Academia of the Beast: A Dark Retelling of Beauty and the Beast(15)

“I believe you,” she said, searching his eyes and only seeing truth.

“Something tells me we were supposed to meet. I can’t explain it, but I believe in fate. Don’t you?”

“I do,” Allyn said. She kept the hundreds of questions she had for him within. She didn’t want to ruin his promise. “Okay. We will meet again in the spring,” she said, a smile taking over her face. She hadn’t been so excited since she was told she could leave the convent on her eighteenth birthday.

“It’s settled. I will come for you when the winter ends,” he said, and Allyn realized that she finally had something good to look forward to.





CHAPTER 8


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CONALL RODE WITH Allyn back to Aude and Khia’s building, and she couldn’t have been more grateful. She wanted to prolong their time together for as long as possible. She saw within him a soul just as lost as she was. When he held her hand, she was at peace.

She smiled at him from her spot in the back seat of his car as the driver drove down the empty streets of the city. She was sure that she was dreaming and prayed that it would never end. She just needed to get through the winter without a hitch, and they could build on the bond they’d forged over the past few days.

They’d started something beautiful and wonderful.

What could go wrong?

“Conall,” Allyn called.

“Yes?”

“Do you remember kissing me in your tree house?”

He smiled at her and nodded. “Who could forget their first kiss?”

Allyn sat up, surprised. “Really? I was your first kiss?”

Chuckling, he shrugged. “We were ten. Had you kissed anyone before me?”

“No. I didn’t kiss anyone else until I met Byron. How sad is that? I was twenty-two,” she said with a laugh.

“It's not sad. It just goes to show how different you are from other women.”

“I am different,” Allyn whispered. “But it hasn’t won me any medals so far.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Conall said, reaching for her hand. “You have me now.”

Allyn held onto his hand, afraid that if she let go, he’d vanish.

Once the car parked before the Aude and Khia’ building, Conall stepped out of the car and into the snow storm.

“I’ve got it,” he said to the driver.

Allyn watched him walk around the front, unaffected by the torrents of snow. It was as if he didn’t even notice that the world was raging around him. He opened the door for her. She stepped out and together they went into the building. The doorman bowed, his eyes wide when he noticed that the imperial prince stood before him.

Wiping snow from her face and hair, Allyn looked to Conall who stood there with his hands in his pockets. She could tell that he didn’t want to leave her.

Why did he have to go? Why couldn’t he just take her back to his castle?

She bit her tongue and kept her questions to herself.

“Thank you for walking me in,” she said, and before she could say anything more, Conall wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her.

His kiss was soft, sweet, but there was a desperation there that broke her heart.

“Don’t go,” she whispered before she could stop herself.

Conall pulled away, his face flushed. Her heart raced as he stared at her, such conflict in his eyes that it scared her.

“I have to,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Allyn. Wait for me.”

With that, he left.

Despite the heat inside the building, Allyn felt cold.

Alone.

She ran to the glass walls and pressed her hands to the glass as she watched the car pull away.

Why did she always lose whatever good came into her life? She remembered being disappointed when she and her father left the palace years ago.

This was worst. Her stomach muscles were clenched with anxiety for watching him leave.

“I’ll wait,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “I promise.”



CONALL WASN’T SURE why leaving her was so difficult, but a pain in his heart nagged him the entire ride back to his castle. Thoughts of her sweet smile and even sweeter kiss haunted him as they drove through the woods with trees that stretched high into the gray sky.

Conall needed something good in his life, and seeing the girl he’d met as a child was a beacon of hope that things might get better.

He just had to make it through winter.

He hadn’t planned on actually connecting with a woman right after breaking up with Hannah, but that’s exactly what happened with Allyn. There was something about her that made him comfortable around her to the point where he knew that if they spent more time together, he’d actually open up.

That was scary, but that’s what he’d been searching for his entire life. For as long as Conall could remember, he’d been a private person. He never revealed his true feelings to anyone, except his mother. When she died, so did his hope to find another woman to love him.

Edan called and Conall answered via his implanted device. “Are the preparations made?”

“Yes,” Edan said. “Everything is set up. I made sure that the guards are prepared to look over the castle once you leave.”