Page 39 of The Beast King's Bride

10

ASH

“Tell me about these animals,” I urge Jassin as he unerringly leads me through the maze back to my room. “What sort of animals are they? How do they get inside the palace? Are they… snakes slithering through holes in the walls?”

I shudder.

“You’re afraid of snakes?” he asks, surprise coloring his voice.

“Why, aren’t you?”

He chuckles. “There’s much worse than snakes to be afraid of in Faerie, Ash.”

“Monsters?” I whisper.

“Yes. Depending on how you define them.”

“There you go, being cryptic again. What I wouldn’t give for a straight-speaking human.”

“Are all of you so perfect? I thought humans lied.”

“We do. We lie, we cheat, we hurt each other. But then it seems so do you, in different ways. Curses, blights, magic, and monsters.”

Jassin says nothing, his fingers wrapped around my wrist, hauling me along at his pace.

“Why would the king think I can lift his curse?” I mutter as we enter a corridor I recognize.

“The riddle says so.”

“I’m sure there are more women in the world who’d fit such a vague riddle. This must be a mistake.”

“There’s no time to find another,” he hisses, bringing me to my door. “The riddle fits you, therefore you fit the riddle.”

“So it could have been any woman. As if it’s a shoe or a coat, as long as it fits.”

“All that matters is that you help us,” he says, exasperation in his voice, “why can’t you see that?”

“You can’t make soup with just anything,” I say as he yanks the door open and pulls me inside. “You can’t put stones instead of parsnips, can’t use wood instead of meat, even if the recipe calls for a chunk of something brown. I can’t lift your curse!”

“This isn’t about soup,” he says indignantly. “It’s about all our lives.”

“So what will do with me? Sacrifice me? Kill me? What will appease your empress? Why steal a human girl? Why not one of you?”

“Prop a chair against the door after I’ve left you,” he says as if he hasn’t heard me. “And don’t open, no matter what you hear.”

But what would entice me to open the door? Are the monsters some kind of sirens singing enticing songs? “Jassin…”

“Stay inside,” he says and closes the door behind him, the key turning.

Locked inside again.

But I haven’t promised that I’ll do as I’m told…

The king won’t let me go, that much is clear. He really thinks I can help with this Decay issue. Doesn’t seem to understand that I lack any sort of magic, whether my father was Fae or human.

If everyone is locked up, cowering in their rooms, the king included, it’s my chance to get out.

I examine the table, the closet, and then the drawers of the commode by the window for anything I can use to open the door.

---