The Monster & The Beast: Tales of Evermagic, Book 4 (excerpt)

Beginning the Impossible

CHAPTER 1

Once upon a time...

Sometimes I dream of a garden blooming with blue phlox flowers dusting the leaves of the darkest green. They are all around my feet; poking out from hedges beside polished stone steps. They mean sweet dreams and the uniting of souls. They are the shy way of asking for one’s hand in marriage. In my dream I sit among them, and wait, dressed finely in silver, and nervous. A shadow looming and dark comes. He is in the shape of a man, but isn’t a man. He is cruel, and sad, but so warm with a tenderness I have never felt before.

Every time we meet he drapes a pendant about my neck. I am never afraid. Not even when his head bends low beside my ear and he whispers to me words I only dream in his voice. Words so precious, and yet always crushed by the ones that follow. I always wake up fearful, wondering, and dreading the new day.

I had a potion for a time that repelled the attractions of men––my employers. It worked some, but never long enough, and I have to move on...again...until the day I meet that shadow among the phlox flowers with the pendant round my neck. He will whisper the words every woman secretly desires, and then crush them with the ones they fear. He will be the one I won’t want to use the potion on, and the one who won’t need it to be chased away.

Rose and Ulrich smiled at the young woman beside Hunter, who brooded and ignored their stares best as he was able. It had been some months since the new queen was married to her huntsman, and only a week since the witch Nim and her betrothed––Newt––had come to help wrap up the plans to save young people from abusive homes.

They were riding together to visit the prince and princess of Frisna, and to finalize the preparations for Nim and Newt’s wedding. He complained of how long it was all taking, but Nim was not about to be cheated out of the wedding she’d dreamt of since a little girl. What girl of their time, in a world of fairy tales, hadn’t been secretly planning such an event all her life?

Hunter gave a nervous side-glance to the young woman that sat beside him. He wondered. Had Serren been one of those little girls? She was so quiet, and so serious. It was hard to imagine her day dreaming about love and romance. When he glanced back at Rose he frowned. Her smile was more mischievous than before. He growled, muttering something about meddling little sisters under his breath. But Serren was calm, and ignored the prying gazes of Hunter’s newly found family with a practiced silence.

There was shouting from above, a high pitched squeal, a pop, and finally a slap. No one paid it mind. Not even the rocking of the carriage disturbed their ride. It was not the first time Newt had tried to make a move on Nim during their journey. At least they were sitting on the carriage’s outside seats this time, and not inside where others could get caught in the cross fire.

Reminded by the last time Nim had popped Newt with a magic spell, Rose turned to Ulrich and checked his hand, which he had used as a shield to protect her from the spurts of magic. When Ulrich noticed he turned Rose’s hand in his and kissed it, silently reassuring her that he was as fine as he was when it first happened.

There was barely a mark, proof that Nim was only warding off Newt’s attempts rather than trying to punish him for it. She had been apologetic when Ulrich was hurt, but she and Newt were banned to the outside seats for the rest of the trip nonetheless. It was their way of shameless flirting. He teased, and she reacted with warnings, which were more of an excuse to practice defensive spells since she refused to learn combative ones.

It was all very awkward for Serren. She hadn’t wanted to join the party in the first place, but Rose was an adamant sort that was very difficult to say no to. Not to mention a queen. She felt Hunter studying her again. She made him nervous, she knew. The others were oblivious. Why shouldn’t they be? They’d never felt her anger before. That tangible sickness she tried so desperately to control, but sometimes used to defend herself with. It wasn’t magic. Just a feeling she could use to make others want to stay away from her. But there were some not even it could dissuade from coming after her.