Beauty & Cruelty by Meredith Katz

Author:Meredith Katz [Katz, Meredith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Less Than Three Press, LLC
Published: 2015-12-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

She woke, confused to find herself not on the floor of her house in the real world, but in her bed in her own castle. Realization dawned as she both felt and remembered the lack of protections on the place. Anyone could and would come in and out now; if she was found by someone who knew where she belonged, she could actually be taken there.

Cruelty turned her head; Sixth was dozing in a chair next to the bed, a candle lit at his side, and the Cat was on his lap, drooling and snoring, one of Sixth's feathers in his mouth. She sat up slowly, every inch of her body still aching, but she was better than she had been, at least. Not that it was possible to be worse and still exist. Here, where she belonged, a slow trickle of energy flowed back into her, though admittedly much, much slower than she expected. She had enough left to survive on, but that was it. If she'd been left out there, she doubted she'd have enough energy to wake up again at all.

Slowly, she pushed her hair back and tried to slide her legs out of bed. They weren't strong enough to hold her; she stumbled, catching herself on the bed and letting out an inelegant noise.

Sixth snapped awake, eyes fluttering open, and reached to catch her groggily, spilling the Cat out of his lap. The Cat hit the ground with a discontent yowl.

That makes two of us, Cruelty thought.

"Lady Cruelty," Sixth said. "Please, you shouldn't be up and about so soon—"

"I'm fine," she protested, even if she wasn't sure that she was. She let Sixth help her back into the bed. "I'll be better once I can get out and about among the plants."

"Let yourself rest a little longer first," he said. "There's no point in walking in nature, Lady, if you can't keep yourself walking."

She didn't want him to have a point, so she sighed, tried to give off the air that she was doing it for him, and settled herself back on her cushions. She had to admit, at least to herself, that lying in one place certainly seemed less painful than moving around. "How long was I out?"

"A week, my Lady," Sixth said. The Cat, apparently no longer viewing Sixth as a sensible place to sleep, hopped up on the bed. He curled up uncomfortably on Cruelty's knees. "A worrying week, to be honest. I hope you don't mind that I've made myself at home here, but I wished to keep an eye on you."

"Why?" she asked.

He seemed at a loss for words in the face of the blunt question. "Why? Um. Well," he stammered, and glanced at the Cat. "Tim guided me to you," he said. "And well, since I'd been the one to find you, I suppose I sort of took responsibility...? Someone needed to keep an eye on you, and my cabin has been taken over by humans needing a place to stay.

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