Page 16

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

BELLE

I adjusted a stitch along the hem of the wedding gown, which was difficult because my hands were trembling. The dress, once a symbol of my ambition and dreams, now was a cruel mockery of everything I’d wanted. My fingers knotted into the delicate fabric as I thought of Adom’s words.

The curse. The moon. The lives depending on vows I couldn’t fulfill. My heart pounded, each beat a reminder of the weight crushing my chest.

I rose, pacing the room. My feet ached from the long day spent in uncomfortable shoes that I couldn't fill. Charlotte's feet were smaller than mine. Despite my magic giving me space in the shoes, my toes still came away cramped. The physical discomfort was nothing compared to the storm raging inside me.

My mind replayed every moment since I’d met him. Adom, with his broad shoulders and those golden eyes that saw me—not the veil, not the deception, but me. He’d been so hopeful, so certain, and all I could think was I’m not her. I’m not the fairy princess he needs to break this curse. I’m not his salvation .

I'm nothing.

But he'd looked at me like I was everything. And I wanted that. I wanted to be that to him for the rest of my life.

I stopped pacing and looked at the dress again. The gold thread shimmered like the moon he was cursed by, mocking me with its beauty. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t stand at his side, knowing I would doom him further. That I might even make it worse for the fairies back in Evergrove.

The Lioness Queen was right; love was a punishment, a curse.

I yanked the dress from the table, tossing it onto the floor in a heap. A few of the delicate beads came undone and scattered across the wood. The sound felt like something inside me had broken, too. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to hold it together, but it was no use. Tears slid down my cheeks, hot and unrelenting.

No one would see the gown now. I didn’t care anymore.

A sound came from the window. It was a soft scraping, almost like claws against glass. My tears halted as fear jolted through me.

What was it at my window now? Trolls? Jorge? I couldn’t decide which possibility sent a colder chill down my spine.

Adom was away, tending to his duties. We wouldn't see each other until the eclipse. There was the old human superstition that he wasn’t supposed to see the bride before the wedding. Bad luck, they said. As if luck had ever been on our side.

My gaze caught the sharp edges of the scissors on the nightstand. I snatched them up, clutching them tightly as I moved toward the window. I held the scissors out like a dagger, ready to defend myself.

The window creaked open. I tensed, raising the scissors higher. A figure climbed through, and I prepared to fight.

“Belle, it’s me.”

“Charlotte?”

The fairy princess tumbled through the window in a clatter of limbs and fabric, her entrance the furthest thing from regal. Her tattered cloak caught on the frame. She kicked herself free, landing with an unceremonious thud on the floor. Then she sat there, her chest heaving as she caught her breath.

“Charlotte?”

She began brushing herself off as though surprised dirt could possibly cling to royalty. Even covered in dust and wearing flat shoes—flat shoes!—she somehow managed to exude the aura of a princess. I didn’t even know fairies could wear shoes without heels, not with our notoriously high insteps. Yet here she was, flat-footed in a torn cloak and streaked with grime.

“I need your help.”

"You…" I pointed at her. "…need my…" I pointed at myself. "…help?"

I stared at her, my mind catching up with her sudden reappearance. And then, all the emotions I’d been bottling up since she fled over the wall erupted.

“You need my help! You ran away. You left me to marry the prince.”

“I never told you to marry the prince. That was your decision.”

“Your decision left me with no choice. Your mother shoved a veil over my head and told me to go to him because you were gone. What was I supposed to do, say no to your mother?”

"I find it better to just say nothing at all and then run away." Charlotte climbed to her feet but not before seeing the wedding dress on the floor. She picked it up, eying it appreciatively. “The dress did come out nice.”

“Nice?” I echoed, my voice a low growl. “Nice!”

“We don’t have time for this.” Charlotte set the gown down and stepped forward with the regal impatience of someone used to being obeyed. “I need your help. It's about Jorge.”

“Jorge? The human who tried to kidnap me?”

“He thought he was kidnapping me, not you. But it doesn’t matter now. He’s in trouble, and you're the only one who can get him out.”

I gaped at her, disbelief coursing through me. “You think I’m going to help you? After everything you’ve done?”

“Yes,” she said simply, her chin lifting in defiance. “You have to.”

I laughed bitterly, crossing my arms over my chest. “I don’t have to do anything. You can’t order me around anymore, Charlotte. I’m not your servant.”

"You’re not a princess, either.”

“No, I’m nearly a queen.”

We stood there, staring each other down. The tension crackled. Neither of us was willing to back down.

Charlotte’s gaze was the first to soften. Her hands fell to her sides. “Please, Belle. If you don’t help me, Jorge will die.”

There was desperation in her eyes. Over the past couple of days, all eyes had been on me. Queen Indira's glare, cold and calculating as she had demanded my help without a care for the cost to me. The Lioness Queen's gaze, void and detached, weighing whether I would break the curse that held her son in its grip. Adom's eyes, tender and hopeful, that I might possibly want his clawed hands and his boundless love.

All I cared about was Adom's wants. The cruel truth was that I couldn't give him what he needed. Not what he wanted most in the world.

"I'll help you." I forced the words out, each syllable like a knife in my chest. “On one condition.”