Page 72 of Beast and Remedy
When I meet Jean and Pierre’s gazes, I am thrown off by the concern etched in their features. They seek comfort in one another, and it’s then I reveal our truth.
“We went to Torgem.”
Pierre’s hardened expression deepens with disappointment through a long inhale.
“Why?” Jean asks calmly, despite matching his husband’s discontent.
Pierre’s anger is silent and calculating, a predator on the prowl, waiting for me to show weakness before he lunges and unleashes insult after insult.
I lace my trembling fingers together, tentatively sharing more.
“Because the king was the only person close by who could help Marian.”
Pierre slams his fist on the desk, pure rage coming off him in waves. “They are enemies to this court, and your father specifically forbade us from communicating with them!”
“We had no other option!” I yell, hovering over the table.
Pierre meets me in the middle, his grimace hardening. “You should have come home!”
“You weren’t there, Pierre! You didn’t see what happened!” I shake my head, frustration and defeat building despite rage coiling in my chest.
“Vi.”
A soft touch from Marian does nothing to comfort me as Pierre’s looming disappointment seeps into me.
I recoil, my voice raising. “We watched our guards get mauled alive by wolves while I was fighting against another shift. And without any way of helping her, Torgem and King Beauvais were her only chance of survival.”
“You should not have gone into their territory with the hostility between our kingdoms,” Pierre scolds, his stubbornness driving me to a breaking point.
“She wasdying! She would have died in my arms!” I scream, my chest rising and falling and emotions thickening in my throat. “And even if we were given a miracle to make it home, I wouldn’t have been able to treat her. I had to shift, and no one here would have been able to help her!”
Pierre snaps, “Yes, we could have!”
I snarl, catching him off guard and sending him back, my hands digging into the grooves of the table. “No, you couldn’t! None of you can!”
Fury fumes from my voice, my muscles—my entire being as Pierre studies me cautiously.
Good.
Jean’s soft voice speaks into the void. “What do you mean ‘none of you can’?”
“I’m infected,” Marian states calmly, and the brutal blow of her admission makes my insides churn.
Jean gasps, clutching his chest. “H-How do you know?”
“Because Beau was the one who told us,” I answer.
Pierre scoffs. “And you believed him?”
I bare my teeth, my wrath uncontainable and demanding I protect Beau. “Yes. You know he is more knowledgeable about medicine than I am.”
Beau might be gifted with healing abilities from Yeva, but my family knew he had a vast array of insight on treating others. It was one of the many topics we delved deeply into whenever our kingdoms would visit.
He was born to inherit Yeva’s power. It’s his true calling.
I wish I could have earned that same chance. But instead, I’m forced to be a beast.
“Why would you believe them when they themselves could be the very people who started this all?” Pierre asks, his anger shifting into condescension, which does nothing to settle the burning vexation I can’t simmer down.
