Gilded Rose: A Beauty and the Beast Retelling (Celestials Book 1) by Emma Hamm

Author:Emma Hamm [Hamm, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Amicia tossed the little blue book aside, a headache blooming between her eyes so powerful it made her nauseous. She’d tried to read the damned thing, but it refused to be read. Three days she’d wasted trying to decipher the words. Three days trying to catch the wiggling lines that shifted and warped until her eyes ached.

He hadn’t been joking when he said the book didn’t want to be read by him. But it didn’t want to be read by her either.

She couldn’t understand what the book was. The moving lines were clearly handwritten. The swirling letters were elaborate, leading her to believe this was more likely a journal than it was an official document.

Most of the books in the library seemed to be accounts of townships, with a few storybooks along the way. Very few were journals or diaries.

Amicia glared at the book. Maybe if she just figured out how to intimidate it, then it would reveal the secrets held between its covers…

Nothing happened.

She snarled, then reached for her crutches. “Damned book,” she muttered, shoving the padded ends underneath her arms. “I can’t stand looking at it one more minute when it’s just mocking me at this point.”

Her skirts tangled in her legs, forcing her to stop and jerk them aside. Her usual cotton pants had disappeared suspiciously from her room a few nights ago. Until that point, she had decided upon wearing her own clothes.

Now, she was forced to wear the silken gowns provided by the Dread and their leader. Alexandre made it clear she was lucky to wear such finery. That most women would have been pleased.

Amicia was uncomfortable in the watery fabrics. They made it difficult to walk when she was used to her skirts rigidly staying in place when she moved. Silk and velvet adhered to her body like she’d touched sap on a tree. The dresses clung to her and made movement difficult. She had to walk slower, more delicately, when all she wanted to do was charge forward.

“Damned skirts,” she growled, tempted to rip them apart and walk around in nothing more than her shift. “Damned creature making me wear god knows what kind of dresses. My mother is rolling in her grave at the indignities.”

Amicia didn’t know where she was going, only that she couldn’t stay in her little room any longer. The pretty wallpaper, the gilded edges, all the delicate glass, it was swallowing her until she couldn’t think or even breathe.

She didn’t belong here. She wanted to go back to the kitchens where it was warm and smelled of earth. The herbs hanging over her head had grounded her. The heat of ovens warmed her bones. The scent of bread cooking and dough rising only reminded her to be thankful for the food on her table.

Here, she was lost. A block of dirt staining marble, silk, and glass. This wasn’t where she was meant to be, and yet, she was chained to this glamorous place as if it were a prison.

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