Page 43 of Beauty Reborn
My stomach clenched.
Was it Stephan, burning a forest to reach me?
Or was my family in danger?
We watched without words as the smoke climbed higher.
The festival music was fresh on my mind, and with it, all the merry memories I’d forgotten existed. My chest ached for an evening at home in a cramped cottage, shoulder to shoulder with my family. If it wasn’t too late. If they hadn’t forgotten me. If they weren’t lost.
I looked at Beast. His eyes were already on me.
“I understand,” he whispered.
How did he know the things I didn’t even speak?
“I can’t hide forever,” I said.
“No,” he agreed, looking away. “A heart like yours has to know.”
The darkness deepened around us. Every castle window spilled welcoming light, beckoning me back to my safety, my escape. But if I turned away now, I would never turn back.
“The woods aren’t safe,” Beast said.
He took my hand and pressed a gold ring into my palm. It matched the ring that had first brought me to the castle.
“Turn it three times to be home.” He closed my fingers over it. His hand lingered.
“The same to return?” I asked.
“Should you wish to return.”
“Of course!” I swallowed. “Of course.”
But he wouldn’t meet my eyes. He lowered his hand, stepped back.
With nothing else to do, I slid the ring onto my thumb. It was heavier than I expected. I bit my lip.
“You’re captain while I’m gone, Andre.”
I could hardly see him in the dark now, just a looming shadow almost out of arm’s reach.
“I’ll try not to sink it,” he said, but there was no amusement in his voice. Only the same weight I felt on my hand.
I pinched the ring between my thumb and pointer finger, but then I froze.
My first instinct was not to turn it but to remove it. My escape had never been safer, never been more comfortable. I couldn’t leave.
But that was just it, wasn’t it? All that selfishness. If I didn’t find my way out, I would drown in it, and I would take Beast with me.
“Beauty”—his voice cracked—“will you marry me?”
My breath caught.
He’d never asked twice in a day before.
Perhaps the enchantment pressed him harder because I was leaving.
“I can’t.” My old response. I could not bring myself to add whimsy this time.
