Page 25

EPILOGUE

JORGE

T he shackles weighed heavily on my wrists, biting into the raw skin beneath. Every jolt of the carriage sent a fresh wave of pain up my arms and across my back. My body screamed in protest. I bit down on the agony. Pain was an old friend. It had walked beside me in the games, in the barracks, and now in the rattling dark of this cursed wagon.

The carriage ground to a halt, the wooden wheels creaking against the gravel road. My ears perked at the sound of another set of wheels coming to rest nearby. Through the small, barred window, I caught a glimpse of the royal crest embossed on a carriage gilded in gold. My stomach twisted as I prepared to face the nemesis that had somehow become one of my best friends. One of two friends I'd collected in my life.

I imagined Adom’s claws around my throat as he stalked out of his carriage. I'd seen his rage on the battlefield. Now it would be directed at me and rightfully so. I had already proven that I would kill for her.

But when the door to the royal carriage swung open, it wasn’t Adom who descended.

At the Lioness Queen's direction, the doors to my cage were opened. The guards reached in and dragged Belle’s limp body from the carriage like a sack of flour. The sight of her—so small, so still—clenched something deep in my chest. She looked so much like Charlotte. Neither of them had done anything to deserve this.

“Take her inside,” the Lioness Queen ordered. Her voice was low and steady, the kind of tone that brooked no argument. The guards obeyed without hesitation, carrying Belle into the Summer Castle as though the weight of her body didn’t matter.

The Lioness turned, her golden eyes locking on me. I straightened as much as my bound frame would allow.

“You were his friend.”

Oh, she thought I’d betrayed her son. I was honestly surprised to consider that she might care for Adom at having seen the utter lack of affection she'd showed him the years I knew him. “I am his friend.”

“Yet you were going to steal his bride.”

Going to steal his bride? Because Adom and Charlotte were married now. Not that it would stop me from finding my way back to her. I'd clawed and fought my way to stand at the Beast Prince's side because I knew that on this day, she would have to come and stand next to him. I'd find my way to her again. No matter where she was. No matter how long it took to reach her.

“She is my world. My heart is hers to command. As long as she wants me, I’ll fight to get back to her.”

The Lioness Queen’s eyes narrowed, a flicker of something unreadable crossing her face. Before she could respond, another voice cut through the air like a hiss of venom.

“He won’t be fighting much longer.” The Fairy Queen appeared, her pale skin shimmering under the light of the two suns. Her eyes glinted with malice as she glared at me.

The Lioness Queen didn’t acknowledge Queen Indira immediately. She kept her gaze fixed on me. “You would betray your future king, your country, for that fairy?”

“Didn’t you do the same, Your Majesty, for a human?”

Her lips twitched in the ghost of a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I did. And we all suffered for it.” She finally turned to the Fairy Queen, her golden gaze like the sun itself. “It was a dangerous game you attempted to play. Attempted and lost. I pray she grants you a quick death. We should all be so lucky.”

The Lioness Queen, disappeared and the Fairy Queen filled my view. This woman was the reason for my current condition: the loss of my hand, the three-year separation from Charlotte, and my current, though temporary, incarceration.

“I wish I could kill you now and be done with it, but I have to return to Evergrove. A mother's work is never done.”

"You were never a mother to her. You were a madam."

Queen Indira snapped her fingers at the guards. “Make it slow." Her voice dripped with venom. "Make it agonizing. And leave the body for the trolls.”

The carriage lurched forward again, this time taking flight. The pegasuses’ wings beat heavily against the air, but I felt the uneven gait beneath us. Something was wrong. The carriage swayed unnaturally, the wheels clattering ever so often as if they scraped against an uneven track. We weren't going to get far, and when they landed, I'd be ready.

But ready for what? To go back to the capital and save Charlotte? Was I really saving her? What would life with me even look like? What did I have to offer a fairy princess who was now queen?

Adom wasn't a bad man, far from it. He was one of the best men I knew. He wouldn't love her, but he would take care of her.

That was the issue. Charlotte needed love. Deserved it. She had withered under her mother's poisonous care until I'd shown up in her barn twelve years ago. I couldn't stand by and watch her live an unhappy life. It just wasn't in me. So I would have to break out.

Read the breakout that happens in the near future,

the meeting in the barn that happened in the past,

and find out what's in store for the present for

Charlotte and Jorge in "Beautiful Blade."