A Tale of Beauty and Beast: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast (Beyond the Four Kingdoms #2)(6)

The emptiness around me reverberated in my mind. I froze and called out again. Lily? Lily!

Still nothing. My heart, which had already been beating fast, sped up. For a moment panic overwhelmed me, and I screamed her name over and over again in my mind. Lily! Lily! Lily!

Horrible possibilities streamed through my mind. She had fallen from her horse and been killed. Cole had found and murdered her in an act of revenge.

I tried to stem the panic. My twin could not have died without my sensing it. We were too connected for that, I felt sure of it. You couldn’t lose half of yourself without knowing about it.

Perhaps she was simply busy, and unable to respond. But that thought brought no comfort. If Lily were distracted or asleep, she might not answer, but I would still sense her presence at the end of my projection, as I had done earlier. I could even wake her, if I needed, as she had done to me in the carriage. I tried to remember the last time I had spoken to her and couldn’t pinpoint it.

We had never found a physical limitation to our communication, but we had never been so far apart before. Perhaps the distance was simply too vast. I tried again, more calmly this time, paying attention to my projection. My silent words flew out, projecting away from me in a way my ordinary thoughts did not.

I expected them to fade out, overwhelmed by distance, but the sensation more closely resembled slamming into a wall. I had been too shocked and panicked to notice it earlier, but it felt unmistakable now. My knees gave out, and I sank into a soft armchair pulled up to the fire.

I was on my own. Truly on my own. Uncontrollable shivers shook me. Lily and I had been connected since before I could remember. I had never really been alone before. Fear rushed over me, roiling in my belly and clouding my mind.

My connection to the outside world was gone, along with my main source of companionship. What if something did happen to Lily? Would I sense it behind this strange mental wall? I had found courage to face the Beast because I knew I would carry my sister with me. But he had stripped even that away from me.

Anger and hatred welled inside me, burning back some of the fear. Was there anything I was not expected to sacrifice?

A soft sound from the other side of the entryway made me leap to my feet. The light of the fire beside me faded into dimness on the other side of the room, but enough light remained for me to glimpse movement.

I drew back, the fear returning to the fore. Then I stiffened my spine and fed the anger, driving back the terror. “Who’s there?” I called loudly. “Show yourself.”

The dark figure hesitated and then stepped forward toward me.

I gasped and moved to place the armchair between us. Prince Dominic, for surely it must be he, towered above me. He wore no circlet or crown, but he carried himself like someone used to wielding power and authority.

His broad shoulders barely fit into his jacket, the material bunching strangely around their unnatural shape. His light brown hair reached to his shoulders, matted and wild, and the backs of his hands, the only bit of skin I could see other than his face, looked abnormally hairy.

His mouth and jaw seemed to sit oddly, but otherwise his face looked surprisingly human, more so than I had expected and feared. The relief soothed some of my initial shock. Perhaps I had been unnecessarily apprehensive, the strangeness of the castle and his furtive arrival exacerbating my nerves.

I tried to focus on his eyes, which were a strangely piercing blue, and were the most normal looking part of him. In fact, I thought I detected hesitation and uncertainty in them. And if he felt nervous, even a little, it meant I had some power in this situation, too.

I forced myself to step around the armchair again and drop into a curtsey. I waited for him to speak, but he said nothing, simply measuring me with those bright eyes. Anger, fear, frustration, and resentment swirled through me in such a confused mess that I began to feel numb to all of them. He had brought me all this way alone; did he truly have nothing to say?

I broke the silence. “Greetings. I am Princess Sophia of Arcadia. I assume you are Prince Dominic, my betrothed.”

He inclined his upper body slightly in acknowledgment but still said nothing, too haughty or sullen to speak. I reached out to Lily in my mind, knowing she would share my outrage. The emptiness in my mind hit me again, and I nearly collapsed. A single tear managed to escape my eye.

I glanced back at my betrothed, and saw that his gaze had fixed on my face where the drop of moisture still rolled down my cheek. How dare he stand there and judge me. I snapped.

“They call you the Beast, but I had hoped some part of the royal prince remained,” I spat at him. “I see now that I was wrong. They told me your kingdom was once the largest and most magnificent in these lands. How far noble Palinar has fallen.”

An expression that I couldn’t read passed across his face. And then he opened his mouth, and I saw why his jaw looked misshapen. Inside he had a row of fangs instead of normal teeth. They glistened in the firelight as a low menacing growl rippled through the room.

I stumbled backwards and hit the chair, my own mouth dropping open in horror. He stepped toward me, and I rushed to put the piece of furniture between us again. I couldn’t imagine the chair would prove much of an impediment to him, but something about my action angered him. He threw back his head and roared.

The deafening sound filled the entryway, and the last of my courage disappeared. I turned and fled, pushing through the first door I found. I ran through stone passageways, noticing nothing of my surroundings, all my attention focused on listening for sounds of pursuit.