Chapter 8

t was currently night, I was just laying on my bed, staring up into the ceiling, not finding sleep.

So, I put on my signature cloak over my nightgown, and quietly walked out of my room. The palace was eerily quiet. Everyone was in bed, The castle seemed to be dead and haunted almost. I smile, getting an idea, I swiftly and silently walk down my hallway, seeing the main staircase heading to the up into an area Benjamin never showed me. I look around, hearing the light chatter of the servants still cleaning the kitchen.

Heading up the staircase, taking a right into an even darker hallway, a dusty and scary long hallway, seeming to ooze with horrors and mystery, I look to my left and see a white door, whereas everything else was dusty and dark, this was clean and light. I look around and slip through. The room was in shambles, furniture was flipped over and ripped open, the portraits on the walls all ripped, all except one, it was the portrait of a gorgeous brunette woman holding a bundle. It was Queen Amalia. I look to my left, and walk down the two steps into an alcove area, but in the middle, there was a coffin? I grab a torch from the wall, unclip my bracelet, clashing the flint and steel together from the clasp creating a spark and light a fire. I hold the flame over the gold writing of the side of the coffin, Queen Amalias Cornelian, 1548-1590 I fall back, my eyes wide, I look at the picture and then to the coffin. I then see a portrait to my right, all torn up, but I fold the canvas back together. It was an older version of Xavier, but with brown evil eyes instead of his blues.

I slowly stand up, my torch now snuffed out from the fall onto the ground. This was his father, the one that may still be alive.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE!" I flip around to see an extremely angry beast screaming at me, his face extremely close to mine, his teeth glinting in the moonlight. "I-i" I stutter. Still in shock from the queen.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! LEAVE!" The beast screams, waking up almost everyone up. I turn to the door, just when the beast starts chucking things across the room, I slam the door shut, sprinting to my room to put on decent shoes, the only things I really needed besides my cloak, and I run towards the front door. "My Lady! What are you doing!" Benjamin asks, running to catch me. I dodge his arms and keep running towards the door.

"Getting out of here!" I screamed.

"No! Stop her!" Garth yells at the guards stationed at the doors. The men run to catch me, but I evade their hands by pushing them into each other. I was about to open the door when something was pulling on my foot, I was about to trip, it was Garth who leaped at me, grabbing my foot, ripping off one of my shoes. I rip my foot out of his hands and sprint towards the windows, the guards have successfully gotten up and are now leaning against the doors, making sure I don't leave through those doors. I open the hatch of the window, jumping onto the rock work of the palace wall. I maneuver myself quickly down the rocks, trying not to slip and die from the forty feet fall, I make it to five feet above the ground when I jump off, my hand started to sting from pain, but I didn't look at my hands. I feel pricks on my bare feet, but I don't give a second thought to the blood dripping from my feet, now leaving spots on the gravel.

I start sprinting towards the front gate, seeing the servants running after me. I spot a horse in the stables on my left, I sprint over to the stables and open the hatch, pet the nose of the black horse, jumping on it, clutching onto its mane, kicking the sides of its body, The horse starts galloping and I cling tighter. I steer with my feet, not stopping until I see the lanterns of the nearest town, which was three thousand acres away from the palace. I let my horse rest as I go into a dark alley to calm down. I slip off the horse, putting my forehead on the forehead of the huge animal, both of us breathing hard. "Well what do we have here?" I hear from deeper into the alley. I stay quiet. The voices come closer, drunk men from a pub. "A palace horse? Do we got the princess on our hands gentlemen?" I hear the leader taunt. I put my hand on my dagger, one which I always kept in a hidden pocket in my cloak. I feel a hand coming up to touch my shoulder.

I whip around and put the dagger on the closest mans throat. "You touch me, you die." I threat.

Another man comes up and I pull out another dagger, threatening him also. "Hey lady, your eyes are bleeding." A man farthest away from me states. I touch the curve of my nose, where I felt something. I pull it back and see it was red. "Are you okay? We were just joking before." The man I had my dagger to its throat asks. I pull back, stumbling, my blood now burning up. "It burns." I whisper, I then cough and something runs down my lips, more blood, It burning like someone shoved fire down my throat. My heart, there's a coal on it, I collapse on the ground, holding my chest, the blood now pouring out of my eyes. "Lady, hey, Whats happening guys!" A man catches me.

"GET THE POLICE." I hear, "Hey, Hey, stay awake." I hear.

"ITS THE BEAST!" Another man screams. the one that was holding me placed me on the ground and bolted. I open my eyes, my eyes tinted with a cover of red, I blink and look at the animal-like face of Xavier. "It burns." I tell him softly.

"I know, I'm so sorry." He whispers, putting me in his lap. "I never wanted this to happen." He kept repeating.

"But it needed to happen." I tell him, lifting my dead hand to his face. "Listen to me." I ask him. He looks at me tearfully. His blue eyes pouring into my soul.

"You need to be a good king, a just king. Not the cruel king." I tell him, coughing up more blood.

"I care about you, you are the only one who treated me like a person after I was cursed." He tells me. I smile, the burning almost numb now. Wait, the burning. It doesn't Burn. I cough up more blood, rolling onto the ground, the blood dripping out freely, and soon I noticed that my eyes had stopped crying blood. "Whats happening?" I whisper. I snap my head at him, he looks confused and terrified. "You care about me." I state. He nods, his mane blowing in the soft breeze.

I shakily get up, spitting the blood that was in my mouth to the cobblestone ground. "It doesn't burn." I state, I wipe my face, no more blood taking its place. I look at the now standing beast.

"I'm so tired." I tell him. He pulls me into his warm fur. His huge arms engulfing me. "I want to sleep." I mumble. "I'll be here." He tells me.

I smile softly, my eyes closing and my brain shutting down, the last thing I feel is being picked up, laying on comfortable warm fur.

+++++++++++

After Isla had successfully escaped the palace, the servants had woken up the royal siblings, telling them what had happened. So, as of now, for two hours and counting, around eighty to ninety people all were grouped together in the foyer, every servant and palace official waiting for Isla and the King to return. The young twins were in their older siblings arms, now asleep, extremely tired from the early hour and from crying their body weight.

All of the servants that Isla had helped and had been kind to were anxiously waiting for her, most couldn't be here, either watching their young kids, working for the morning to come, or is sleeping. Everyone in the foyer held their breath as they heard the signature trumpets of someone arriving through the front gates. The servants and family all waited anxiously for Isla to come through that door, but it seemed the that time froze, everything was so slow.

When the servants were about to look out the window for what was happening outside, the huge front doors slowly were pushed open. The beast had entered on foot, carrying a limp woman, covered with a thick red liquid, all smeared over her face, her silver nightgown now had the bottom silver, and the top all red. Everyone sucked in a breath, thinking she was dead. "Isla!" The -now awake- twins yell, running to their older brother who was carrying Isla. 'Why did she run?' Amalie thought, 'didn't yesterday she say that she wasn't like the other maidens?'

"She's not dead!" The beast's powerful voice filled the room. There was a sigh in relief from everyone. "How?" Amalie demands, knowing what happened to all of the other maidens who ran away.

"I have no idea. I just was talking to her and she said it didn't burn anymore."

"What did you say?" Laden asks him, both of the siblings walking closer to their older brother to talk in somewhat private. "I said that I cared about her." He says softly, looking at her.

"You didn't care about all those other maidens, you didn't even try to stop them from leaving, nonetheless helped find them." Amalie states.

"You are right. But she's the only one who didn't treat me like the beast I am." He says, more to the girl in his arms than to his siblings.

"Your Majesty?" Benjamin asks, coming closer to his King.

"Yes Ben?"

"She needs to be checked, shall we put her in the medical wing?" He tells the beast softly.

Xavier nods, walking behind the grand staircase, most of the servants in the foyer dispersed, not wanting to face the wrath of their employer. Xavier opens the false wall and steps into the darkness, walking the long hallway, opening the latch at the end of the walk.

"Oh my!" The older nurse yelled, alerting the other ones. The nurses immediately recognized the bloody woman as the one who helped the staff with the whipping incidents.

"What happened?" The older one asked the King.

"She ran away."

"And she's still alive?!"

"Quickly, put her on a bed." The brunette nurse said, getting out of her head the fastest.

=

The nurses worked on Isla for two hours, finding cuts and scratches they had to clean, there was one on her hand that needed stitches, they had to put a cast on her hand to keep her from clenching her fists. The king watched them as they worked, making sure Isla would survive, He thought this was all his fault, that he made her run away, that he was the cause of her -almost- demise. After the nurses were done, he watched the now clean woman, admiring all of her physical features, he knew all of her features inside of her, and she was gorgeous with just her morals and head, but on the outside, she had long curly brown hair, he was surprised at the length because she always put it up. Her body was nice and toned, her arms very muscular and tight, same with all of her limbs. Her face was extremely nice to look at. She had a very nice button nose leading to thick full lips, her chin was very rounded and it had an assertiveness to it. The King couldn't see her gorgeous deep purple eyes, but he knew they were his favorite part of her face, they had liveliness to them, whenever she was in a good mood her eyes would almost twinkle. When she was angry, (Mostly at him it would seem) Her eyes would shift to a darker tone, both shades of her purple were pretty, but the happiness in her sparkling eyes always brung the King an emotion which he had never felt before.

Devotion