Beasts of Beauty (Bewitching Fairy Tales Book 3) by Celeste Baxendell

Author:Celeste Baxendell [Baxendell, Celeste]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

Aerona shot out of her bed, her claws ripping into the mattress and tripping her up. She skidded on the floor, crashing into the wall.

“Your name is Aerona. You escaped. It’s been five years. You’re safe. Your name is Aerona.”

She repeated the phrase over and over until the feel of metal bars faded, until the haze faded, and her memories of her mother returned.

When she was herself again, she came to a stop, sinking into the floor. She shook and panted, still sweating as her heart raced.

Her night terrors were always worse around the anniversary.

Some days she wondered what would happen if she couldn’t pull herself back from the brink.

What little humanity she had left… What if it vanished entirely?

She pushed that thought away. It wasn’t going to happen. The fairies had come up with the grounding phrases to pull her back, and that was enough. The Scholar couldn’t enter the forest thanks to Queen Melantha’s wards. As long as she stayed within its borders, she was safe. He couldn’t make her any worse than she already was.

Chasen’s voice echoed in her head.

“Do I mean nothing to you?”

If only he knew. If only she had the right words to express how much he meant to her. But she didn’t, so he didn’t.

Whenever she thought about telling Chasen what had happened to her… what the Scholar had done to her, her throat closed. The carpet under her paws shifted to stone, and all the light vanished. Metal bars pressed in on her from every angle, and she suffocated.

It had taken Helio months to coax the whole story out of her even after they’d taught her how to speak in her wolfish form, and that was only because they were desperately trying to figure out how to fix her.

There was no fixing her.

The things she’d seen, the things she’d experienced, she wouldn’t wish them on anyone. But she certainly didn’t want Chasen’s pity. Besides, why bother telling him when he wouldn’t be around forever?

Chasen wasn’t hers to keep, and she knew it.

But, if she was going to go through with letting him go, would she regret it if she didn’t?

Or would it be easier to close herself off now? What did it matter what Chasen knew about her? It wouldn’t change anything, and getting any closer was setting herself up to get hurt. She was stuck between two terrible options, afraid of getting closer and afraid of letting go, and the terror kept her frozen in place, unable to fully commit to either.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.