Page 64 of Snow White

“Bitch,” he snarls.

I flinch away from him. “Please… I… I love her.”

Belle weakly stands, placing a hand on my shoulder. It doesn’t help the anxiety gnawing at my stomach.

“She trapped me as a horse and used me as a beast,” he growls.

I lift my chin. “What she did was not right, but I can help her be better.”

He snarls, dragging his claws against the ice walls. “Drop this prison!”

I shake my head. “Not until you promise to take me to her.”

“She is evil,” he snarls. “There is only one person to who she would bow. Someone so horrifically vile all shudder just hearing her name.”

Just him speaking of this mysterious person makes me shiver, but I don’t stop pushing. “Take me to her.”

“She doesn’t love you. She can’t.” He glares at me. “It’s not her nature.”

I look at him for a moment. How do I make him believe? How do I show him I am right?

She does love me. She sacrificed herself to save me.

I lift my hand to push my hair away from my face and glimpse my wrist.That’s it.I pull my sleeve up, showing him my tattoo.

“She saved my life by taking my injury as her own,” I say.

“You’re dreaming,” he snarls.

“I’m not!”

The man is silent, looking at me for a long time. “I owe you a boon for freeing me. Ask for something else, anything else.”

I shake my head. “I need this.”

He snarls, closing his eyes. “This is the end of me helping that bitch. Understood?”

“I understand,” I say, nodding quickly.

He is silent again. “I’ll take you to her. Alone.”

“Fuck no!” Belle protests. “I’m not leaving her with a brute like you.”

“Then she doesn’t go,” he snarls.

Belle walks forward, poking his chest. “If you think I’m going to leave her, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“Belle…” I gulp.

She looks back at me, shaking her head. “Oh, no. What would your brother say?”

“He’d say no,” my brother’s voice echoes from behind us.

I spin around. “Eric!”

Eric is standing by the door, his hands in his pockets. “I knew something was odd about that woman.” He looks at me, his eyes softening. “You love her?”

I nod. “I do.”

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