Beauty's Monster: A Beauty & the Beast Retelling: Monster Romance by Zari Hunt

Author:Zari Hunt [Hunt, Zari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragon Queen Press
Published: 2023-02-13T16:00:00+00:00

After a couple hours of scanning the books, the final one shows a bit more promise. It doesn’t share a spell to block the dreams. But it does share a short list of herbs to add to regular meals that will help suppress them. I’m certain the garden will have some of these. I make a mental note of the herbs and mark the page so I don’t lose its place. I won’t retrieve any of them tonight. Not after Lord Irving’s explosion. Even Eleanor seemed concerned for my safety. No, I’ll wait for her to retrieve me before I wander the halls.

Right on cue, my stomach grumbles hungrily. I ignore it and continue flipping through the pages. If it has useful herbs, maybe it has other information too. I nearly jump out of my skin when a knock on the door echoes through the quiet room. I swing my legs off the bed, groaning as one is more asleep than the other. I wobble through the prickly tingles to my door and hesitate with my hand on the handle. Then I chastise myself. If anyone wanted to harm me, they surely wouldn’t knock first. I yank it open.

“Eleanor,” I gasp.

A few strands of her hair are loose from her bun and dark circles have begun forming under her blue eyes. But it’s the makeshift sling cradling her right arm that brings a surge of outrage.

“What happened?” I demand.

She dismisses my question with a wave of her good hand. “You’ll need to dress for dinner and come down on your own. I need to prepare the dishes.”

I reach out to stop her as she turns to leave. “No, I’ll help you.”

She opens her mouth to argue, but after a glance at my face, she slowly nods. “I would appreciate that.”

I follow her downstairs to the kitchen, half-expecting Lord Irving to appear around any corner. But he doesn’t. My gaze keeps gravitating toward Eleanor’s bandaged arm and anger continues building. He has no right to injure her! It’s little wonder why the other servants left the castle. They likely fled fearing for their own lives. For her to stay through all of that and then end up injured while protecting me doesn’t sit well.

After helping dish out the servings, I load up a tray with the wine and glasses. I hesitate in the doorway to the kitchen. “He did that to you? Why?”

Eleanor doesn’t meet my gaze. She perfectly balances a tray of two salad plates with her good hand. “He lost his temper. That’s all that happened.”

“How many times has it been?” I ask.

She remains silent with her eyes downcast to the floor. That's enough to answer. More than once. Maybe countless times over the years. And she's taken the full brunt of it all since there's no one else.

I step aside to let her pass and trail after her into the dining room. I hesitate on the threshold when I see Lord Irving already in his seat at one end of the table.

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.