. The beast prince hardly budged, but it allowed me the space to slam my fists into him again and again.
“You can’t treat me this way!” I hit him while screaming. I hit him until my knuckles were raw. He snatched my wrists from the air when the first sob vaulted from my lips. But adrenaline and anger fueled me. I lashed out with the only thing I had left.
My teeth sank into the side of his hand.
“That’s enough!” the beast roared, a terrible, echoing sound. Powerful enough to freeze me in place. “I have had it with the distractions and interruptions. No more. You have stolen from me and stumbled blindly into my home. You rightfully belong to me now, and you will behave yourself!”
I sucked in a gasp as he scooped me off my feet and slung me over his shoulder. The world swayed perilously from my new vantage point and my head spun from the dizzying motion. The fruit in my stomach complained and I clamped my lips shut to keep it in.
The beast prince carried me through the winding corridors of the castle. He held me tight,and with the cloak enveloping me I remained securely captured. Silence hung between us, but I felt his awareness of me as a constant presence at the edge of my senses. It was an unfamiliar game, and one I didn’t know how to play.
After what felt like ages, we arrived at a tower. He opened the door to a large, dusty room. The wood groaned in protest at the intrusion. A puff of dust lifted under his feet.
He dropped me unceremoniously to my feet. After a few wobbles I regained my balance. He pressed an insistent hand to my back, and I stepped inside, taking in the aged beauty of the space. Long ago it might have been a grand room, now faded with time.
The shadow cat that followed behind us wove between the beast’s feet. “If she is a guest, then you must invite her to dinner, master,” he chortled.
My stomach lurched at the mockery in its tone.
“Yes,” Mavros agreed, turning to face me. “You will be an obedient little thief and join me.” It was not a request, and I had no energy left to refuse. The door slammed behind me, rattling on its hinges with a chilling finality.
Alone again, I surveyed my surroundings. Dust motes danced in the strange nightly luminescence of the world streaming through the window, casting a glow over the room. The bed, though large and inviting, was draped in cobwebs, the sheets yellowed with age. A cold hearth yawned in the corner, long since abandoned.
I wrapped Mavros’s cloak tighter around me. The warmth was a paltry comfort to the desolation spreading like a disease in my blood. Exhaustion weighed heavily on my limbs. As I sank onto the edge of the bed, the wooden frame groaned in protest. I curled up on the dusty sheets and the scent of the beast prince’s cloak enveloped me, mingling with the lingering aroma of old wood and forgotten memories. My eyelids grew heavy, and I allowed them to close, seeking solace in the embrace of sleep.
I drifted into slumber, thoughts plagued by the past and the unknown future. The memory of Aradia’s transformation spell lingered, the bitter taste of betrayal tainting my dreams. I was no longer the creature of magic and grace I had been, but a mere mortal, vulnerable and fragile. Trapped with demons and monsters.
Despite the forlorn state of the room, there was a peculiar sense of peace here that reached the charred edges of my spirit. It was as if the walls, once witnesses to grandeur and life, now whispered forgotten stories in the silence. I wondered about the castle’s history, the lives it had sheltered, and the secrets it hid within its barely beating stone heart.
Was this once a land of man? Or had it always belonged to beasts?
Chapter 4
Domovoy had gotten it right for once.
It shouldn’t have been possible for anything to sneak into the garden—let alone to take from it. Yet she had. An utterly infuriating, headstrong female. A curious creature by all rights, with something ethereal about her. A light in the dark with her creamy skin, sapphire eyes, and platinum blue strands of hair down to her waist. Her narrow waist, the flare of her hips, the pink hue of her nipples…
My chest squeezed and my blood heated.
I needed answers.
I couldn’t believe it, even after seeing her with my own eyes. There hadn’t been a mortal, a human, in Infernus for ages. Not remembering how long a mortal slept, I needed to move quickly. The library was my first stop. I pulled down every known tome and text on the mortal world and the humans who inhabited it. Not much was knownabout humans except for the rare occasions they slipped through, and the dormant taint of my bloodline.
Ever the nuisance, Domovoy followed me into the expansive library. Towering shelves reached skyward, nearly brushing the domed glass ceiling. The cat merged and drifted from shadow to shadow, flaming eyes bobbing in the darkness. For the most part, I ignored him as I brushed my hand along gilt spines.
“A creature with no name.” The cat materialized on a shelf near eye-level, lying on his back with his front paws stretching out. He rolled over and the candles on his head sparked. “A complete oddity, sire.”
“Indeed,” I grumbled back. After blowing dust off the covers, I tucked a few notebooks under my arm.
