Page 10 of The Beast Between Us
Watching. Listening.
But not resisting.
“Your father is a cruel man,” I say gently. “His words were meant to wound you. But neither of the things he said are true.”
“You heard him?” she asks, eyes wide.
Yet she doesn’t back away.
“I heareverything,” I admit, careful to keep my smile hidden. A Bast’s smile is never comforting. “I can hear the blood running through your veins.”
She swallows, but doesn’t flinch.
“How do you know what he said wasn’t true?”
“For one,” I say, “instinct. And I trust mine implicitly. I know…without doubt…you could never take a life. The death of your mother wasnotby your hands.”
“It was,” she whispers, eyes darkening. “I mean… I wasn’t the one who twisted the knife. But Iamthe reason she’s dead.”
I study her face…every fractured line of grief, every tremble she tries to hide.
“Pray tell,” I say softly.
“My birth,” she whispers. “It was hard on my mother. Too hard.”
She looks down, fingers twisting in the fabric of her skirt.
“Her body couldn’t handle the complications. She passed only hours after I came into the world.”
The weight in her voice isn’t just grief… It’s guilt. As if surviving was the first sin she ever committed.
The Beast stirs at the thought…at the injustice of her father blaming her for something so cruel.
Please… settle,I whisper inwardly.You’ll frighten her.
But it may already be too late.
Ella gasps softly and glances around the room, her fingers tightening.
She can feel it. The shift in the air. The ripple of something ancient and angry just beneath the surface.
All the residents of Brackenford Valley can feel when the Beast wakes.
And he’s waking.
“What of the other?” she asks, her voice soft, uncertain.
“The threat?” I confirm.
She nods, eyes lifting to meet mine…worried, but not for herself.
The Beast…amused now…chuckles low in the back of my mind and settles once more into the shadows.
The air lightens. The walls release their tension. Ella breathes deeper, not even realizing what just passed through her.
I tilt my head, studying her.
“Do you worry I can’t protect myself?” I ask.
