Before Beauty (26 page)

“
The girl has arrived. She will be
up here in just a moment.”

Ever panicked. He should have
known she would try something like this. Isa was hot-tempered and
stubborn. Where, he wondered, was Garin? Of all the people to get
her out of the kingdom, it should have been the steward. What had
possessed him to allow her to return?

Or worse yet, he thought with
horror, what might have kept him from his duty? While Ever
understood little about the true nature of the steward, the idea
that the enemy’s dark forces might have been able to thwart Garin
terrified the prince more than anything.

As the captain had predicted, he
could hear Isa’s uneven footsteps on the stairs. He tried to call
out for her to run, but Nevina jerked his head back even harder,
and the captain kneed him in the chin.

Ever was still gasping and
spitting out blood when she walked in. Her eyes went wide as soon
as she saw him, and they glazed over when she saw his captors. As
she gaped, the captain walked over, grabbed her, and held her
tightly. She tried to struggle, but his arms, nearly as thick as
her waist, might as well have been bonds of steel.

Nevina let go of Ever’s hair and
left him kneeling on the floor. Walking over to Isa, the princess
softly tucked a stray lock of copper hair behind Isa’s ear.
“Really, Everard,” she murmured, “I know I was never your first
choice, but you chose this over me?”

Ever gritted his teeth as the
princess lifted Isa’s crooked wrist. She held it for a moment
between two fingers as if it were a dead fish, then dropped it.
“You’ve changed, my dear prince. You have grown soft. Your father
at least had the good sense to see that a life with me would have
been preferable to this kind of end. And what was it truly for? She
lacks the strength you so desperately counted on.” Nevina turned
and gave a pointed look at Isa. “It’s a good thing she didn’t take
my deal. Now I won’t have to find a new way to get rid of
her.”

She walked back over to Ever and
kicked him in the ribs. “Such a waste.” As Ever coughed up blood,
he saw a brilliant flash out of the corner of his eye.

Isa’s eyes suddenly burned with a
ferocity Ever hadn’t imagined her capable of. A bolt of blue shot
out of her right hand and traveled up the captain’s arm. With a
cry, he let go and stumbled backward. Isa turned to run to Ever,
but Nevina quickly grabbed her by the left wrist and yanked hard.
The blue fire ceased as Isa let out a cry of pain, and Nevina
expertly twisted the girl’s hand.

The captain was quick to get up,
his eyes bright with an eagerness Ever wished he could beat from
the vile man’s face. “No, Your Highness,” the captain said to his
mistress, “I don’t think there will be any wasted time
here.”

Ever watched in horror as he took
Isa from Nevina’s arms. Nevina smiled and drew the knife from her
belt.

“
I have always wanted to plunge a
knife into your heart,” she told Ever. “Now I get to plunge one
into your soul.” Without pause, she buried the blade deep in Isa’s
chest.

Ever didn’t hear his own scream.
He no longer smelled the smoke that was beginning to make the air
in the room unbreathable. He didn’t notice when a soldier stepped
in to tell the princess that the Fortress steward was making
trouble downstairs. All Ever saw was the blood that stained Isa’s
dress as she lay on the floor where they’d let her fall. Slowly, he
crawled over to where she lay. With a shaking hand, he tried to
wipe the tears that ran silently down her face.

“
I couldn’t leave you here,” she
whispered.

“
Hush.” He gently cradled her face
in his hand. Though she tried to smile at him, he could see the
shock all over her face. “You have endured far too much pain at my
hands to be forgivable. And yet,” he coughed, “I must ask of you
one more thing.” Isa still watched him, but her eyes were beginning
to look glassy. He didn’t have much time left. “I simply ask you to
remember me not as the monster I was, but as the man you taught to
love.”

“
Why?” Isa whispered. “What are
you saying?”

“
I’m going to fix everything,” he
promised softly.

Her eyes grew a bit wider. “Ever,
what are you doing?”

“
What I should have done long
ago.” His hand quivered as he pulled the crystal ring from his
pocket and placed it on her bloody hand. Tenderly, he rested his
lips on her forehead as he felt the strength within him begin to
bleed out.

Garin had been right. The Fortress
had never abandoned him. Rather, he had chosen to go his own way.
To truly serve his people, he had to be willing to give it all, and
to trust that the Fortress would make it right. But the vanity of
who he was and what he was had kept him from acknowledging that
truth. There was only one thing in the world that could break him
of that pride. His men hadn’t been worth such a sacrifice of self
in battle. Not even Destin had been worthy. But the Fortress had
given him Isa, and Isa was worth it.

As he pushed the power from his
body into hers, he could hear the bones in her wrist reset, and
then in her ankle. Her breathing began to deepen again, and he knew
her wound had closed.

As Isa opened her eyes, they once
more burned blue, and Ever smiled as his own eyes closed. He felt
the peace of his beloved Fortress cradle him as he welcomed death.
He was willing.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

Queen Alone

Isa had never felt such pain in her life. Not
when Ever’s power had first touched her, nor when the horse had
broken her wrist and ankle. Even the flaming arrows singeing her
skin and the bird of prey gouging her leg couldn’t
compare.

She could tell immediately that
the blade Princess Nevina had thrust into her chest was no ordinary
blade, its dark power beginning to poison her blood as soon as it
broke her skin. An icy fear seized her, and she couldn’t think
through the fog that suddenly clouded her vision. As the dark
princess let her fall to the ground, her mind ran in circles. Ever
was dying. She had seen it as he’d knelt on the floor just a few
feet away.

Despair had taken her until she
became faintly aware of a pleasant sensation on her face, a
familiar one. The touch helped clear a way for her thoughts through
the ringing in her ears. He was asking forgiveness. He was
promising to make the pain go away.

The seconds had seemed like
eternity, but finally, Isa was able to open her eyes. Princess
Nevina was shrieking as she ran towards them, but she stopped
short. A blue cocoon of fire had encased both Isa and Ever. Looking
down, Isa realized she was gripping Ever’s arm tightly with her
left hand, something she’d not been able to do since she was
nine.

For just a moment, she felt
nothing but bliss as he softly kissed her face. His lips were still
on her brow, but the longer he held on, the more she could feel him
slipping away. Finally, he slumped limply to the floor, and she
didn’t have to touch him to know that he was gone. The chill had
touched his lips just as he had let go.

“
No!” Isa screamed.

The blue shelter that had hidden
them dissipated, and its protection with it. But that didn’t
matter. Isa rose slowly, and for the first time in fourteen years,
stood erect. She hardly noticed though. Nevina and the man beside
her watched, their mouths agape and their hands slightly raised.
The agony of loss washed through Isa like a raging flood, and blue
flames tinted her vision as anger followed the pain.

Nevina’s captain made the first
move. Without hesitation, Isa raised one hand, palm out. Before he
could take two steps, a bolt of blue lightning threw him backwards
against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Nevina was smarter. Raising her
knife, she began to walk towards Isa. Golden flames wrapped around
the knife, spinning faster with each step.

On an instinct she didn’t know she
possessed, Isa knelt and slammed her fists against the floor. She
could once again feel the darkness trying to ensnare her as it had
on the balcony when Ever had proposed, but this time, she was
ready. The power that swirled around the knife was strong, but it
was no match for the power that now coursed through her. And though
she had struggled to push back against the weight of the evil
strength before, Isa suddenly found it nearly effortless. The
presence of the Fortress flowed around and through her, and for the
first time in her life, Isa knew without a doubt what she had been
born to do.

After Isa’s first strike, Nevina
had stumbled, but regained her balance quickly and continued to
approach. Again, Isa pounded the floor, and this time, the blue
flame flew out from her hands and traveled up to the princess’s
knees, making her stop momentarily. Still, with a struggle, the
princess pressed on, a look of fury upon her face.

When Isa struck the ground a third
time, however, the flame raced up Nevina’s entire body. The dark
princess writhed for what seemed like an eternity before letting
out a shriek of rage. Finally, she fell limp.

Isa stood there, staring down at
the bodies for a long time. Eventually, as the black sky began to
turn gray through the wall of windows, footsteps sounded on the
stone steps outside the door. A handful of the servants burst
through into the tower, along with a number of Chiens. They came to
a halt when they saw her, and it was only the expressions on their
faces that made her think to look in the mirror. Turning to it, she
realized why they looked so terrified.

Her eyes blazed with a wild blue,
as did the ring on her hand. She hadn’t noticed the Queen’s Ring
until now. Ever must have placed it there, she decided
absentmindedly. Looking back in the mirror, she saw a look on her
face that she had never worn before, feral and dangerous. Her hair
had fallen out of its place, and was covered in sweat and blood,
making her look even more menacing. That was when, out of her
peripheral vision, she realized Ever’s body was gone.

“
Isa.” Garin finally made his way
through the crowd. He approached her slowly with his hands out in
front of him, as if she were a wounded hound. “You are going to be
alright.”

Isa looked up at him, suddenly
terrified. “They took him, Garin,” she whispered.

“
No, dear.” The steward finally
reached out and took her hands. Their warmth helped draw Isa back
to herself. “The Fortress has taken him. He was its son, and it
loved him. It will give his body a more fitting burial than we ever
could.”

With that, Garin dropped to one
knee before her, still holding the hand that wore the ring. “And
now it is your burden and privilege to lead us into the next page
of Destin’s future, should you accept it. Are you willing,
Isabelle? Are you ready to be our queen?”

CHAPTER
TWENTY

You

The Fortress’s purge was finalized when the dark
princess was bound, gagged, and put to death according to the law
of the land. Exhausted, Isa didn’t want to attend the hanging, but
Garin told her it was an unfortunate duty of the monarchs to
oversee the deaths of the people’s enemies.

Recovering herself was a little
easier once that was done. By the time the sun rose, the dirt and
grime were gone, and the white marble glittered in the light of the
morning. The gardens bloomed with new buds, with no signs of the
charred dust they had been set to the night before. It was as if
there had never been a battle of any kind.

Similarly, according to reports,
Soudain had been purged and healed as well. The stone army had
apparently returned to its human state at the same moment Ever had
healed Isa. After pouring through the Fortress and finishing off
Nevina’s forces, they had run down into the town and slaughtered
the Caregivers as they had attempted to escape with as many
townspeople, willing and unwilling, as they could find. By the time
the sun had risen, however, all signs of bodies and blood were
gone. Instead of a war-torn landscape, gardens and farms were
suddenly filled with the ripest produce the farmers had ever seen.
Even the Chiens who had come with their masters were healed, and
could speak again. Everything seemed not only as it should be, but
better.

In the days that followed, people
flocked to see their new queen, the once crippled dancer who was
said to be now the most powerful ruler in the land. Isa’s own
family ran to her with open arms, her parents sobbing with joy,
Launce bursting with pride, and little Megane as happy to see her
as ever. As they held her, however, she realized their embraces
still left her feeling empty. She held on to them tightly, but deep
down, longed for the arms of another.

Garin and Gigi were really the
only ones who understood her pain, and she realized quickly that
she preferred their presence to all others’. Gigi didn’t ask
incessant questions like the rest of the well-meaning courtiers and
servants. She would simply hold Isa, crying her own tears along
with the young woman. And though he was less expressive about it,
Isa could feel the pain that Garin carried with him. Human or not,
he had lost a son.

The coronation ceremony was to
take place a week after Ever’s death. Isa relied on Garin to take
care of the customs and rituals she knew nothing about. She tried
to smile and do as her royal tutors instructed her to, telling her
when to sit, when to rise, when to speak, and when to refrain. But
the emptiness inside was gnawing, and the weight of loneliness was
more than she had ever expected it could be.