I wrapped my arm around Sophia’s shoulders her head sliding against mine. "Of course, my love, let's find a more suitable venue."
The door burst open, and a familiar face appeared, the dim light casting shadows from the lines of worry etched across his face as the dark night spread out behind him like a cloak.
"Griswold?" I rushed to grab the hand of the castle’s oldest butler. A man who'd cared for me my entire life. "What is it?"
"It's your father, sir. You must come home immediately. Your mother is waiting."
"What’s wrong? What's happened?"
Griswold leaned in closer, the smell of the castle rolling off him.
“I’m not at liberty to say, but trust me, it’s bad.”
I thrust open the castle door and rushed through the foyer nearly tripping on the lush red carpet leading to the grand staircase.
"She's in the library,” Griswold called from behind me.
I raced up the stairs two at a time and sped into the east wing of the castle. The door to the library creaked as I turned the knob and slid in. The familiar mahogany and gilded bookshelves stared down at me.
Mom startled at the noise then turned toward the door. She forced a smile of greeting behind her wall of tears as her hand clutched at the locket around her neck. She slid it back and forth on the simple gold chain, faster and faster, to the point where it might snap in two.
"Griswold said—” I watched my mother’s tears fall harder, each one searing a hole in my own composure, “—are you okay?"
I rushed across the room and wrapped my arms around her shoulders and buried my face in her neck like I did when I was a boy, even though the foot of height between us made it more difficult now.
She squeezed back, her rose-scented curls brushing against my cheek.
"It's your father. I don’t even know how to tell you this. We’ve been keeping a secret from you, from a lot of people. I never thought I’d need to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“It’s your father,” she said, between tearful hiccups. “He’s…the curse has returned."
I pulled back and sandwiched her cold dainty hands inside my long fingers. "What are you talking about? What curse?"
She tugged her hands from my grip and started to pace the small room, gripping her forehead.
"It was a long time ago. So long I sometimes forget.” Mom craned her neck towards the skylight and exhaled. The air drained from her body like a deflating balloon as her memories washed over her. “When your father was younger, before you and even before me, he made some bad choices. Choices that angered a dark fairy and she put a curse on him that changed him into a ferocious beast. He was more animal than human. He was the prince of Arboria, but after that he moved to the deepest part of the forest to live out his years.”
“What?” I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to take in what she had just told me. “You’re trying to tell me that Dad, my dad, was once a monster. Are you okay, Mom? Do you need to lie down or something?”
“This isn’t a joke, Fallon” She slammed her hand on desktop and the smack echoed through the room.
“I don’t quite understand what you mean by beast.”
“A beast!” she said waving her hands in the air. “You know. Hairy body, big teeth, angry expression. He’s an animal, a monster. He’s not human anymore.”
I jumped back. This wasn’t Mom. She never yelled. Even when I’d been a petulant child or a rebellious teenager, she always still held her decorum.
“But it doesn’t make any sense,” I said trying to find reason where there was none. “Dad is a pretty upstanding guy. He’s noble and always does the right thing. The entire kingdom loves him.”
Mom resumed her pacing. Faster. Shorter steps. “Now he is, but back then he was a different person. It wasn’t until he fell in love with someone who could see past his beastly form that he changed and the curse was broken.”
“You?”
She nodded as a few stray tears leaked from her eyes.
“You have to be kidding.” I gripped my hands in my hair and tugged then started racing my own loops around the library. Like mother, like son. “I don’t believe this. This sounds like some kind of horror story. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her tears came harder, spilling down her face as her cheeks burned red. "Because we didn’t want to upset you. It was all supposed to be in the past. A chapter closed and forgotten. But tonight, when we were walking through the garden, your father just started screaming and fell to his knees. I tried to help him up but he started to change. His hands became claws. Swaths of fur covered his body. And now…" She gazed off toward her favorite bookcase, the one I always saw her standing by when I came in here. As if it unlocked another world that I couldn't see. "The curse has returned. The king has turned back into a beast."
A beast? A real live monster living in our home. Our castle. The papers would be all over this news. The humiliation of it. My father’s reputation would be ruined. My reputation would be ruined.
“But he can still rule, right?”
She shook her head, an almost maniacal look in her eyes. “No. Not like this. This time is different. Last time he was angry at the curse, but he was still functioning as a human. But this time, something has changed. He’s more animal. The curse is changing him and I’m not sure how to control it. I don’t know what to do Fallon. He was fine this morning. Everything was normal. This came out of thin air. I’m not prepared.”
I
