Bastien

I woke half-naked, curled up on the forest floor, a blanket of snow insulating my body.

My entire body ached, covered in scratches and bruises. Something was wrong. Something was different.

And then finally I looked up.

The Blood Moon hung in the sky.

Never, not in all my years as the Beast, had I woken beneath the moon.

I sat up slowly.

How is this possible?

The Moon glowed red over the forest, yet it wasn't the forest I remembered. Everything was covered in white, the branches dusted in a fine layer... and that horrible, creeping darkness that always seemed to watch me was gone. I lifted a trembling hand to my face, touching the now human flesh. My fingers were coated in mud and blood, my shirt gone and my pants were in shreds.

But I was human beneath the Moon.

Could the Beast be gone? Hope crashed and tumbled within my chest.

My memories from the previous day felt fuzzy. Lorcan and I had been talking to the Blood Rose... everything had seemed fine... we had so much time left, so much daylight... and then suddenly it was gone.

The Blood Rose had tricked us.

I'd felt the Beast coming over me, and ran.

But now the Beast was gone...

The curse is broken.

The thought crashed over me, and I tilted my head back, laughing and crying at the same time. The Beast is gone. I'm free.

And then, the thought more important than all: I have to find Rell.

I took off at once, struggling through the snow. At first sheer elation and joy kept me moving. But the snow continued to fall, the cold creeping over my skin. I now faced a problem I'd never before confronted. The moon still hung high in the sky, and it would be hours till first light. Which left me stranded, half naked in the middle of the forest while it snowed.

Still better than being the Beast, I thought with a grin. The cold might hurt my body, but it couldn't touch my soul. Nothing could now that I was free of the Beast. I had to tell Rell. It all just felt so...

"Impossible," a voice called out through the woods. My feet tangled and I fell hard. Then I surged back up, terrified as I spun to face a forest of white.

"But we should be careful with words, as they are powerful things."

Finally I found the source of the voice. A man, leaning beneath a pine, so still I'd nearly missed him. He had raven black hair down to his shoulders, and a long, dark coat with a line of golden buttons.

"I've been waiting a long time to meet you, Bastien," he said, voice soft.

For ten seconds I had no response. And then finally, I said the only thing I could think: "Who the hell are you?"

He pushed off the tree and walked closer, both hands buried in his warm-looking coat. Then, when he was ten feet away, he took off the coat and tossed it to me. I caught it, too startled and cold to do anything but immediately pull it on.

"Have I met you before?" I said, shivering into the warmth of the coat. There was something eerily familiar about him. I'd never met anyone in the forest after a night as the Beast— not even a hiker— and meeting someone now felt both bizarre... and somehow, thought I couldn't explain how, right.

"No," he said, with a smile that said I was missing some sort of inside joke. "But I have been waiting to meet you for a very long time."

I glanced around, the white shrouded forest, the moon shining down high above. "And this is where you chose?"

He smiled, taking another step forward. It was only then I realized there were no tracks beyond the ones that led out of the tree as he approached me. So where had he come from?

"Did you get here from the highway? Or some kind of game path?" I said carefully. Too late I wondered if he was dangerous. But what could be more dangerous than a Beast? Except that I wasn't a Beast anymore.

He shook his head, a dark laugh. "No. I came here from no human means." The hair on my neck stood on end. What the hell did that mean? Then he glanced up to the Moon above. "Would that I could explain everything, but time grows short. The Dark King had given until sunrise to return to the Dark Realm before he closes the realms. I've spent too long between Realms to wish to be trapped again. But, should you ever wish to know the truth, there is a petal in the pocket of the coat. Throw it into the ocean, and I'll find you."

I stared at him, shocked when he bent at the waist, as if in a bow. And then, with nothing more, turned to go.

"Wait!" I called after him. "What's your name?"

"Most people call me James," he said, and then paused, lifting his arm. The white shirt had covered what I thought was the end of his end. But now, as it fell back, I saw there, where flesh and fingers should have been, was instead a curling metal hook. "But my enemies call me Hook." With nothing more he stepped deeper into the forest.

It was only as I glanced down at the coat that I suddenly realized where I'd seen him before. In the mirror. He looked like me.

"Wait!" I called out, eyes flicking back up.

The forest was empty.

A shiver ran down my spine, but I pushed it away. Was I losing it? But the jacket around my body was real enough. And then I reached into my pocket, flinching when I touched something velvety soft. I lifted free a single blood red petal.

He gave me a petal from The Blood Rose. A petal to find him with. Why does he want me to find him later?

I stared at the petal, and then placed it back into the pocket. There was time to think over what he'd said later. Right now all I cared about was finding Rell. If what the man— James— said was true, then the realms closed at sunrise. I had to find her before then and beg her to stay.

So I orientated myself with the stars, and then set off again. It took an hour of hard travel through the woods, but finally I began to recognize where I was. I'd gone deeper into the woods than normal, but I could find my way back. And as long as I kept moving I wouldn't freeze.

As dawn grew closer, my heart began to build with excitement and fear, the strange man in the forest forgotten.

The Beast was gone.

Rell could stay. So long as I found her before sunrise.

I broke into a run, crossing over the snow that hadn't been there the night before but now coated the forest with a serene, peaceful beauty.

It was because of that peaceful beauty that I didn't realize the empty stretch of forest before me wasn't the meadow.

It was the river.

And the deep cracking sound beneath me wasn't sticks. It was ice.

There was only time for a single moment of horror, a drawing of breath, before I plunged into a world of darkness and blinding cold. I struggled and flailed, everything swept away from me.

Darkness covered me.

I fought, but the current dragged me down.

And then, suddenly plunging through the ice, came the most bizarre, impossible creature.

A walrus?

Poxel to the rescue!

The words echoed in my head, and I watched as the walrus effortlessly wove through the river, pushing me back towards the hole I'd made in the surface.

I swam, kicking as darkness pressed in. Then a hand surged into the water, and someone heaved me up and free.

I coughed, my entire body trembling, as strong arms pulled us both off the river.

"Poxel, a fire! Now! Big as you can!" a female voice called out.

I sensed a sort of wild glee, and an image of an entire forest on fire. And then a walrus surged up out of the river, shifted into a dragon, and opened his mouth. Red flames burst out, lightning a mound of sticks on the river bank on fire.

Rell pulled me toward the growing fire, and helped me out of the jacket, wrapping her own around me. I was too cold to protest. Slowly my body stopped trembling, warmth returning to my limbs. Only when my teeth stopped chattering did she finally speak.

"Are you alright?"

I managed a smile. "I am now."

"What were you thinking trying to cross the river?" she said, her voice half angry, half disbelieving.

"I was trying to hurry to get back to you... I didn't realize it was the river till I was standing on it."

Don't fret, most humans very dumb. Walking on two feet bad for thinking. This helpful thought came from Poxel, and I laughed, and turned to Rell.

And then I realized what I hadn't before. "I've never heard him talk to me like that before!"

Rell smiled. "He must really like you. He has good taste."

Of course he does, he's with you. I wanted to pull her too me and kiss her right then, but instead I swallowed, a sense of shame coming over me. "Rell, I'm sorry about the Beast. I should have told you everything. I wanted to... but the curse is broken now."

"I know," she said, and then a bit of sadness touched her eyes. "Dasan broke it."

The way she said his name, the look in her eyes, hit me like a blow. "Is he...?"

Her lips pressed together. "He disappeared when the Blood Rose did. Lorcan's power returned to him, so he thinks The Blood Rose is back in The Dark Realm where it belongs... but Dasan is gone. I'm so sorry Bastien."

Dasan is gone. The words thundered through me.

All these years, Dasan had been the one who was always there. When mother was obsessed with finding the Blood Rose. When father was gone on his endless business trips. Dasan was the comforting voice, the one presence that I could count on. And now, he was just... gone? I once had thought there was no cost I wouldn't pay to be rid of the Beast. Now I wasn't so sure.

Rell wrapped her arms around me, and we stood like that for a moment, the stillness of the white forest contrasted by Poxel's bonfire that grew so hot and bright I wondered if the forest service wouldn't be out looking for us soon.

Even through the pain and grief of missing him, I knew what he would say. Don't worry about me, Bas. See what's right in front of you. Go get the girl.

I pulled back, just enough so that I could stare into her eyes. "Stay here Rell. Stay with me in the Human Realm. You don't have to go. Lorcan will understand."

She stared at me, a slight smile coming over her face. "Okay."

I raised a brow, caught off guard. "Okay? That easy? No curses or hidden enchantments? No duels or quests I have to undertake first? What did Lorcan say?"

She laughed, and then looked over my shoulder and nodded. "Ask him yourself."

I turned. There, walking hand in hand through the forest towards us, came Lorcan and Cat.

Lorcan had a smile on his face I had never seen before on him. For the first time, he looked like he might actually be a teenager, and not a Prince of some other realm. "Well, cousin," he called out. "I now understand why Rell needs to stay in this Realm. Someone needs to protect you from jumping into iced over rivers at night."

Never gonna hear the end of this one. I raised a single eyebrow. "Cousin?"

He laughed. "A long story. Rell will enlighten you later. But for now, time grows short." He glanced up to the sky, where the sunrise brightened the horizon. "It is time to close the Realms. I've been away from The Dark Realm too long. It is time to return."

He turned to Cat, and lifted a single brow. "Is your position still unchanged, my lady?"

Cat grinned. "You know it is. And don't "my lady" me."

"Very well . . . my queen."

Cat laughed, and then turned away from Lorcan and flitted over to us. I thought she would embrace Rell, but instead she surprised me, hugging me and kissing me on the cheek. "You know, Bas, I think we were always better off as friends."

I laughed. "Couldn't agree more."

Then she pulled back, a shadow passing over her face. "I left a note for my mom telling her I'd gone to Vegas to be a blackjack dealer. Will you check on her for me? Make sure she's okay?"

I nodded, suddenly sad for Cat. She'd never had a family. The two of us had been two lost souls, not right for the other, but finding comfort in each other's presence. But from the way Lorcan watched her, I hoped that was about to change. "Of course, Cat."

Then she turned to Rell and the two of them embraced as if they were old friends. Cat whispered something into Rell's ear. I didn't hear what it was, but both girls giggled and Rell cast a glance at me, her cheeks reddening. Finally Cat made her way back to stand at Lorcan's side. She took his hand, while Rell made her way back to my side, and took mine.

The four of us watched each other in silence broken only by the growing birdsong and rush of the river. It felt like a solemn moment, until Cat gave a dramatic sigh. "The four of us would have ruled high school together."

Lorcan shuddered. "No thank you. In all my travels I have never visited a more terrifying, confusing place than high school." He paused, a contemplative look coming over his face. "And not once did someone break into spontaneous song and dance."

All at once the four of us were laughing.

"Good luck to you, Beast and Beast-slayer," Lorcan finally said, a hint of irony in his voice. And then he glanced behind us, calling a bit louder. "And please do try to keep to native animals Poxel. This forest is already known for strange happenings."

Poxel waved his tale in acknowledgement, still trying to light a half-rotten snow-covered fallen tree on fire. I smiled at Poxel, and then when I turned back, started.

Cat and Lorcan were gone.

Rell squeezed my hand in the silence left by their departure. We stood there, just the two of us, as the sounds of the forest grew. Yet they weren't the haunted, horrible noises I was used to. They were careful and unburdened noises, free and light, the way my heart felt to have Rell here beside me.

"What a pair we make," I finally said, turning to brush a hand through Rell's hair, lit golden in the morning light. "A Beast and a Beast-Slayer."

She laughed. "Is that all you see me as? A Beast-Slayer?"

"How about a Beauty and a Beast?"

Then she pulled me to her, the cold burned away by the warmth of her presence. "I'm more than a beauty or a Beast-Slayer."

You are. You are the sun in the darkness. Magic in a world without one. But I didn't get to say it. Because she kissed me, and I forgot I had anything to say at all.