Page 176 of Beau and the Beast

His love was the light that Wolfram had needed all along.

Crying wracked his body in an abrupt spasm. In the span of a few moments, he’d lost everything and then had it all handed back to him.

And then everyone was talking at once—the staff seeming to materialize around them. Wolfram and Beau parted to look up at them, to listen to them.

“We went outside—“

“We’re all okay, Wolfram—“

“We can leave!”

“You broke the curse,” Violet said, kneeling next to them. Her makeup was smeared but she had the biggest, most beautiful smile on her face that Beau had ever seen her wear. “I don’t know how you did it, but you broke the curse.”

Wolfram looked down to the watch on his wrist and then turned his arm, showing it to the others. A second hand had appeared on the face of the watch out of nowhere—and the thing was ticking.

It was past midnight and Wolfram was still alive.

Wolfram moved, patting down the front of his body with Beau’s hands close behind his own. They both traced the places where he’d been shot. There were no wounds left on his body—not even a scar. It was as if nothing had ever happened.

But somethinghadhappened. And it had been magical.

“We really did it,” Wolfram said, a grin spreading across his face. “I think my time… it’s not running out anymore. I think I’m free.”

But it didn’t make sense. If they had broken the curse, why didn’t Wolfram look like a man again?

“But Wolf, you haven’t—“ Beau started.

Wolfram shook his head, still smiling.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Don’t you see that it doesn’t matter how I look? You love me as I am. That’s all I care about, Beau.”

He leaned forward and kissed Beau then. The meeting of their lips was better than any kiss had ever been before. It was an affirmation of their love, a celebration of breaking their chains, and a promise of their future. It didn’t matter to Beau what happened next. The world could throw anything at the two of them and they would be ok, they would weather the storm and they would thrive because they had each other—a bond that defied everything, that went beyond the rules of physics, beyond the confines of life and death.

Beau was so in love with Wolfram, and for once, he felt safe and steady.

The world made sense at last, and no matter what happened, Beau knew that with Wolfram by his side, he would live happily ever after.

“What the fuck?”

Beau and Wolfram pulled back from each other abruptly. They all turned in time to see three EMTs enter through the open door of the penthouse. One of them drew a phone from her pocket, held it up, and snapped a photo of the scene in front of her.

“What the hell is that?” another EMT asked, stepping back in fear when he spotted Wolfram.

“We can explain,” Violet said, calmly, stepping over to Lincoln where he still lay unconscious, “but first you need to attend to this man.”

The EMTs began to argue with her, one of them retreating while the other two pressed forward for a better look at Wolfram. The thrum of life had stopped for only one moment, just long enough to heal the hurts that a witch had dealt out a decade ago—and now life was resuming its breakneck pace, streaming around them and spiraling out and away.

Wolfram had been discovered and everything was about to change.

A whole new chapter of Wolfram’s life was about to begin—and no matter what pandemonium awaited them in the future, they would be together. They could have one another, against all odds, side by side to face a world that was as unfair as it was full of unexpected magic.

Things would never be the same, and as love for Wolfram swelled in his chest, Beau realized that he was excited to see what would come next.

Chapter Thirty-One

2018 - 14 months later

Violet kneadedBeau’s shoulders in a way that she hoped was comforting. Her friend was about to break out in a cold sweat—which would be bad since he’d already sat for makeup and there was no one around for a touch-up.

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