Beauty's Beasts: A why choose Beauty and the Beast retelling (Primordial Gates) by Alex Hanson

Author:Alex Hanson [Hanson, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

*****

I wake up when something soft is laid on top of me, and I roll over, shielding my eyes from the sun as I blink up at the figure leaning over me.

“Your skin is turning red,” Fenmire says as he finishes draping my dress over me. “I’m no expert, but I think you’re sensitive to the sun.”

“Oh, no…” I mutter miserably. I can already feel the burn. It’s protesting even the soft touch of my dress. “How long have I been sleeping?”

“A couple of hours.”

I groan. I fell asleep on the sheet next to Will, but Will is back in the pond now, swimming laps with Jacob. In my slumber, I rolled onto my belly and let the sun scorch my poor back, bottom, and legs. My skin feels like it’ll split open at the smallest movement.

“What is it, Evangeline?” Fenmire asks.

“Sunburn. A bad one by the feel of it.”

Fenmire kneels beside me and lifts the edge of my dress to touch my back. I hiss at the contact, and his face shifts from slightly worried to deeply concerned.

“It’s alright,” I assure him. “It’s normal. I was in the sun too long, that’s all.”

Will starts splashing his way toward us. “What’s wrong?”

“They’ve been burned by the sun,” Fenmire explains.

Will kneels beside me and lifts my dress too. “Oh God…”

“Is it bad?” I ask.

“Um… it’s…”

Jacob joins us too, and he peers at my back over Will’s shoulder and whistles. “That’s pretty bad. I saw a burn like that once. My uncle worked his fences an entire afternoon with his shirt off after a summer shower soaked him to the bone. He was sick in bed for a whole week from it.”

“Sick how?” Fenmire asks.

“A terrible headache, fevers and chills, and he threw up a few times, stuff like that. His skin blistered something awful.”

I whimper, my misery mounting with each passing minute.

Fenmire stands up. “Stay here,” he barks, then he takes off.

“Where’s he going?” Will asks.

“I don’t know,” I say through gritted teeth. “I feel like my back is on fire.”

“I can help that,” Jacob says, and he gathers up one of the sheets and takes it to the water. He tosses it in and shoves it under the surface until it’s soaked, then he wrings out the excess and brings it back. “This might hurt for a second.”

Will takes off my dress, and Jacob lays the sheet over me instead. The second the wet cloth touches me, I yelp. It’s so cold against my overheated skin that it hurts, but soon the burn begins to fade, and I relax with a soft sigh.

“Better?” Jacob asks.

“Much. Thank you.”

Will retrieves one of our water skins and hands it to me. “Here, you should drink something other than wine.”

I’ve taken no more than a swig when two Gryxen land beside the pond, one dressed head-to-toe in shining gold armor.

“You didn’t have to bother Caliborne on patrol,” I say. I try to sit up, but my backside immediately protests, so I lay right back down with a grunt.

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