Beast (27 page)

I looked down to the floor.

“So does that mean that the vision I saw of my brother at the shipping docks was true?” she shouted, firmly placing her hands on the table.

“Yes, my darling,” I replied, still looking at the floor.

“And that he is coming home to Eglantina?” She looked out the window.

“Yes, he is, my beauty,” I said, knowing that she was not really listening.

“But that also means that he is very ill while he journeys through the Dark Forest!” She looked back at me.

“Yes, unfortunately, he is, my love.”

A look of worry came over her face; her eyes filled with tears on the verge of spilling over. My heart sank into my stomach; I had a feeling that what I had been dreading the whole time was about to come true.

She began to panic and mumble to herself about her family. I could tell that there were millions of things running through her mind. Her eyes moved rapidly around the room. It was a lot of information to take in at once.

After sitting there for a little bit of time, she shot up from her chair, looked at me, and then ran for the hall. I jumped up and followed her as she ran through the castle. Once at her room, she ran inside but did not close the door, so I ran in after her.

“Mirabelle, are you okay?” I asked her as I put my hands on her shoulders.

She began to weep, so I put my arms around her.

“No, I am not, Beast! My family—they need to know that Lanelin is coming home and that he is very sick,” she cried, throwing herself against me.

Her breath was rapid and shaky as she attempted to understand the situation at hand.

She looked up into my eyes. All I saw was sorrow and pain and hopelessness in her beautiful grey eyes. I felt a sharp pain in the pit of my stomach and an ache in my heart.

“Mirabelle,” I said as I placed my hands on her shoulders, gazing into her eyes, “I am letting you leave. Your family needs you. You are free to go home to them,” I said, trying to hide the pain I was feeling.

In that moment, my heart was breaking.

“Are you serious? You are letting me go?” she said with confusion and hope.

“Yes, I am. But before you go, I would like to give you something. I will be right back.”

I ran to my room and grabbed a rose to give to her. As soon as I had it in my hands, I took off back to Mirabelle, telling the Invisibles to saddle up Majestueux.

She was packing her things when I came back into the room. I could tell that she was very frantic and distraught.

“Mirabelle?” I called out to her.

“Yes, Beast?” she franticly responded as she turned toward me.

“I want to give you this.” I handed her the rose.

She glanced at the rose and then at me with a bewildered look in her eyes; her cheeks were damp from the tears.

“Every time you look at this rose, think of me. Think about your time here, about your hard work in the rose bed, about our dinners, about our time in the library, about the night in the ballroom, and, most importantly, about me and my love for you,” I explained.

She took the rose out of my hand while a tear rolled down her cheek.

“And if you ever want to come back here, bring this rose with you. As long as it is alive, you will always find your way back to me,” I said, beginning to choke on my tears.

She nodded, though I did not think she would ever want to see me again.

“There is one thing that I need to ask of you before you leave,” I said, almost in a whisper.

“For what you are doing for me, you can ask me anything,” she said, looking up from the rose for a moment.

I shut my eyes before taking a deep breath.

While I knew what her answer was going to be, I had to ask, because I would probably never see her again.

“Mirabelle, will you please marry me, my love?” I finally asked.

“I am sorry, Beast. I need to go.”

Mirabelle grabbed her things in one hand and the rose in the other and then took off running toward the barn.

I ran after her to see her as long as I could. As I stood at the big wooden doors, she mounted Majestueux. Tears filled my eyes, and my jaw began to quiver as Mirabelle galloped on her horse out of the castle’s walls.

When I could see her no more, I fell to the ground and wept. Nausea came over me, and my head and heart began to ache from the tears.

Chapter 17

T
he castle was not the same after she left. There was no one to share a meal with, to play my piano for, or to just have a conversation. While I had Buttons constantly at my beck and call, I was still very lonely. I was losing someone all over again; I was not sure if I could take it.

Mirabelle had become such a big part of the castle that it felt as if something were missing. It seemed darker and quieter. There was also a difference in me; I felt as if I were moving more slowly. I was becoming more tired as the nights dragged on.

Almost every day, even though it was out of the way, I walked by her bedroom and stared at the door. Also, I spent a lot of my time in the library, looking at the Rose House.

The morning after Mirabelle left, I was sitting in my chair in the library with Buttons lying on me. While I was closing my eyes to yawn, a vision came to me.

I was outside of the Rose House early in the morning. As I stood eyeing the house, I heard twigs snapping behind me, to the left. I turned around to see what it was.

Mirabelle was on Majestueux, making her way over to the house. The second my eyes landed on her, my stomach knotted up, my whole body began to ache, and tears filled my eyes.

She jumped off the horse and then walked him to his stall. After she finished, Mirabelle walked softly, trying not to make any noise. She did not want to wake her family up.

Standing at the door, she looked down at her left hand, which held the rose. Taking a deep breath, she turned the knob and pushed the door open.

I quickly followed her into the house. She set her things on the table, grabbed a vase, and put the rose in some water. Afterward, she walked over to the fireplace and set the vase on the mantel.

The floor creaked under her feet as she walked, which caused her father to wake up. The sound of his door opening made her turn around.

“Mirabelle!” He gasped. He ran to her and wrapped his arms tightly around her, weeping uncontrollably.

“Evaline, Nadine, come down here—hurry!”

He was so excited to see her; he kissed her cheeks as he cried.

“Papa, the sun has barely risen!” Evaline shouted back. “What on earth is so important that we needed to wake up this early?”

“Just come down!” he shouted with a shaking voice.

They made their way down the ladder one by one, and their faces lit up with joy and relief when they saw Mirabelle. They both ran over to her, weeping with joy.

Look what you were able to do; you brought a family back together,
I told myself.

While I tried to justify what I had done as the right thing, my heart just would not listen. I stood there and watched their joyful reunion, just to see her beautiful face.

“Mirabelle! What are you doing here?” Evaline asked after they hugged.

“Well, Beast let me leave—” she began.

“That horrid creature just let you leave? Are you sure that you did not escape?” Nadine interrupted.

“No, he let me leave.” Mirabelle shook her head.

They walked Mirabelle to the couch, where she sat with all three of them crowded around her, asking question after question.

“I do not believe that he would allow you to leave; he seemed to have no heart!” Reynard said.

“So what made him change that beast of a mind?” Evaline asked rudely.

I knew that Reynard and Evaline had every right to think of me that way.

“Well, there is something that I need to tell everyone before I answer any more questions. You see, while I was there, I had many dreams,” she began.

“What were the dreams about?” Reynard asked.

“A lot of the time, they were of you.” She looked at Evaline, Nadine, and her papa. “While I thought that they were only dreams, last night I was told differently. Beast told me that these dreams were actually visions. This meant that what I saw was actually happening or going to happen. Remember how you said that you felt as if someone were watching us awhile back, Nadine?”

“Yes, I do,” she replied.

“Well, you were right. Beast had visions of our house. Not only had he been in our home during his visions, but there was a painting of our house on the wall in his library!”

“Oh my goodness,” they said in unison.

“Was he stalking you?” Evaline asked with disgust.

“No, he was not. He said that the painting had been there for over two hundred years. But back to the point,” Mirabelle said, shaking her head. “Before I knew that these dreams were actually visions, I had dreams about Lanelin.”

“What were the dreams about?” Nadine grabbed Mirabelle’s hand.

“In the first one that I remember, he was in the city, on the boat that he captained. He was talking with Mr. Prideaux about what happened that made us leave. Also, he told Lanelin where we were and took him to see Leggett and Coty so that they could guide him here.”

“So Lanelin is coming here. Is that what you are trying to tell us?” Nadine shrieked.

“Yes, but there is more to it than just that,” Mirabelle explained.

“That does not sound like it is good news,” Reynard said softly.

“You see, the night that I left, I had another vision about him.” She looked down at Nadine’s hand in her lap. “He was indeed on his way here with Leggett and Coty. But …”

Nadine looked extremely worried about her husband. I could see that her eyes were preparing for bad news, because they began to water.

“He is really sick. Lanelin was hunched over on the horse, coughing horribly. Also, he had a blanket or something similar around him, though he was still shivering. He looked like he was in pain.” Mirabelle turned to Nadine.

“This is why Beast allowed me to leave. Beast knew how important our family is to me. In fact, I did not ask to leave; he told me I could leave because of Lanelin.” She attempted to smile a little.

The vision began to fade, and my heart sank into my stomach. My discomfort was not because I missed Mirabelle or disliked that she had left; I was concerned for the health of her brother.

After the vision disappeared, I walked down to her bedroom. Nothing could shake the overwhelmed feeling I had.

My mind was running one hundred miles an hour. I was not sure why I walked to her room. Maybe I thought that I would find her sitting on her bed—but I knew that I would not.

Once at her door, I asked the Invisibles to open it. As it creaked open, the sun shone through the drapes covering the windows, creating the illusion of a woman’s shadow. My eyes filled with tears, which ran down my cheeks as I walked to her bed.

Her bed looked so bare, but I sat down on it. Once all my weight was on her bed, I realized that I was sitting on top of something. I jumped off of the bed and looked around to see what it was.

As I looked closer, I saw something shiny and picked it up. In my hands was the rose necklace that Mirabelle’s mother had given her before she passed away.

Has she realized that she is missing it?
This necklace was so important to her; I could not believe that she had forgotten it. She had remembered to take the rose brooch I gave to her.

I started thinking that maybe she would come back for it; at least, I hoped that she would. But I knew that the odds of her ever coming back were slim to none. Why would she come when she was not threatened, as she had been the first time? I almost wished that I had never said anything to her father when he grabbed the rose. If I had known that it was going to end in heartbreak, I might not have.

Taking the necklace with me, I walked to my bedroom. I decided to place it by the vase of roses. As the door opened, the roses drew me in. I walked slowly toward them and placed the necklace on the nightstand.

When I was as close as I could possibly be to the roses, I felt the earth shake under my feet. I was thrown onto my bed, which almost caused me to hit my head on the wall. Fog began to roll into my room.
What is going on?

Then, over by the door, a figure appeared. My eyes widened when I realized what it was; it was the same horrid creature that had killed my parents and placed this curse on me!

“What are you doing here? Have you not caused enough problems already?” I roared.

The creature began to laugh at me. It was the creepiest laugh my ears had ever heard.

“Oh, look at you, attempting to stand up to me. Ha!” he said in his language, which I was somehow able to understand.

“What do you want from me? You killed my parents and caused me to change into a beast,” I yelled as it began to walk toward me. “Why did you do this?”

“Ha ha ha. Everyone had heard the legend of the creature living in the woods, even your parents. The forest is my territory at night. Anyone who journeys through it after midnight must deal with me!