Beauty's Cursed Beast Read online

  Lucien’s jaw stiffened in time with his posture. “I don’t think you understand the difference between a servant and a slave.”

  “I don’t think you understand the difference between a paycheck and unemployment.” Adam clicked his fingers at the old woman, not bothering with manners. “Out you go.”

  Lucien reeled backwards, breathless, as the old woman threw off her cloak, straightening her posture to reveal her true self. In seconds, her wrinkles smoothed, the signature royal blonde hue chased away the gray in her hair, she grew several inches in height, and her face shifted from an old hag to a beautiful woman in her fifties with an imperious look about her.

  Adam gasped, and started in on a string of apologies when he recognized the woman as none other than the elusive ousted queen who’d cursed Rory as a baby. “Malaura?” Adam glanced behind him guiltily as his crass treatment of her private love letters to him framed his frozen form like a spotlight of doom.

  Dread washed over Adam’s features and he fell to his knees, knowing it wouldn’t bode well for him to run at this point. She hadn’t been seen in years, but whenever there were reported sightings, someone had walked away with a curse, if they’d managed to walk away at all.

  “Run, Adam!” Lucien shouted, and then turned and darted into the ballroom to end the party and shoo everyone out through the back exit.

  Adam was trembling under her intense scrutiny, humbling his posture so that he looked nothing like the haughty heir to the Fontaine fortune.

  The sorceress looked down her suddenly slender nose and shook her head. “I’ve heard rumors of your pride, but never would’ve guessed the son of Moira and Peter Fontaine would’ve grown into such an arrogant prat. How I adored you from afar, but up close?” She glanced up at the private love letter she’d sent him, and a flicker of true hurt dashed across her pinched features. “Up close, you’re quite disappointing. Beautiful, but utterly vapid.”

  “Malaura, I can explain.”

  She began to circle him, her black dress dragging out behind her. “Moira and Peter wouldn’t have wanted this lifestyle for their boy. Your parents never sponsored my more interesting projects back when I sat on the throne, but I respected their firm command of their capitalistic empire nonetheless. They were good people who raised you far better than this.” She tutted him, and then reached down to tap a pointy red fingernail under his chin to lift his head. “You’re even more stunning than in your pictures.” She bent over and caught his earlobe between her teeth and tugged, laughing at his shudder. “I prefer my toys to be pretty, and you’re by far the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. How I would love to take you home with me. Oh, the things I could teach a virile student like yourself.” Her tongue darted out to wet her crimson lips as she studied his squirming.

  “I’m nowhere near as accomplished as your last student. I would be a disappointment to you!” Everyone in the kingdom knew that Remus Johnstone had been her most treasured student. Rory’s uncle had gray eyes that held many secrets, but he never spoke of his time in Malaura’s study, back when she’d ruled Avondale, and he’d been the gifted boy everyone was jealous of for catching the eye of the queen.

  Now that her gaze rested on Adam, he squirmed as if that might scrape her attention off of him and cast it elsewhere.

  She stroked Adam’s arm, and he let out a whimper, his lips parted and trembling with terror. It was widely known that Malaura’s Pulse was that she could touch a person and mirror their own Pulse. He felt her shooting his own ability of Persuasion and stripping away of inhibitions into him. “Tell me you’ll come away with me and be my toy. I would take such care to train you properly. It’s been so long since I’ve had a pupil worthy of my talents.”

  “No!” he blurted without filter, since his caution was gone. She’d meant to use his gift to convince him to run away with her, but it backfired, making him speak more honestly than his fear would normally permit. “You’re disgusting! Even if you hadn’t cursed Rory, I would never run away with you. Look at me, and then look at yourself! Your touch makes my skin crawl. I am not so desperate that I would give myself over to someone so plain as you.” Adam shook his head and tried to rid himself of the Pulse he feared might cost him his life. He began to sweat through his suit. “Don’t listen to a word I say! Take any room in the castle you like. Stay as long as you need. Only don’t curse me!”

  Malaura’s red painted lips were drawn in a tight line. “Why would you assume you’re in need of a curse?”

  “I know your mind. Everyone knows Rory won’t see her twenty-fifth birthday because of you.”

  Of all things, the woman laughed. “You do as you please without thinking of the consequences. Me, on the other hand, I only think of the consequences. What is the consequence of letting such selfishness carry on like this? What is the consequence of allowing such spoiled behavior to be idolized by the public?” Then she leaned in. “What is the consequence of letting you go for some other woman to enjoy your loveliness? Eyes that striking and a face that handsome should only be focused on me. If not me, then no one shall have you.”

  Adam swallowed and closed his eyes, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Please don’t kill me.”

  “Silly boy. If I killed you, then how would you suffer for rejecting me and making me look like a fool by showing off my letters? I want you to live a long time regretting all we could have had together.”

  “No. No, please!”

  She knelt before him and opened her fist, producing a handful of gold dust. Then she gripped the back of his head and forced his mouth upon hers, chortling through his blatant disgust, as if she enjoyed his distress. The moment she released him, she blew the gold dust into his face, smiling as he choked and coughed.

  Adam sat back on his heels, still wiping the gold dust from his face. “What did you do to me?”

  “Your insides will match your outsides now – horrifying as I’ve witnessed them to be.”

  An alarm rang through the house, and Adam guessed that Lucien had set off the fire alarm to get everyone out quicker. He rubbed the gold dust from his face, but recoiled, shouting with distress at the sight of his hands. “What are you doing to me? Make it stop!”

  Brown hair sprouted from the backs of his hands, growing thick enough to make his pampered fingers appear animalistic. He felt around on his face, and found that his upper lip was now puffy, and his eyebrows were bushy and unruly.

  The sorceress pressed her finger to his lips. “You’ll remain ghastly like this until the last petal falls from this rose,” she explained as she opened her fist again. This time, a perfect red bud bloomed out from the center of her palm. “You’ll live ten more years like this while the slowly rose blooms. Then you’ll join the Lupine tribe on your thirtieth birthday when the last petal falls. If I can’t have you, I’ll make it so that no one wants you.”

  Panicked, Adam shook his head, murmuring for her to reconsider.

  Malaura remained firm in her judgment. “Our world has no place for selfishness like yours. You’ll pay for your sins, and then you’ll join the outcasts, roaming Avondale as a wolf until you die.”

  Audra burst into the foyer, eyes wild and arms raised to attack. Despite the danger, she was ready to risk it all to save Adam. “No! You’ll not hurt my boy like this. His foolishness began when his parents died. This isn’t who he’ll always be.”

  The sorceress arose with a smile. “I’ll hurt you all like this, unless you step aside.”

  Audra dropped to her knees and held Adam, who wailed into her shoulder, clawing at his hands in confusion. Instead of arguing with the woman, Audra closed her eyes and began a chant of her own, her arms shaking with determination that outweighed her fear. Though she’d been cast in the role of servant, she’d sat in on every one of Adam’s lessons when he was schooled in the art of magic.

  Then Lucien and Bosworth came forward, murmuring the same counter-curse in hopes of saving the boy they’d been entrusted to watch over. The other serv
ants ran to Adam’s aid, adding girth to the spell that needed to somehow be more powerful than the curse of the elite sorceress.

  Malaura’s head tilted back as she let out a hearty cackle. “Oh, how funny you are to try and counter a curse of mine. Only Remus was powerful enough to come up against me all those years ago, and that’s only because I trained him. Enjoy the feeling of failure. In fact, for your petulance, I’ll grant you with a curse of your own. The Lupine has no use for you all, but you’ll be trapped until Adam turns, and then you’ll be nothing.”

  She waved her hand over the foyer, and her voice grew louder as the servants collapsed, one by one as more of them ran forward to try and save the master of the house.

  Adam saw precious little through the gold dust and the tears that marred his vision, but when he finally was able to look around, the sorceress had vanished, and the servants who loved him were nowhere to be seen.

  2

  Unwelcome Visitors

  “This is a business, not a charity. If you can’t make your payments, you shouldn’t have signed the mortgage.”

  “But Mr. Fontaine, we just need more time. We’ve paid on schedule for fifteen years, and never missed a payment.”

  “Until the past six months. You’ve been late or short for half a year now.” Adam sat back in his grand leather chair and eyed the next late contract on his massive mahogany desk. His mind was already onto the next task; he’d lost his patience for pleading long ago. He’d never be caught sounding as pathetic as the people who called his office daily for an extension on their loans. “I’ve been more than patient. You have until the end of the month, and then we’ll start the eviction process.”

  “But, sir!”

  Adam hung up on the caller, as he’d done four times that morning already.

  “That was rude,” chided Audra. She slid slowly into his office atop a tea tray, using her magic to control its trajectory. Though she’d lost her arms and legs long ago, she managed to move around the castle easily enough in the form of a teapot.

  Adam glared at her bone china face. “That was business. Something you will never understand.”

  Audra’s china base clicked as she teetered toward him, hopping from her tea tray to his desk. “I understand well enough. You’ve gone from unpleasant to downright surly ever since Rory stopped coming to visit.”

  Adam’s fist tightened on his pen. “Don’t pretend that you know what it’s like to be me.”

  “Are you having a laugh? I’m one of the few who understands completely what it’s like to be you. I’m confined to the castle even more than you are. You won’t leave because of vanity’s sake. I can’t leave, for fear of people stepping on me and throwing me out with the garbage.” Then her tone softened with the maternal coo she couldn’t help. “Maybe Rory will come today. It’s the first of the month, after all.”

  “I don’t care if she comes. She’s probably off with her new husband, boring each other to tears. Henry will be by later, and that’s that.”

  Audra shot him a pained look that shone through on the white teapot with pink rose embellishments, a few of the golden swirl designs shaping themselves into eyes and a thin mouth. All the servants had suffered for their failed attempt at a counter-curse. They’d been turned into common household objects with voices only Adam could hear. He’d tried in the beginning to convince doctors and friends that the servants had become the objects, but no one believed him. Even Rory and Henry had offered up sad smiles and pacifying head-nods. He was labeled mentally ill by doctor after doctor – hearing voices that, according to everyone else, simply weren’t there.

  It had taken slashing mortgage rates to the bare minimum to keep his company afloat, ensuring clients didn’t jump ship on him. That actually turned into a brilliant business move, making the company the most stable of all its competitors, despite its unstable owner.

  Adam was deformed now, and as much as people like to claim it’s what inside that counts, his new outward appearance had people looking the other way instead of leaning in to listen and help. With the loss of his looks and a diagnosis of major depressive disorder with psychosis, he had only his servants to keep him company. Henry and Rory had stopped by once a month to try to get him out of the castle for nine years, but after Adam let his pride keep him from going to Rory when she’d been in need earlier that year, she’d finally turned her back on him, as well.

  Now there was only Henry. Adam knew they were only keeping on with these visits because Henry was a decent person, not because either of them enjoyed each other’s company anymore. No one came to visit, scared of the man whose chestnut hair now looked closer to fur, and covered his shoulders, chest, back, legs, arms, and cheeks. His once commanding physique was now a beacon for a body that was still man, but was slowly turning to beast, with a puffy upper lip that made his expressions appear animalistic.

  Audra tipped her spout after summoning a teacup to sit on the desk. She poured Adam a steaming cup of Earl Grey and righted herself. “You should call Rory and apologize.”

  Adam scoffed at the suggestion both of them knew was futile for her to suggest. “You should mind your own business.”

  “That girl is my business. She was a good friend to you. You need people in your life, Adam.”

  “What do I need people for when I’ve got a talking teapot who prattles on incessantly?”

  Audra glowered at him and huffed as she leapt back onto her tray, scooting it toward the exit as the doorbell rang. “That’ll be Henry. Best put on a smile.”

  Adam snarled, knowing that when he bothered with a grin, his fangs were too visible. “I’m busy.”

  “You’re bossy. Those are two different things. You’ll come down and greet your only friend, Adam.”

  Adam grumbled, but ultimately obeyed. He stomped through the dusty, unlit hallway and moved down the doublewide staircase that had once been grand. The gold fixtures had long since lost their shimmer, the air was thick with cobwebs and dust, and it had been ages since anyone had run a vacuum. None of his servants could manage an appliance of that size, so some of the chores had been left to Adam, who couldn’t have cared less.

  When he threw open the door, his eyes immediately scanned to the side of Henry and behind him, searching for Rory. When she wasn’t there, his shoulders fell, frustrated that he’d been foolish enough to hope she’d forgiven him. Worse was that he actually hoped for the clemency, which was almost as bad as admitting aloud he’d been wrong – something he had no intention of doing. “Hey,” he greeted Henry, and then turned around without pretense of a handshake or hug.

  Prince Henry had been bred for politics since birth and didn’t let his offense show at the lack of cordial greeting. He didn’t come to visit Adam on the first of the month to get friendship from him, but to offer it, since Adam was so deprived of the stuff. “Good morning, Adam. I can see you put on your Sunday best for me.”

  Adam glanced down, cringing that he was still in his pajamas. Worst was that he couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d worn anything else, or even bothered to shower. “Only the best for the Prince of Avondale. What’s new in the land of all the beautiful people?”

  Henry tried not to take offense at the compliment that was meant as a jab. Adam’s curse had left him with a puffy, scarred and hairy face that had swiftly dethroned him as Avondale’s most eligible bachelor. Prince Henry wore that spotlight now, especially since Rory, whom Henry had been betrothed to since her birth, was now married to Cordray Phillips – the man she’d fallen in love with. Prince Henry had never loved Rory as anything more than a sister and best friend, so he was thrilled for them. He’d stood up for her as her Maid of Honor at her wedding, proclaiming to all the eligible maidens in the land that there was no chance he would end up with the Chancellor’s daughter he’d been promised to. The female fervor for him had tripled since then.

  Henry sneezed three times at the thick layer of dust that only seemed to multiply over the years. It wasn’t j
ust the rugs that stank of man feet, but the stench had permeated the walls as well, making the whole place something to wrinkle your nose at. “Father’s starting to put on the pressure of marriage, but lucky for him, I’m married to Avondale.”

  “Sounds tedious. King Hubert should know you’re not built for settling down.”

  “That’s what I told him. It went over about as well as you can imagine.” Henry followed Adam into the kitchen, which was the only room they ever ventured to in the past year. Everything else was too dusty, and filled with neglect. Plus, Adam was touchy about the objects in his castle. It would have been helpful to his claims for mental health if the teapot was able to move on its own when Henry was around, but the objects only moved for Adam, making him seem unbalanced even to his very best of friends.

  Adam was patient while Henry talked about the state of the kingdom. There was a big controversy over whether or not Lethals should be able to roam about freely, or if they should be forced to take a pill that would mute all of their powers, thus making them safer to be around.

  Adam cared little about it all, since his Pulse wasn’t lethal. The only person in his life now was Henry, so he nodded when expected, and gave grunts of derision when it seemed appropriate. Rory’s new husband was a Lethal, so Adam pretended to care, in hopes it might make it back to her that he was civil. He thought it foolish that she’d chosen to fall in love with a Lethal. Cordray could electrocute anyone with a simple touch. He wore gloves and secretly had to take a double dose of the 30-day Pulse-muting pill to keep from killing her by accident, but the threat of her sudden death was very real. It was love that drove her to largely ignore the danger.

  When a knock sounded at the door, Adam straightened, and immediately chided himself for the hopefulness that rose in his chest. If Rory decided to come back and forgive him, that meant there would be two people in his life who would notice when he was gone from the bipedal world.