Page 70 of Beast of Blood and Roses
Finally, justice was done.
The murderer.
The child torturer.
The soul trader who had destroyed my family and stolen my entire life was dead.
Beast released another agonized moan that seemed to come from the very depths of his soul. I glanced down at his pale, pain-twisted face, then locked my gaze on Tinker Bell’s cold calculating look. Anger and desperation pounded through me like a drumbeat. “You can save him!” I screamed. “Why won’t you help him? He’s dying!”
But she didn’t say a word, just stood there holding The Witch’s Heart like some cruel goddess of fate, as if she was waiting for something I couldn’t understand.
I raised my palm, ready to fight Tinker Bell herself if I had to, ready to tear the amulet from her hands with my bare fingers. But then Beast’s trembling hand weakly clasped my wrist, his claws barely able to grip me. He shook his head with tremendous effort. “No. Don’t.”
“But the heart will save you,” I pleaded, my breath coming in ragged gasps. “It can heal you, protect you?—”
“Too late,” he whispered, blood staining his lips. His fading eyes followed my gaze to where Tinker Bell stood watching us. “Forgive me,” he said to her, each word costing him everything. “I shouldn’t have...killed your sister. She was...innocent.”
“Beast, no,” I whispered, leaning closer to catch his weakening words. “You can’t leave me. Not now, not when I’ve just found you.”
“You’re free now,” he breathed, but his breathing was growing fainter by the second. “Go to your family. Your uncle Tobias...they’ll care for you like I...like I never could.”
His eyes fluttered shut, and it felt like a sword stabbing my heart.
“No, you can’t leave me. We’re together now.” I clutched his shirt desperately, unwilling to let him go. “You promised you’d protect me, remember?”
A single tear rolled down his cheek, and his breathing became so shallow I had to lean close to feel it against my skin.
I was losing him. The man who’d saved me, protected me, shown me what it meant to be truly cared for. The man who’d looked at me like I was precious, worth dying for.
I bent over him and brushed my lips over his still ones, pouring every ounce of love and desperation into that gentle kiss. “I love you,” I whispered against his mouth. “I love you, Beast. Please don’t leave me.”
I pressed my ear to his chest, listening as his heartbeat grew fainter and fainter, each weak thump another crack in my breaking heart. Tears streamed down my face, falling onto his blood-soaked shirt. The spaces between beats grew longer, more agonizing, until I could barely detect the rhythm at all.
“No, no, no,” I whispered frantically, my tears falling onto his still face. “Please, Beast. Please don’t leave me. I can’t do this without you.”
But his heartbeat continued to fade, becoming nothing more than a flutter, barely a whisper.
And then...silence.
The most terrible silence I’d ever heard.
A sob escaped from my throat, raw and desperate. “I love you,” I cried, shaking his shoulders as if I could somehow call him back. “Do you hear me? I love you, and you can’t leave me alone. Not now. Not ever.”
Suddenly, a strong wind blew through the broken doorway, glittering with tiny sparkles of light, warm and gentle despite its power. It brushed over me with an almost intelligent touch, as if invisible hands were gently pushing me away from Beast’s lifeless form.
“No!” I fought against it, clinging to him desperately. “I won’t let go!”
But the wind was insistent, and despite my struggles, Beast’s body was lifted from the floor as if by magic itself. A brilliant blue aura began to form around him, growing brighter and more intense with each passing second. I watched in stunned silence as his horns slowly dissolved into nothing, the coarse fur covering his face vanished completely, and his deadly claws transformed back into human hands. Even the blood—his blood that had covered my hands—vanished as if the magic was erasing every trace of his suffering. My heart ached with bittersweet wonder.
The curse was breaking, but was it too late?
He was gently placed on the ground. Once again, he was the handsome man I had kissed before. I shook his shoulders. “Beast, wake up. Wake up.”
“My god. It’s Fierro Bastia. Enzo’s missing enforcer,” Trystan said.
I glanced up briefly to see Trystan standing next to us—naked and shocked as he gazed down at Beast.
I kissed Beast on the lips again, pouring all my love into the kiss, hoping it was enough. But he lay perfectly still. The kiss felt hollow, meaningless. “Why won’t you wake up?”
