Page 11

Annalise

“ A gh!” I cry out as I’m thrown to the dirt again, tears burning my eyes from the pain. The sword that I held flies several feet away, landing in the dirt as I try to quickly get up to defend myself from the follow-up attack that I know is coming. The second I stand, Elias is throwing his fist at my face. I hold my hand up out of reaction, pain exploding up my arm from his contact. The bone cracks instantly, and I am once again thrown off my feet.

I cry out, crashing into the nearest tree trunk, the air forced from my lungs. I sag against the tree, beginning to find it impossible to breathe as I look up through blurred vision to see Elias standing over me with an irritated expression. Before I can speak, I cough, choking on the blood that comes up from the impact of the tree.

“You’re hopeless,” Elias says above me.

My eyes widen as a feeling of deja vu washes over me.

It’s the white-haired beast. He kneels, taking my hand in his as he studies it. It’s broken, and he knows it somehow.

“I’ve memorized your body. I know when something is out of place.”

A panicked shriek leaves my lips as Elias’s touch pulls me out of my vision. Pain explodes up my arm as Elias pulls on it, eyeing my injuries.

“Quiet. Unless you want to heal on your own,” he says, gesturing to the healer he placed on standby. The beast scurries over quickly, placing her hands on my arm to begin healing. The warmth is comforting, and my arm tingles slightly as the bone reforms.

We’ve been traveling for a few days in the land that is my home. Elias has been very cautious in his movement, making camp near the caves of a coast I am unfamiliar with. It could be any of the five coasts on the map. Elias made sure to keep me chained up below deck on the trip over, so I have no bearings.

Elias was clever with his travel. Each day, more of his men make landfall in different locations as he goes out of his way not to alert whoever is the king of this land. And though he’s kept his overall plans a secret, he has been very vocal about my role in all of it. He is confident that I can help him defeat the king of this land.

But if the beasts of this world are anything like the white-haired beast who single-handedly took out my home, I can’t help but wonder if Elias is that confident or misinformed.

It feels like the more I uncover my past, the more questions arise. I thought that once I figured out the cause of my memory loss, I would be able to recover things faster, but it has only added a thicker shroud to it all. It takes every ounce of strength I have to remain sane on the outside. The world I knew is gone, but I don’t know how long it’s been since. Dimitri is nowhere to be found, and I have no idea why. And the white-haired beast from whom we escaped has been in my nightmares as a very prominent part of my life.

My mind is quite literally all over the place, and I have no one can confirm anything for me. Elias would cut my throat and throw me into the ocean before he would ever let me set foot in my homeland with even a piece of my memory intact. It’s becoming harder and harder to keep it a secret from him. And my memories don’t tell me if my plans for escape are possible. If anything, they make it feel much further away.

“There. She’s all set, Your Majesty.” I eye the beast healer as she moves away from us, eager to return to her place on the sidelines as she watches me get pummeled over and over again. I’m not sure how much more of this my body can take. Even now, as she just healed my broken arm, the ache still lingers. I’m beginning to wonder how effective her healing truly is, as she wasn’t even able to heal me from Elias’s original attack fully.

“Get up. We’re going again,” Elias says, pulling me out of my thoughts. I slowly rise, watching him carefully as I do.

“You have been training me ruthlessly for weeks. I can hold my own against your men, but how can you expect me to hold my own against you who is their king?” I ask.

I know I am only provoking him, but I don’t care at this point. I have nothing to lose. And if Elias is as desperate for his plan to work as he claims, he won’t kill me. For some reason, I am a very important part of it.

Elias tilts his head towards the sky as he tries to reign in his temper.

“You have no idea what kind of enemy awaits us in this foreign land. To hold your own isn’t good enough. You have to be able to beat them,” he growls.

“You’re expecting too much of me,” I say, my irritation arising.

Elias turns to face me, a crazed gleam in his eyes as he studies me.

“Am I? Is expecting you to earn your keep too much? Perhaps I should put you out of your misery then?” he says, stepping closer to me, and though my fear rises, I hold my own.

“You won’t. You need me for this plan to work, or else you wouldn’t have your healer so close by every time you break something. Nor would you have gone through all the trouble of bringing me here with all the tedious planning,” I say.

The trip here is something I want to forget. Being locked away as day and night passed on a creaking ship, only to be brought up for Elias’s pleasure, was torture. And since we’ve arrived, Elias only ever lets me out of my chains if he’s training me. But lately his training has become too brutal. As if he’s scared, and I don’t know how else to convince him that he can trust me other than to speak my mind.

“You are rushing because you are afraid of something. Or maybe someone, I don’t know. Maybe that is the reason for all of your preparation for war. But you have so many holes in your plan for greatness, starting with your lack of patience for my ability to learn. Especially since you fuck, beat, and break me every day. It’s only going to hurt you in the end if I am not ready,” I say.

It isn’t until the words are out of my mouth that I realize the extent of everything I just said. I slowly suck in a shuddering breath, stepping back as I try and calm myself, waiting for the punishment that is sure to follow.

To my shock, Elias doesn’t strike me.

He steps closer to me, gripping my chin as he searches my eyes.

“So she speaks. She isn’t just a docile little puppet for my use,” he says menacingly.

I pull my face out of his grip, stepping back. And Elias continues to watch me. I can tell by his expression he’s trying to figure me out.

“You’ve been hostile to me from the moment I woke up, and since you told me the circumstances, I understand why. But I have done nothing but remain loyal to you, and you have done nothing but beat me down. I don’t know how to please you. And at this rate, you’re going to kill me before I even have a chance,” I say.

Elias watches me with a narrowed gaze, but once again, he doesn’t react.

And finally, he speaks.

“I see it clearly now. Why he adored you so much. There is so much more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there? There is so much more going on behind that innocent gaze, feigning naivete,” Elias chuckles, shaking his head.

“I see why he adored you, but what I can’t understand is why you adored him. Why you wanted so badly to return when he exiled you for protecting your own kind. And if you can see so clearly what flaws lie in my plans, then how could you not see the flaws that lied in returning to him?” he says.

I shake my head in confusion. He’s once again referring to whoever lies in my past. Someone he was aware of and sees as a threat. He’s even referred to this seal on my ribs as me “calling” for him. But I still don’t know who he could mean. It can’t be Dimitri he’s speaking of.

“I don’t know… who…,” I trail off as my mind picks up his use of the word “exile” and shifts to the white-haired beast—the beast who is both pain and pleasure, happiness and sadness, life and death. My mind defaults to him every night, yet it cannot tell me who he is or what his purpose is.

Elias laughs, approaching me.

“Have I struck a nerve? Have I helped any lapses in memory, perhaps?” he chuckles. But the sound sends a chill up my spine. I don’t know why he’s offering up this information.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” I whisper.

Elias snatches me by my wrist, pulling me in close.

“You will. You will understand everything when you are faced with a beast who is worse than me. When he realizes what you have done to his kind and what I have done to you, I won’t have to kill you. He’ll do it himself. His hatred runs deep enough that he has already purged his lands of your kind. He won’t be as tolerant as I am of your past,” he says.

His grip tightens, and he throws me hard enough that I stumble, falling. When I look up, Elias is watching me, his anger returned.

“I suggest you put a little more effort into learning what you can before you come face to face with him or you won’t survive. And stop wasting your energy trying to outsmart me.”

Cyrus

My father was a benevolent ruler. He tried his best to pass those traits on to me. It was his belief that humans were just misunderstood and needed guidance. He believed in innocence and naivete as an excuse for the terrible tragedies they committed. And in the end, it cost him everything.

It cost my mother and my unborn sibling their lives. It cost me my skin, and in the end, it cost my father his life. It cost our kingdom pain and suffering that no beast should have to endure at the hands of creatures weaker than we are. It cost the most powerful beasts ever to have walked in our society their sanity.

As I watch the humans bumble around me in fear of the news traveling through the land, I can’t help but wonder why my father ever felt like they deserved anything other than what he blessed them with as a ruler. Even against a beast as weak as Elias, they all run cowering, unable to protect themselves, unaware of the true threat standing in their midst at this very moment.

Maybe in some strange way, my father saw himself in these creatures. His marriage to my mother was an anomaly in itself. The beasts of her line were purebred, never reproducing outside of their line. While he was king of our kingdom, she was a beast who surpassed him in strength and power from a land apart from Avalor.

I never knew her at an age where I could ask her about her heritage or how she came to be with my father. And my father and I never discussed it as well before he passed. I alone inherited the power of my mother’s line. That is why I do not see those who are weaker as anything other than collateral. Especially now.

Elias left my kingdom in disarray, took my queen and unborn child, and left every defenseless beast who resided within the estate to serve Annalise dead—their corpses mutilated, giving them deaths they didn’t deserve. I don’t know what state Annalise will be in once I finally retrieve her, but I know it won’t be good. Especially if my hunch about our child is true.

I take in a deep breath, pulling my hood down to reveal myself to these humans. I’ve made sure to keep myself hidden as I know my physical traits are abnormal to a human, and news of a white-haired man would spread fast. But it no longer matters if I remain hidden. These people no longer matter. They are all dead.

A boy runs past me, and I quickly snatch him by the arm, pulling him in close. His eyes are wide as he takes me in and I smell his fear instantly as his body reacts instinctually to my presence.

“I want you to run as far inland as you can. Warn everyone that the king of the beasts has come to annihilate this land,” I say.

I release the boy, and he stumbles slightly, still staring at me as he tries to understand what I’m telling him.

So, I slowly release my beast form, allowing the dark smoke to pour from my skin.

“Go on,” I say.

The boy quickly takes off, and I watch him disappear into the woods before I allow the entirety of my form to come alive, consuming me. Darkness consumes me as screams surround me, and I feel the warm pull of life being taken away to fill my beast.

The screams mean nothing to me, as this will be the only noise I hear over the course of the weeks.