Black Magic ▸ Prince Adam

V

CELESTE IS A SPITFIRE

"CELESTE, I NEED your help." Mrs. Potts told the girl as she washed the dishes.

"What is it?" The brunette asked the motherly figure, turning to her.

Mrs. Potts let out a sigh just before Chip ran into the room, nearly knocking the dishes and remaining food. "He refuses to go to bed until you read a story."

Celeste quickly dried her hands on her apron and picked the young boy up before he ran head first into her knees. "Why don't you want your mama to read to you, Chip?"

"I like the way you tell stories better." Chip answered the girl. "And you let me get away with more stuff."

Celeste and Mrs. Potts laughed at the statement. "I'll take him to bed." The girl told the woman with a smile as she walked to the door.

"What would I do without you?" Mrs. Potts questioned before kissing the side of Celeste's head and Chip on the cheek. "You truly do save a woman from going mad sometimes, love."

"It's the least I could do for everything you do for me." Celeste told Mrs. Potts, the woman that was a second mother to her. "Besides, Chip and I have fun together."

"Yeah!" Chip agreed with the brunette. "I love you, Mama, but Celeste is more fun sometimes."

"Okay, Chip." Celeste told the boy as she carried him out of the room. "Let's go before you break your mama's heart by telling her I'm your favorite."

"But you are!"

Celeste spent the last twenty minutes looking out the window. Half of the time was spent trying to figure out where the memory had come from and why everything here was so familiar, and the other half was spent working up the courage to climb out the window when she finished with the makeshift rope. She decided to quit stalling and finish tying the material from the dress Garderobe created and sheets from the bed. At this point, it had been at least twenty feet long, but the drop was a good twenty more. She was positive she would be making the rope half the night.

The girl jumped when there were two loud knocks on the bedroom door. "You will join me for dinner!" The Beast spoke, not waiting for a response. "That is not a request!"

Celeste scoffed. "Unbelievable." There was another knock at the door, this one much gentler. "Just a moment." She called, dropping the sheets on the ground and covering them with the drapes in case the Beast entered.

Another knock came, followed by the Beast's request. "Will you join me for dinner?"

Celeste looked at the door in disbelief as if she could see through it. "You're kidding me, right?" She questioned, stepping closer to the door and her voice raising. "You've taken me prisoner and now you're asking me to dine with you? Are you mad?!"

"Calm yourself, master." Celeste heard a soft motherly voice say. The same voice from her memory. It took almost everything in her not to open the door to see who it was.

"But she is infuriating," the Beast responded through gritted teeth. "Difficult."

"I'm difficult?" Celeste scoffed once again and last opened the door. "You lock me up in this castle for eternity and expect me to have dinner with you like nothing happened and I'm the difficult one?"

"Oh, she is a force to be reckoned with." The motherly voice spoke again, one that was becoming more and more familiar to Celeste. But like many other things in the castle, she couldn't figure out how. "If she is the difficult then you be easy."