Of Beauty and Beast

moon.

“Don’t forget me,” I whisper. “Please. Don’t forget.”

“I’ll come back,” he says. “If I have to drag my body across the desert.

I swear it. On my life.”

I nod, squeezing my eyes closed to keep the tears at bay. By the time I open them, he’s gone.

“Let me go,” I whisper to the roses after several long moments have passed. They’ve gone as still as any plant now, but I know they’re listening.

“You’ve gotten what you wanted.” The Dark Heart clearly wanted Gem to leave the city. There’s no other explanation for why it showed me the suffering of the Monstrous out in the desert. It wanted Gem—and the risk he poses to the continuation of the covenant—removed from Yuan.

But he’ll come back to me. I know it. I haven’t lost yet, not if I gain my freedom tonight.

“Let me go.” I try to straighten my legs, but the ancient vines lie heavy and motionless across my thighs. “Let me go! I won’t be held like—”

“What have you done to yourself?” The voice is soft, shocked, and so unlike Bo’s that I don’t guess who it belongs to until I look up to see him standing where Gem stood a few moments ago.

“Who were you talking to?” Bo asks again, in that same numb way that makes me more nervous than his angry voice ever has.

“No one. Myself.” I lick my lips, taste my tears, and shiver despite the fact that the night is the warmest we’ve had since autumn. Why is Bo here?

How much has he seen?

“The Monstrous is out of his cell, Isra,” Bo says. “Do you know anything about that?”

“Y-yes,” I stutter, my heart beating faster. “I needed him to take care of a few things in our garden. He’s going there now,” I say, hoping to buy Gem more time to reach the King’s Gate by sending Bo in the opposite direction. “He’s trustworthy. He’ll be back in his rooms within the hour.

There’s no need to—”

“There’s every need,” Bo snaps, anger creeping into his tone.

“There’s every need to do … something.” He shakes his head, his expression bleeding from anger to confusion to utter bafflement. “What are you doing here? Why have you hurt yourself?”

“I didn’t do it deliberately. I tripped and fell,” I say, lifting my chin.

“And it seems to me you should be more interested in helping your queen than interrogating her.” I can’t tell Bo that the roses attacked me, or he’ll think I’m more rattled than he does already, but I don’t have to endure being treated like a fool. “Now. Help me out. Use your sword. Cut the vines if you have to.”

Bo’s lips part, and a horrified look creeps into his eyes. “You want me to desecrate the royal garden? Are you mad?” He laughs, a single baw so loud that it makes me wince. “Of course you’re mad. Of course you are. And to think I … I felt for you,” he says, gravel in his voice. “Even today. I thought my father and the other advisors were being unfair, but he’s right.

You’ve lost your mind.”

“No, I haven’t.” My forehead wrinkles, but it doesn’t hurt. At least the roses didn’t attack my face. “Your father supported every measure we discussed today. He sent the amendment concerning the Banished to my rooms a few hours ago. It was exactly—”

“He’s lying to you, humoring you until tomorrow morning,” Bo spits.

“He and the other advisors are going to force you to marry me and give Yuan a ruler who’s not out of his head. They say the law allows them to compel your marriage, whether you consent to the union or not.”

My stomach clenches. “But I … I’m still in mourning. It’s against our—”

“Sometimes big changes are necessary to protect the city,” he says, mocking his father’s kind words from this afternoon perfectly, setting fire to the last tattered shreds of my hope. “I tried to convince him to wait,” Bo continues, swiping the back of his hand across his mouth. “I wanted you to choose to marry me, but clearly you aren’t capable of making wise choices.”

“You don’t decide what I’m capable of! I’m the queen. My word is law!” I sound like a child having a tantrum, but how can I help it? What other option has Bo or anyone else in this city given me, when they treat me like a small girl or an invalid or a madwoman?

“I’m not mad,” I say, fighting tears. “This city is mad. All of you! You and your father and the advisors and all the rest. Gem is three times the person any of you will ever be!”

Bo sighs, but when his gaze meets mine, he doesn’t seem angry. He’s gone numb again. Numb with a hint of …

Pity. He pities me. He’s so sure of the legitimacy of his hate that he can’t consider for a moment that the Desert People might be human like us. Or that I might be the only one in Yuan not out of my mind.

But maybe that isn’t possible. Maybe the mind of the majority is always the healthy mind, simply by virtue of its numbers. Maybe it’s the definition of madness to believe I’m right and everyone else is wrong, to find my thoughts rational and reasonable when almost the entire world finds them damaged and flawed.

The thought makes me want to cry all over again. Cry, and beg Bo to listen to me, to try to understand. Despite his cruelty last night, Bo isn’t as terrible as his father. He cares for me—or cared, at least a little. He has a gentle side, too.

“Bo, please,” I whisper. “I’m not crazy. I swear I’m not. I—”

“Did you mean to hurt yourself tonight?” he asks, ignoring my protests.

“Of course not!”

“You’re bleeding,” he says, as if breaking a scary bit of news to a child. “Those wounds are deep. You’ll have scars. Why did you do this?”

“I didn’t do anything! They pulled me in. They were trying to kill me,” I say, regretting the words the moment they pass my lips.

“Who was trying to kill you?”

“The … roses,” I mumble, digging my nails into the dirt, wishing I had fingers big enough to uproot the roses with my bare hands. “I don’t expect you to believe me, but it’s the truth. They aren’t what they seem. Nothing is what it seems.”

Bo glances down at the vines, now lying, limp and lifeless, across my legs. No one but Gem knows what the roses can do, and now no one else ever will. The roses won’t help me prove that I’m not insane. My allegedly weak mind stands to gain them a king and a captive queen and continuation of life as the Dark Heart that caused them to grow prefers it.

For a split second I consider telling Bo about the Dark Heart and the wicked magic supporting life under the domes, but before I can think of a way to break the news to him that won’t sound mad, two breathless soldiers appear behind him.

“The Monstrous has been spotted from the wall, sir,” the short guard with the crooked teeth huffs. “Running toward the King’s Gate.”

“Go. Take the ten men waiting by the—”

“No!” I shout. “Please, let him go. If you let him go, I won’t fight any of it. I’ll marry you tomorrow morning.” I begin tugging the thorns from my flesh, refusing to wince as the stickers pull free. “Just let Gem go.”

“Take the ten men waiting by the tower,” Bo continues as if I haven’t spoken. “Tell them to kill the beast on sight.”

“No!” I stagger to the edge of the rose bed. “You can’t! I forbid it! As your queen!” But the soldiers refuse to look at me, let alone listen.

“Bring his body to the dungeon!” Bo shouts as the men rush away through the orchard, the scuff, scuff of their boots transforming to a shush, shush as they hit the grass beneath the trees.

“Run, Gem! They’re coming!” I scream, even as I hope he’s too far away to hear me. “Run!” I scramble off the edge of the bed wall, moaning as I hit the ground, and every place where the thorns tore my muscles cries out at once.

Bo takes my arm with a tenderness that startles me. I glance up to see sympathy in his rich brown