Page 18 of The Beast Between Us
It still feels thick. Oppressive.
Like the house is holding its breath.
I open a window, letting in a breeze that smells of morning dew and distant earth. Still, nothing changes.
With a soft sigh, I decide to try working on the outside of the house. A beautiful garden always makes me happy. Maybe it will him as well. So, I slip out the side door, hoping no one minds.
The moment I step into the garden, I stop short.
Everything is dead.
Where there should be color, there is only brown and brittle. The flower beds are full of withered stems, their heads bowed like mourners. The hedges are gray and crumbling. The vines that once crawled proudly along the stone walls now hang limp and dry…like veins drained of blood.
Even the magical fountain in the center has gone still. Its waters, once said to shimmer with life, now lie stagnant… the surface dull and clouded.
A chill dances up my spine.
I glance up…drawn by a feeling I can’t explain.
And find him watching.
The Beast stands behind the upper window, half-shadowed, unmoving. Those eyes… wild and shielded, fixed on me like I’ve disturbed something sacred.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, the words catching on the still air.
But I don’t know if I’m apologizing to the garden…
Or to him.
“The soil is exhausted,” Oswin says gently from behind me. “It tried for a long time to sustain the life growing from it… But in the end, like everything else, it gave up.”
“Nothing grows on my father’s land,” I murmur, still staring at the withered vines. “It’s like this all the way to the village.”
“All of it,” he nods, “is still the property of Evermere.”
I glance up at him, brows furrowed.
“The angry magic bled into the soil,” he explains. “What began with grief turned bitter over time. And bitterness does not feed life.”
“That is terribly sad,” I say.
“I agree.” Oswin’s voice is gentle. “Come. I wish to show you something.”
“I couldn’t possibly handle any more sad news,” I mutter, but I follow him anyway. “I feel myself growing shorter from the pressure of it alone.”
He chuckles softly. “What the stories don’t mention is that while the Beast holds half the control, so does the man. The man who battles daily, simply to keep the Beast from taking full control and harming more people.”
“Didn’t the magic lock them in place?” I ask.
“Yes… and no,” he replies. “The magic froze them in a state of equal ownership. A balance. One they must maintain until they can learn to live as they were meant to…together. Unfortunately, the Beast refuses to share, and Sire… he’s not strong enough yet to force him back. So, they’re stuck.”
“Remember how I said I couldn’t handle more sad news?” I remind him.
“Apologies, my Lady,” he says with a warm chuckle. “But my point is… while the Beast fights the man, the man fights the Beast.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you’re trying to say.”
“The hatred and anger of the Beast…that’s what’s poisoning the land,” he says. “It’s what weighs down the air, what makes everything feel defeated. But… if the man were truly gone, the Beast would’ve destroyedeverythingby now.”
