Page 3 of Beauty

“He won’t once he can’t find my body.” I need to run. Weboth need to get out of here.

Gillian’s nose wrinkles. She’s a lovely woman, but now shelooks full of mischief. “Oh, he’ll find your body. I switched it with one ofthe servant girls. I didn’t kill her. She was already dead. I figured shewouldn’t mind. It rather was her duty to protect you. It seems everyone was abit derelict today.”

I’m starting to feel a bit stronger. “You can’t blame theservants. They’re supposed to serve dinner, not fight off a coup.”

Gillian snorts, an oddly regal sound. “Unseelie servantsknow a coup can come at any moment.”

“Well, I don’t see your guards here.” I feel an inexplicableneed to defend my house. I sit up.

“My guards are dead,” Gillian says in a flat tone. “They didtheir duty, but we were overrun once the battle began. As far as I can tell,your father was killed almost instantly. Torin seems to have bribed some ofyour father’s guards to his side. Or perhaps he’s been playing a long game andhe had them placed here. It doesn’t matter now. The only thing that matters isgetting you away from here.”

“How am I alive?” I take a deep breath, my lungs filling,the very act pleasurable in that I never expected to do it again. My feet feelsteady beneath me. I died. I know I did. “Magic isn’t strong enough to bringback the dead.”

Gillian smiles, but even I can see the ruthless will behindit. My father warned me that the Unseelie princess might look like us, but sheis and would always be Unseelie. The blood of goblins and trolls and all thedark creatures of the world run through her veins. “Perhaps Seelie magic isn’tstrong enough, but mine is. Well, mine combined with my brothers’. Somehow theymanaged to help me even across the planes. You owe them your life.”

“Are they really symbiotic, like Beck and Cian?” I heard therumor that the Unseelie king’s vampire wife gave birth to a set of symbiotictwins, as my own mother did. Symbiotic twins are born with one soul and twobodies. They’re extremely powerful when they find the right bondmate, a womanwho can bridge their split soul. At least that’s what legend says.

“You’re going to find out for yourself.” Gillian stands andpulls a small pack from the table in the corner. I notice the Unseelie princessis dressed in soft leather pants and a man’s shirt. It makes her curvy bodylook a bit round, but with her hair tucked into a cap, she might pass as apeasant man if no one looks too closely.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we must find a way off this plane and back to theUnseelie plane before that jackass Torin seals the exits. My father will takecare of you, youngling.” Her eyes take on a serious air. “And so will mybrothers.”

“What about Beck and Ci?” I need to find them.

Gillian shakes her head. “We have to make sure you’re safebefore we go looking for your brothers. I assure you they would want it thatway. Now get changed. We need to leave while the troops are preoccupied. It’schaotic out there, Your Highness. We must be careful to not stand out.”

I look down at the clothes Gillian laid out for me. They’revery much like Gillian’s, though I don’t have Gillian’s womanly form. No onewill question I’m a peasant boy once my hair is dealt with. I dress quickly, myhand skimming over my now perfectly smooth stomach.

We’re quiet as we steal from the palace. We reach a hill,hiding ourselves among the fleeing peasants, but I turn to look at the WhitePalace one more time. In the moonlight it looks like a ruin, a place that oncestood but now crumbles, leaving only memories of the world it once represented.

“I can’t go back.” I won’t go home again. I won’t runthrough the palace or swim in the river. I will never again sneak into mymother’s bed when the thunder frightens me. I won’t play with my friends.

I have no home.

Gillian takes me by the shoulders, spinning me around.“Don’t you talk like that. You will go back.” She presses an object into myhand. It’s small and cold. “That’s yours. I found it next to your body. It’sthe weapon that they tried to kill you with. Never let it go. When the timecomes for vengeance, this knife will be in your hand. The world has changed.That does not mean your life is at an end. Dark times are only the end whentrue leaders refuse to fight. Your brothers are fighting now, and your timewill come. Decide, Your Highness. What kind of a princess will you be? A Seelieprincess who weeps and hopes someone will save her, or will you choose toavenge your people? This is not just about you. This is about your people andall who will fall to Torin’s sword. If you cannot find the strength to be morethan a pretty face, then I have no use for you.”

I turn and look again with new eyes. I see what was takenfrom me. And one day I will take it back.

When Gillian moves, I follow. I was born in the WhitePalace, and I died there. I am a new version of myself. I am more than I wasbefore, stronger, older, harder.

And alone.

When the darkness came, I was alone. My Dark Ones did notcome for me. It’s time to put that dream away.

I walk from my home with only vengeance in my heart.

Chapter One

Lachlan

The dead things of the world love me. It’s the shameof my life that I can’t return the affection.

I look down at the small dog barking and jumping at my feet.I take a deep breath of the forest air and pray to the gods for patience. Iwalked into the woods behind the palace because I looked for Shim in all hisother haunts. My brother isn’t at the tavern in the village. He isn’t in thekitchens. He isn’t sitting in our room staring out the window toward the west,the direction of the door to the Seelie plane. It’s where I often find Shimthese days, a vacant look in his dark eyes.

I need to talk to my brother about the morning’s news, but Ifind myself alone with a dead dog. If Shim was here, he would more than likelylaugh and pet the damn thing. Shim wouldn’t even notice that something tookhalf the yipping dog’s side out. Likely a bear, or maybe a troll who was luckyenough to catch it, but not lucky enough to finish its meal.

“Go away.” I try to put some distance between me and thenow-reanimated corpse of the former terrier. It simply yips and follows me.