Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 44645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
“I’m looking for my friend, Gabriel. Could you tell me where he is?”
“I could…But that’s such a basic request.”
“He’s who I want to see.”
“Oh, I’m sure he is.” She softens her tone. “I’m sure he needs to mar more of your skin with kisses, correct?”
“Could you please tell me where he is?”
“Ask me for something else first, someone else you’d want to see again.”
I roll my eyes, ready to put her down and resume looking for Gabriel on my own, but she speaks again.
“How about your mother?” She asks. “That one is on me.”
“I know what her tombstone looks like,” I say, feeling a sudden ache in my chest. “No, thank you. I appreciate—”
I stop talking as her face dissolves into darkness, as the glass shows my mother walking inside our kitchen, holding a pink blanket in her arms.
Me…
“You’re so beautiful, Belle,” she kisses my forehead. “Don’t you ever let anyone tell you any differently…” She begins to sing the lullaby that’s inscribed on the back of my locket, but the haggard woman returns before she can finish the first line.
“Now.” She smiles a toothy smile. “Where were we?”
“I—How did you—”
“It’s a long story,” she says. “Anyone else you’d like to see perhaps? Someone alive, preferably.”
I consider asking about my father, but that feels like a waste of an opportunity. The memory of Izzie’s tattered ribbon crosses my mind, and I sigh.
“Show me my sister,” I say.
The glass sparkles once more and the handle grows warm. Glittering stars dance around the frame, and then a grand staircase appears at its center.
Izzie is standing at the top of it, dressed in a floor-length white dress. Her hair is pulled high in a bevy of curls, and golden pins are shining atop her freshly cut bangs.
“She’s a princess?” I whisper, but then the scene shifts to a shadow on the other side of the staircase.
At first, it appears to be a stack of brown winter coats, but then the stack begins to move, and it bears…teeth?
A hideous beast roars at the top of his lungs, startling the hell out of me.
I drop the mirror to the floor, and my knees buckle beneath me.
Where the hell is this?
I pick up the glass, but the image is long gone. My fingers tremble as I clutch the handle tighter.
“Tell me where my sister is.” I blurt out.
The glass remains flat and unchanged.
“Now.” My voice cracks. “Tell me where she is now.”
Wind whips against the windows, and the mirror serves me nothing except my pained reflection.
Although she’s been an awful older sister, she doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near a beast.
I have to tell Gabriel…He’ll help me find her.
“Show me Gabriel,” I demand, and her face reappears.
“There’s no need for that. He’s right outside the castle. I’ll send word for the wind to show you the way.”
“Why can’t you just show me?”
“Because…” She tosses her head back in violent laughter. “What would be the fun in that?”
Her eyes nearly bulge out of her skull and she’s frothing at the mouth, so I place her face down on the desk.
Rushing out of the study, I make my way outside and into the courtyard.
Four guards stand in front of the gate.
I toss a coin in their direction, and they look up at my balcony.
“You two go check on the girl,” one of them says. “I’ll stand guard by the front door.”
They scatter and I wait until their footsteps dissolve into the night. I slip through a hedge and find myself in front of a moat.
Sighing, I start to turn away, but a gust of wind blankets my body, carrying me forward.
I start to turn away, but roots wrap around my feet.
“Trust and follow me,” the wind whispers. “He’s this way.”
“Okay…”
The roots release their hold on me, and I move forward.
On the edge of the cliff, a shadowy figure stands and stares at the moon.
“Hello?” I ask. “Hello?”
The figure doesn’t turn its head to answer, and I move closer, halting when the moonlight shows his full form.
A beast.
He throws his head back and roars.
The wind stops, leaving me bereft of any help, exposed and defenseless.
The ground cracks under my feet, and I look down to see that I’m standing atop a frozen lake.
It cracks again and the snapping echoes across the silent night, forcing the beast to turn around.
His wild and rage-filled eyes meet mine and I stumble backward. I rush to my feet and run as fast as I can.
It’s no use.
The beast tackles me from behind and my face hits the ground.
He growls against my back, and I scream.
“Let me go!” The ice continues to crack beneath us. “Please let me go!”
He flips me over, and I prepare to face death all over again.
“Why are you out of your room at night?” Gabriel’s voice falls from the beast’s lips. “I told you never to roam the outdoors unless it was daylight.”