Page 57 of Beast of Blood and Roses
He was speaking softly obviously trying to keep me calm, but this was too much for me. My life had been nothing but misery. “If they weren’t bound, we wouldn’t have spent my entire childhood scrambling just to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table!”
I pressed my hands to my temples, trying to stop the spinning in my head. “Magic was never part of our world. If it had been, my life could have been completely different. Why would he keep this from me?”
The room felt like it was closing in around me. Everything I thought I knew about my life, about my father, was crumbling like sand.
Beast gently lifted me into his arms and I snuggled deeper against to him, needing to listen to his heart. His touch was like an anchor in the storm of my emotions, and I felt some of thehysteria begin to ebb. My body trembled as he carried me the few steps back to the bed.
He set me down carefully on the edge of the mattress, his hands lingering on my shoulders to steady me. “I don’t know. But your father has many secrets—secrets that could be dangerous.”
“Dangerous? Dangerous how?” I gripped the edge of the bed.
Beast’s jaw tightened, and I could see him weighing his words carefully. “He might not be who you think he is.”
The simple statement was like a bomb.
A nuclear bomb.
A world-ending bomb.
My world.
I stared up at him, searching his face for some sign that this was all some terrible mistake. “I have to talk to him.” The words tumbled out desperately. “What if this vision isn’t from the past? What if it’s something happening to him right now?”
I started to stand, adrenaline flooding my system. “Those people in the vision, they looked like they were trying to hurt him. Do you think they’re the ones that bound his powers? Why would they do this? What did he do? I have to find out the truth.”
Beast’s hands pressed gently on my shoulders, keeping me seated. “Rosalie, you need to think about this logically. Why would he never tell you that he had magic? Why hide it your entire life?”
But I couldn’t think logically. Everything I thought I knew was wrong. Talking to my father felt like the only way to make sense of any of it.
“I have to find him. Maybe The Witch’s Heart will show mewhere he is.” I reached for the amulet in his hands, desperation making me bold.
“No.” Beast pulled the amulet back. “The last time you used it twice in a row, you were completely drained. I won’t risk that happening again. I’ll send Marcel and Colette out to see if they can find him. Will you trust me on this?”
I searched his eyes intently, looking for any hint of deception. “They won’t hurt him, will they? If they do, he won’t talk. I need him to tell me the truth, not come up with lies to save himself.”
He shook his head, his expression solemn. “No. I promise they won’t. And he will talk.” Something flickered in his eyes when he said it.
Marcel and Colette wouldn’t hurt him. But Beast was the one who could, and we both knew it.
I swallowed the knot of anxiety in my throat. “Will they ask him to come back here?”
He stood slowly, his massive frame casting a shadow across the bed. “I’ll instruct them to do exactly that.”
I caught his arm before he could turn away, my grip desperate and probably painful. “Promise me you won’t kill him when he comes back.” The words came out broken. “I need to know what happened to my family. I need to know what happened to me. I can’t live in this darkness anymore.”
Beast went very still under my touch, and I saw something flicker across his face—pain, maybe guilt. For a long moment, he didn’t answer, and my heart pounded in the silence.
He turned away from me, cursing under his breath.
“Promise me,” I pressed, my grip tightening on his. “Whatever secrets he’s keeping, whatever he’s done, promise me youwon’t hurt him. He’s the only one who can tell me what happened to my family.”
He turned his head away from me, his gaze drifting out the window as if the morning light held the answers he was searching for. The silence stretched between us, heavy and ominous.
“I know what I am, Rosalie.” He put his hand on his broad chest. “I’ve been that way for a long, long time. Killing has been second nature for me, as easy as breathing.” His jaw clenched, muscles working beneath his skin. “But for you, I won’t kill your father. I promise. Even if he deserves it.”
My mouth dropped open, shock running through me like an electrical charge. He gently but firmly wiggled out of my grip, my fingers sliding away from his wrist as he stood. Without another word, he walked slowly toward the door, his shoulders rigid with tension.
I sat frozen on the bed, staring after him. I wasn’t sure what to say, wasn’t sure I could even form words. He must know something terrible about my father, something so bad that Beast, who’d just promised not to kill him, thought he deserved to die.
