Beauty and the Werewolf

that, if he left the city this morning.”

“I suppose that’s possible — ” Sebastian brooded for a moment. “Perhaps the Mirror Servant just doesn’t think the possibility of warfare is imminent. But Eric did seem impatient to get back and find out what was going on.”

Or maybe Eric just wants to get back to the city and have a good time spending all that money you gave him access to. She thought that, but she didn’t say it. In the first place, it was none of her business, and in the second, he had been confined here just as long as Sebastian had.

That letter making him Sebastian’s representative… He would get what he had wanted for a very long time now. The respect of the nobles. And if he somehow made himself useful to the King —

Having a wizard you can call on as fast as the pigeon flies might do that —

Then the King could do what no one else could. He could ennoble Eric himself. Grant him a title of his own. “Knight” might be too much to hope for, but he could certainly get “Esquire.”

Of course, if the country went to war, “Knight” was not out of the question, either, provided you were useful enough. Much higher titles than that had been granted to bastards and even commoners who proved their worth to the King in war.

“Well, this gives me a chance to tell you what the Servant told me,” she said, feeling the excitement all over again, as she carefully laid out what she’d been advised.

He listened intently, his gaze brightening.

“This…this is brilliant reasoning,” he said, finally. “It makes perfect sense. And I really won’t care if I’m a wolf three days out of the month, as long as I’m still under control of myself. Mind? It’ll be useful! Witches take years to learn to transform themselves and I already have this form! Oh, granted, all I have is a single form, but it’s a powerful one. One that can attack and defend itself, travel for miles without having to stop for a rest, hide just about anywhere — ”

“First, you have to make this whole altering-curse thing work, and you are the only one who can,” she cautioned. “The Servant said it wouldn’t be easy, and it probably won’t happen the first time you try.”

His chin firmed. “I’m not giving up, no matter how many times it fails. It will only take one success to turn this werewolf curse into a blessing! And then — I’ll be able to go anywhere!”

“You’re going to alter your curse?” Eric said from the doorway, his brows furrowing. “I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before.”

“Just because no one has, that doesn’t mean that no one can,” Sebastian replied. “This has the sanction of the Godmother herself. She thinks I can alter it so that even though I make the change, my own mind remains, instead of reverting to the beast.”

“Oh, really.” Eric’s brows furrowed more. “I see what you mean by being able to go anywhere, then. You’d be just another magician who can transform himself.”

“Only three nights a month,” Sebastian reminded him.

Eric laughed. It sounded a little forced. “Three nights when you can be the nastiest thing in the forest — and almost the nastiest out of it,” he replied. “You’ll scarcely need me, then.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, I’ll always need you,” Sebastian told him, as he rummaged through a drawer for one of the sticks of graphite and a sheet of paper. “Meanwhile, I take it you came to say goodbye?”

Eric nodded brusquely. “I’m spending the night, but I’ll be gone before you’re awake, and I know you — you are going to be working on that business of changing the weather past supper. I want to get to the city in good time to establish myself. If I am going to be representing you, I need to update my wardrobe and hire a few more servants for the town house. I can’t bring important folk to talk and not have enough servants.”

Sebastian nodded absently, his mind clearly already on other things. “Do whatever you need to. We’ll be using the place, anyway, once I alter this curse, and the more you do now, the less you’ll have to do later.” Then he turned away from the diagram he was sketching out, to give Eric a warm smile. “I don’t know what I would have done without you all this time, you know.”

Eric nodded somberly. “All right, then, I’m for an early bed and an early rise. Luck.”

He left before either of them could say anything.

For a moment, just a moment, Bella stared after him, a fleeting thought passing through her mind. Had Eric seemed less than pleased with their plans?

But no, that was ridiculous. Sebastian had trusted Eric all his life — and with his life. Eric could have been rid of Sebastian a dozen times in the past five years, and no one would have faulted him for it.

He’s probably just worried what will happen if Sebastian fails — he must have seen Sebastian’s hopes crushed a hundred times, and he doesn’t want Sebastian hurt anymore. Eric did seem to be the pessimistic sort — certainly the cynical sort.

Well, we will just have to keep at it until we do actually alter the curse. We both know it won’t be easy. But we both know it will be worth it. Eventually Eric will see that, too.

18

THEY HAD WORKED OVER THE CALCULATIONS AND diagrams for the weather-altering plan until supper and beyond. Eric had been right; the two of them worked feverishly until their stomachs began growling, but they didn’t have to send anyone for food — Sapphire and Azure, the Spirit Elemental who generally attended Sebastian in the workroom, turned up shortly after that with another tray full of little bits of savory things they could just pick up and eat with one hand. This was complicated stuff, and Bella was, quite frankly, thrilled and more than a little frightened that Sebastian had decided that she should help work on it.

He had brought out maps, consulted the Mirror Servant about the usual weather patterns at this time of year, asked him to figure out what, if any, problems a rise in temperature would cause the local inhabitants, then began drawing out the lines of power that ran from the Manor to that part of the Kingdom. And from there, he began making his calculations, with Bella double-checking them. He had to figure out how much change there would be, how fast, for every little rise in the temperature — of course, there was no way to measure the temperature