Page 37 of Beast and Remedy (The Last of the Heirs #2)

It is a good and bad thing. Because I need more guidance, more information, more something to help Marian.

It burrows deep in my chest as the days drag on, the anger of no progress driving me to a breaking point. My white-knuckled fists do nothing to help the tension growing in my head, the searing pain blooming behind my eyelids. The lack of sleep and food worsens everything.

“Vi?” Jules calls, pulling me from my dazed reverie.

“What?” I snap, harsh enough for everyone’s conversations to halt.

My friend studies me cautiously, and I rub my face, trying to breathe out the frustration in my heart at my own misgivings. It’s not any of their faults, and yet here I am, unleashing my fury.

“Sorry.”

My half-assed attempt at cooling off my temper makes the apology sound forced.

Dusk shimmers near the edges of the windows in the library, the horizon a reminder of another day wasted. The sign curls again in my head and stirs my magic to a boiling point in my core.

Realization dawns, and I flick my gaze to Marian, already hurrying to my side. “Vi, I think it’s—”

“I know,” I grind out, hating the lack of preparation on my end for another shift.

“What? What is it?” Christine asks, standing from the seating area she shared with Marcel to approach.

I lift a hand. “Don’t!” I sneer, not wanting anyone to be concerned, let alone see me in this state.

Everyone eyes me warily as Marian wraps an arm around my elbow, my heart speeding up for the impending transition. Panic surges up my throat as I realize I did not come up with a single tonic or medicine to try.

Sweet Makers, this is going to fucking hurt.

Fear crawls out my throat, heavy in my words, as I lean into Marian. “I-I didn’t make anything.”

She swallows. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Beau asks, his smooth voice laced with worry and compassion.

I close my eyes as his offered tenderness seeks to envelop me and bite my lip, smothering my emotions. “I’m a little under the weather. Marian is going to help me to my rooms.”

Beau cannot see Marian’s arched brow, nor my squeeze for her to go with it.

“ Please , I can’t let them see me again,” I whisper.

Beau says, “Surely, one of us can help escort you, or I can heal—”

“Save your energy,” Marian rushes out as she peers over her shoulder. “We know our own home.”

Her attitude matches mine, and it’s enough. Marian grips my forearm as a growl vibrates low in my sternum. The magic thrums, a beat increasing my heart rate and altering my breathing.

I fasten my hold on my sister, and the two of us scurry from the library. The doors close behind us, and Marian asks, “What do you need?”

“There’s no time,” I tell her, veering us toward the back entrance of the castle. “It’s coming faster than I anticipated.”

A spasm explodes in my calf, and I hiss, my knees buckling and pitching us forward.

“Whoa,” Marian grunts. “Try to keep it together.”

“I can’t control it,” I grit under my breath as she takes on more of my weight. “Am I hurting you? Is this doing anything to your—”

“I’m fine , Vi.”

But the venom in her voice doesn’t make me feel much better.

We barely pass through the clearing and make it a few steps into the plains surrounding the perimeter of our home—

POP !

My wrist snaps out of place.

I gasp and muffle my scream. I can’t cause a scene, and I don’t want to alert any of the nearby guards.

“We’re almost there. Come on,” Marian reassures me as I stumble when my hip moves from its socket.

I yelp, tears stinging my eyes as agony explodes up my arm, and the edges of my vision turn black from the fiery heat coursing down my thigh.

“I can’t,” I pant through pained breaths. “I can’t go through this.”

Tremors rack through me as Marian refuses to leave my side, dragging me into Haliver Woods.

“You can, Vi. And I’ll be with you.”

I shake my head, not wanting her to see it. “No, you can’t! The wolves—”

“I’m already infected!” she snaps, her eyes lit with fury and resentment.

I shrink, the fault being mine.

Marian rolls her eyes as she braces me against a tree, holding my shoulders and forcing me to look at her. “I don’t blame you. But you can’t keep me from helping you through this.”

I sigh. “Marian—”

“You don’t have anything to help you!” She shakes me in place, and it triggers my magic, careening down my leg and breaking one of my bones.

I cry out, pinching my eyes shut and slumping to the forest’s floor.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Marian lowers. “Vi, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I don’t know what came over me. I was so mad you were—”

“You need to get away from me,” I warn. “I don’t want to hurt you. Not like last time.”

Memories flash of the second time I shifted after Mama’s death. Marian stood beside me, wanting to help me through the transition, and my half-turned paw lashed out and almost struck her. Since then, I’ve refused to let her or anyone near me when I transform.

But determination sweeps across my sister’s gaze. “This time is going to be different. I’ll be careful.”

“I don’t want you getting hurt!” I snarl, another growl vibrating in my chest and stealing my breath as my ribs pop.

Exhaustion dances across my limbs as the ground becomes the only thing I can hold on to.

My muscles spasm. My veins throb. My power thrashes .

Another pang shoots up my spine from my broken leg, and I scream, throwing my head back. My outburst echoes, drowning out the world and reverberating in my mind.

Marian grasps my hand, squeezing it twice in pulses as the shift grows.

More jarring.

More grueling.

More agonizing .

“I’ve accepted your demands for years, but no more. I’m going to help you through this,” she vows in a reverent whisper, and tears fall down my cheeks.

I sniff, trying to agree—

CRACK !

The hand she holds shoots upward and twitches, shattering and hanging at an awkward angle.

A bloodcurdling roar leaves me. “ Step back !”

Marian’s eyes widen, her face grave and pale as she blessedly listens.

I painfully contort my body as best I can to be on all fours, the torturous magic not comforting me but breaking me apart. Taking everything human about myself and turning me into a monster.

A beast who can’t do fucking anything to help her people or her kingdom.

I bellow and slump forward as I’m yanked in different directions, the pain scalding along my spine as my clothing shreds apart and fur stretches forth.

“Breathe, Vi,” Marian whispers. “You’re not alone. You’re okay.”

My other hip dislodges, the bone altering and growing.

I hiss, gritting my teeth as hard as I can, not caring if I break my own jaw.

At least I would have done that by my own choice and strength, not by this force of nature.

This force of magic.

“You’re strong. You’re smart. You’re brave,” my sister recounts. “You can do this. Like you’ve always done this. Keep breathing, Vi. Keep breathing.”

Her words of compassion ground me more than I expect, but the bear inside me vibrates a territorial warning.

“Go, Marian. Now !” I command, flashing my teeth.

Whatever she sees must be terrifying enough for her to fumble upright. But she doesn’t run. She doesn’t leave. Rather, she breathes carefully and watches me.

“You can control it. You just have to try.”

“I am trying !” I growl under my breath. “You need to go.”

My toes cave into my body as the claws poke through the edges of my skin. I fight to warn her one more time, but the small amount of control I grip onto frays away with my humanity.

“Please, go. You’ll only make me angrier in my bear form if you stay.”

My neck cranks, tearing my eyes away from my twin. The cracks ripple, the searing pain steering me past the breaking point.

The fissures traveling around my skull are the last thing I feel as my true self.

The moon takes over the night sky.

The crickets chime louder than the hooting owls.

And I look back to where my sister was seen last to see she heeded my word.