Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani

Author:Soman Chainani [Chainani, Soman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008224516
Google: DUkxEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 006265263X
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Published: 2021-09-20T23:00:00+00:00


The murder doesn’t go as planned.

She is well prepared though. A dagger belted to her leg under her dress, the steel cold against her skin as she kicks her horse. The horse knows the way and rides untroubled, thinking another bucket of apples will be its reward. She makes sure to arrive at the Beast’s castle with light still left, so she isn’t ambushed in the dark. Through the gates, the horse canters, before she pulls it to a stop in front of the castle.

She’s surprised at how unafraid she is.

Perhaps it’s because she hates this Beast already.

Killing a daughter in her father’s place?

Reveling in the torment of a young girl?

How predictable.

He might be a monster, but he is very much a man.

A snap of sticks—

She turns to find the Beast standing by the barn beneath the arbor of roses, holding a tray with chocolate hearts and two glasses of champagne. He is as her father described: a strange, brackish green, with wide-set yellow eyes and a pinched nose, like a mangled lion born at the bottom of the sea. But he does not roar, nor does he attack. He is wearing a freshly steamed suit, and he has curled and ribboned the fringes of his fur. Gaping at her, he shifts from one hairy foot to the other, unsure what happens next.

Mei realizes her father had it wrong.

This Beast has no intention of killing her.

He wants her company.

For Mei, that is worse than death.

You are my prisoner now, he bellows. You can never go home again. You will live here forever.

We’ll see, she says, walking into his house.

The castle is so rich and beautiful that it doesn’t seem forged by humans. Statues smile down at her; the window curtains draw a little wider to light her path; a mirror even says, This way!, as if it knows what she is looking for. Because it is the library she cares about, and when she finds it, she drops to her knees, because it is higher than the highest house in Mont de Marsan and as vast as a royal ballroom, with magical ladders that bend to the floor and scoop her right up, whizzing her from romance on high to mysteries down low to fantasy in between, each shelf like an exotic land because men back home only hoarded books about shipwrecks and jungles, but here are so many books, too many books, and she doesn’t know where to begin. That’s when she notices the Beast peeking from the door, still holding his chocolate hearts, and she thinks this is the moment where she should kill him, so she can read in peace—



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