Academia of the Beast: A Dark Retelling of Beauty and the Beast (15 page)

Maisie flew up to meet her. With a spin, she transformed from a pretty little girl to a wiry woman with white hair.

Maisie hissed. “You know, I had to get rid of your mother or your father might not have ever let you leave. You should thank me for all I’ve done for you.”

Allyn’s heart stopped. Every inch of her skin tightened with rage as she clenched her jaw.

“You killed my mother?”

“Kill? No. I sent her to a better place,” Maisie said, laughing. “Isn’t that what the humans like to say? A better place. No pain or suffering. What rubbish.”

Allyn shrugged off her robe. Her body became encased in the red bands as they wrapped around her, clothing her naked body in red, fueling her, protecting her, giving her strength.

The nuns told her to resist. To not let her power win. She just realized she’d been saving it up for this moment.

Maisie watched, with interest. “How are you doing that? Hey! I’m talking to you.”

Allyn ignored her, feeding her energy with all of the pent up aggression, sorrow, and suffering she’d ever felt.

Maisie was the one thing that stood between her and the man she loved. And that meant Maisie was what she’d really been brought to destroy.

To have a real purpose...this was what Allyn had been waiting for. She knew she had to break the curse. She just realized how.

She’d never been so ready to fight in her life.

She’d fight for the man she loved.

“Don’t do it, Allyn,” Maisie warned. “We are allies. We are sisters. Don’t chose the humans.”

Allyn shot her a glare, tears blurring her vision. “Don’t mess with the people I love.”

A quick snap of one of Allyn’s bands ripped through Maisie’s body.

Allyn sent them outward, like tentacles, to continue her assault on Maisie, the force that had made her entire life almost unbearable to live.

A cry from the west wing caught her attention, and she flew toward it, Maisie’s cries left behind. Allyn had always wanted to fly, and now she did, at full speed to the man she loved.

“GET BACK HERE!” Maisie shouted, pulling Allyn backward by one of the bands.

Allyn growled, spinning around to face Maisie. “I’m not playing with you anymore, Maisie,” she said, and with a surge of energy, Allyn’s body turned into flames.

Maisie’s scream filled the castle, as Allyn’s flames consumed her, burning through her defenses, through her spells, curses, through every layer of power she’d thought would protect her from...whatever Allyn was.

Allyn fought to see through the bright light that shone from within. Her light filled every dark crevice of the castle, and when it dimmed, Maisie was gone.

Allyn fell to the ground, totally spent.

She tried to pull herself to her feet, but her arms and legs had nothing left to give her. She groaned.

“Conall.”

The sound of running footsteps vibrated along the floor, but Allyn was too weak to look up and see what caused it.

The noise stopped, and Allyn was ready for rest.

Until she heard her name called.

“Allyn.”

Allyn fought to open her eyes. To her surprise, sunlight shone on the man above her. He cradled her head and kissed her.

“Wake up. Please. Don’t go.”

“Conall?” Allyn called.

He kissed her again. “It’s me. I’m back. Like I promised.”

Allyn’s eyes flickered open. She fought her fatigue and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Conall!”

Conall pulled her into his arms, and she straddled him. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “But, you broke the curse.”

Allyn sniffled and held his face. “Did I really?”

He nodded and kissed her again. He littered her face with kisses, and she tugged at his black hair.

“You’re real. You’re really here.”

“I am.”

She looked him in the eyes. “Where is Lennox?”

That question made Conall’s eyes water. He closed his eyes against the tears.

“You broke the curse, Allyn,” he said.

“Why won’t you tell me? Where is he?”

Conall opened his eyes. “He’s here, babe. He always will be. Because he is me.
You
made me whole.”

Allyn’s mouth parted. She never thought about what she would do once the curse was broken. Now, that Conall was back, and she was in his arms, she realized that he was right. She held onto his face, and there...she saw Lennox in his eyes.

She made both sides of him fall for her.

She fell for them both as well.

Conall rubbed her back and buried his face in the crease between her neck and her shoulder.

“What now?” she asked.

He kissed her on the lips and sighed. “Look,” he said.

Allyn’s brows furrowed as she followed his icy blue gaze to look over the railing and out the large windows that faced the woods.

It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at, and when it did, she gasped and came to her feet.

Conall joined her, taking her hand into his.

The Winter Winds had stopped.

Conall stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her body. He kissed her ear. “You ended the storm. Looks like we’re going to tell the world it’s safe to leave their homes.”

Allyn turned to him, a smile on her face. She jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around him. She was rejuvenated by everything she’d gained and all that she’d learned.

Finally, Allyn knew her purpose. She never expected to wake up and save the world.

––––––––

A
LLYN AND CONALL
held hands as they stood on the veranda while their twin daughters played on the swing set. It was a beautiful summer day in Elastria, and all of high society had gathered for a party at Baran Castle.

“They’re getting so big,” Allyn’s father, Robert said from his seat on the bench right before the fountain, as waiters served frozen cocktails and champagne to the guests that filled the back garden that faced the Briar Woods.

Allyn smiled. She never imagined what it would be like to have children, let alone two beautiful girls with the prince of Elastria.

Keely and Nora laughed together as Aude and Khia—dressed in matching black cocktail dresses— pushed them higher and higher on the swings.

“Before we know it, they’ll be bringing boys to the castle,” Conall said and Robert shook his head.

“That’s your problem,” Robert said with a laugh and went back to reading one of the ancient books he’d found in the castle library.

Baran Castle was a different place five years since Allyn broke the curse. The castle was bright and full of love and cheer now that Allyn and Conall had children and moved her father in.

There were days that Allyn would worry that all of the joy that filled her life would suddenly vanish and that it would be revealed that it was all a dream.

So far, that hadn’t happened, and she was resolute to enjoy this new life for as long as she could.

Ridding Maisie from existence reversed all of the damage she’d done to the Baran clan. It was revealed that she’d given each male descendant of the original king that scorned her their own unique form of hell. Shifting into a Wolf turned out to not be a curse at all, but their only defense against dark magic.

Allyn faced Conall and fixed his tie. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I doubt any young man will want to come to the cursed castle to meet the king.”

Conall sighed. “That still sounds so odd to me,” he said as he held her by the waist. “For some reason, I expected my father to live forever, and to never have the responsibility of ruling all of Elastria.”

Allyn touched the diamond encrusted silver circlet on her head and giggled. “I never thought I’d be queen. After the life I had before I met you, I’d say my luck has changed.”

He kissed her on the lips. “So did mine.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, and he chuckled.

“How happy are you right now, my love?”

Allyn looked him in the eyes, her heart full of joy and love she never knew she could feel.

“The happiest I’ve ever been,” she said, and the band began to play on the veranda behind them.

They turned to the band and took champagne off a server’s tray as she passed by.

Allyn’s smile faded as she watched the band play. She and Conall ruled Elastria together. They made new laws, erased old ones that oppressed the citizens, and lifted the Witch’s Bounty and the ban against magic.

While she was secure in her spot as queen, a constant nagging in her belly worried her about the future for her daughters.

Allyn looked off into the woods, wondering when she’d get the courage to reveal her latest nightmares.

There was a reason the Wolves weren’t supposed to mate with sorceresses.

Now, with two hybrid princesses, Allyn worried that one day...they’d be faced with opposition from the other nine kingdoms.

She glanced over her shoulder at her daughters, and how their long black hair swayed with the summer breeze as they chased each other around the swings in their matching yellow dresses.

Keely shifted into a black wolf and barked at her sister who flew into the air with a laugh.

When that day came, they’d all be ready.

THE END

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AN EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT FROM

F
EAR THREATENED TO CRIPPLE YARA
as she passed the servants harvesting the grapes of Torrington Orchard.

It was a cool autumn morning, and yet Yara felt sweat bead on her forehead and in the crease between her bosom.

“Good morning, my lady,” one of the workers said, bowing her bonnet-covered head.

She feigned a smile, and yet her heart pounded inside her chest as she hid the blood that stained her bodice by letting her long white hair hang over her narrow shoulders.

Be brave
, Yara thought as she wrung her shaking hands.

"Hero,” she spoke to the wind. “Please get me out of here. I’m serious this time.”

Yara broke into a run toward the stables, no longer caring who she vexed by her sudden action. She didn’t have much time. The body would surely be found at any moment.

The sun warmed her cold cheeks as she looked to the sky.

Come on, Hero. Hurry.

She grabbed her long navy skirts into her fists as her feet pounded the stone path that led to the front gate. Soldiers stood guard on either end of the locked gate, their swords secure at the waist.

A squawking sound came from the distance and Yara snatched off her wedding band, tossing it into the bushes that lined the road.

Her heart thumped in her chest as one of the soldiers glanced her way. He narrowed his eyes at her. “Where are you going?”

She ignored him, keeping her attention fixed on that gate. They’d hang her if she ever got caught, but she had to risk it. 

A royal decree was announced
.

Magic is abolished.

All Spell Slingers are to be executed.

Those with magic must go to the capital of Allarya for evaluation.

Those who resist will be executed.

There was no way she could stand by and let her father be executed. Life as a concubine was over for Yara. It was time to stop running from her destiny.

To be a Spell Slinger.

A grin came to her face, despite the tears that trailed down her cheeks as a tall young man dressed in all black appeared outside of the gate, his pale skin almost translucent as he held a hand out toward her.

Black hair covered his dark eyes. Clean shaven, and baby-faced, Hero was her greatest friend, one that would risk his life to save hers.

She chewed her lip, quickening her pace as she prayed that they would both survive this.

“Ay,” the guard shouted, drawing his sword. “Stop right now, miss. We don’t want to have to hurt you.”

Yara ignored them. She needed every bit of concentration to do what she’d been planning for the past few days. She would have served her time in this horrid place for all eternity if they’d have left her family alone.