Beauty and the Beast | Thranduil x Reader

Chapter 7

The only sound you could hear was your quiet footsteps as you tiptoed down the corridor, staying close to the wall and peering carefully around each corner you came to. Your heart was in your throat as you anticipated capture with every step you took. The gods appeared to be on your side as you didn't run into anybody. Maybe everyone else had gone to bed? Considering how late it had to be, that's what you chose to believe. You treaded carefully back down the familiar walkway that Myleth had taken you to dinner, figuring that you could figure out your next move from there.

Rounding another corner, your gaze fell once more upon that red curtain at the bottom of the half concealed staircase. You stopped and lingered, staring. You couldn't deny how curious you were about this place. Everybody's reactions to it had only furthered your belief that they were hiding something. Tauriel had told you the rooms up those stairs belonged to the King and the Prince but something just rung false about it and before you knew it, you were hurrying towards the staircase and gently easing back the curtain. With one last look over your shoulder, you slid around the fabric and began to ascend into the West Wing.

It was so quiet, you could have heard an arrow being nocked into a bow from a distance away. Your feet carried you up the stairs and over the threshold of this hidden wing, looking around as you started your quiet exploration. Elegant paintings sat upon the walls and the bed you found through one of the doors was one of the grandest things you had ever seen. Fit for a King, indeed, but it didn't look slept in. In fact, nothing in here looked as though it had been touched in a long while despite how well taken care of it all looked. There was a lack of dust and you could tell these rooms were well maintained. Upon the wall, you saw a framed portrait of a beautiful elven woman. Her hair practically shone, falling around her face like a waterfall, and her features were nothing short of perfect - she took your breath away. However, the portrait looked to have been slashed, as though somebody had taken a knife to it.

You moved on, finding books and papers, sparkling necklaces and rings adorned with beautiful gems. In the wardrobe nearby you found a collection of beautiful dresses and you wondered who they belonged to. A large ornate mirror sat upon a dresser and you moved over, peering at your reflection before your gaze lowered to the items laid out on the dresser. Your fingers moved over a hairbrush, tracing the intricate pattern on the handle.

"What do you think you are doing?" A furious hiss from the doorway caused you to spin on your heel, knocking the hairbrush to the floor.

Thranduil stood glaring at you, fury written in his expression. He came up here quite often. Sometimes just for a moment, sometimes for hours. These were his late wife's former chambers after all. How you had even gotten up here was completely beyond him but that wasn't his immediate concern. No, his concern was on the fact that you were in here at all, touching his wife's belongings, sticking your nose where it didn't belong. Every single item in these rooms were precious to him and he had found you - his prisoner - in here putting your dirty fingers all over everything.

Your mouth opened but nothing came out. Fear had sparked through you at the mere sight of him, the sound of his voice. You shuffled further away, your back against the wall as he advanced on you, pacing closer with terrifying speed and a dangerous glint in his eye.

"I--I was only..." You started but the words died in your throat.

"You were only, what?" His voice was low and even and somehow that was even more terrifying than if he had screamed at you. He was close now, too close, and you felt like you were in terrible danger. What was he going to do? "Looking for something to steal, I wager." Thranduil continued on when you offered him nothing else.

He glared down at you for a moment longer before he turned away and leaned down to pick up the hairbrush from where you had knocked it to the floor. With surprising care, he moved to set it back in its place on the dresser, his gaze softening and becoming sad for just a second before he round back on you, fire in his eyes once more.

That's not what terrified you most, however. When he turned his face back to you, one half was no longer the pristine alabaster skin that you'd seen previously. Thranduil had become so furious that he had accidentally let go of the glamour he used to keep the awful burn scars on his face concealed. What you saw was terrifying and only added to your vision of the King as a monster and you couldn't hold in your horrified gasp.

"Who do you think you are?!" Thranduil raged at you, scowling as he paced towards you once more. His arm shot out and took hold of your wrist in a vice like grip, eyes blazing. Your fear spiked, believing that this was it, that he was about to hurt you, maybe kill you. Your wrist ached and in the back of your mind you were aware you'd likely have bruising there the next day.

Thranduil became aware that he had let the glamour go, something he rarely if ever did as it was second nature to him these days, and it only served to make him angrier. Thranduil felt much more vulnerable this way and it wasn't a feeling he cared for. "Get out." His voice suddenly seemed a little strained as he released your wrist and turned his head away from you, hair falling across the unconcealed scars on his face as he did so.

You stood staring at him, frozen in place. You kept willing your feet to move, to get away from him, or to speak, grovel for forgiveness but absolutely nothing happened and you found yourself just looking at him in horror.

"Get! Out!" He roared when you made no movement, rounding on you once more, fury blazing in his eyes. The scars were no longer visible, having regained control of himself.

You didn't have any more time to think, not that there was much to think about. You pushed away from the wall, brushed past him, and took off running. Down the stairs, past that stupid red curtain, along the hall. You just kept running until you came to what was very obviously the front gates of the place. They were standing open and the two elves on guard were startled by your appearance.

You raced past them before they could even think and you just kept going, willing your legs not to give out as you fled into the forest.