Rell and The Rose

Ch. 52, Once a King...

Rell

She hit the gas so hard my head slammed back into the seat. Then we swerved out of the parking lot, speeding down the road towards Bastien's house. I clutched the side door as Cat drove like a banshee set on fire. The food turned over in my stomach as we flew past businesses and houses and then onto the forested road that led to Bastien's house. Desperately, I tried to remember the rest of the fairy-tale.

Two princesses. One who wanted power. One who wanted love. Both cursed by the rose to become the Beast under the full moon.

She swerved up to the massive entrance, and I lurched back into the seat.

"Care to share what's going on?" she tapped the steering wheel with pink fingernails.

I swallowed, staring up at the house. "Cat... what was Bastien's mom like?"

Cat shrugged. "Kind of a cold bitch, always sooooo superior. Never really liked me and I returned the feeling."

"And did she and Bastien ever, sort of... disappear?"

Now she looked from the house back to me, surprise in her eyes. "Yah. She and Bastien always went on camping trips or hikes once a month. I could never spend the night then." Her eyes narrowed. "How did you know that?"

"Come with me."

Together we made our way upstairs, to the library room. I glanced outside as I did, at the sun now higher in the sky. The days were shorter here, with the coming winter. Bastien would become the Beast again in just a matter of hours, and when he did, the Realms would be fully opened. If we couldn't find him before then, and find the rose...

The book had been left on the table before the fire and I opened it now.

"The fairytale you read?" she asked, looking down at it in confusion. "What does that have to do with Bastien?"

I opened the book and stared down at the words, reading them with a sort of growing dread, picturing all the while that Bastien's mother was the younger princess. But as I read it, I realized something else I hadn't before. Something about the sailor...

... and James, the man from whom I had bartered for passage to the Human Realm.

"Cat," I said, tracing my hands over the words and then turning to her. "I bargained to come to the Dark Realm, with a single petal from the Blood Rose. From a man with periwinkle eyes, and one hand."

Cat shook her hand. "I don't understand."

I pointed to the page."The sailor in the story had one hand. And periwinkle eyes. And he was forever trapped between realms... until someone brought him a single petal."

"Let me get this straight," Cat said, taking a step back from me, voice incredulous. "You think Bastien's mom is a princess, who loved a sailor, the very same sailor you met and bargained with to come here."

It sounded crazy when she said it that way. I bit my lip and then turned back to the book, running a hand over the page. "It makes sense... She made a deal with the Blood Rose to come to a land without magic, a land where her sister could never find her. But too late she realized the curse of the Beast was real here. So she found a house deep in the forest..."

"And what about Bastien's dad?" Cat suddenly said.

I stopped, thinking, then slowly. "Does Bastien look anything like him?"

Cat paused, "No."

"And do you know when they were married? Was she already pregnant?"

Cat slowly shook her head. "I guess I never asked... I've never even seen a wedding picture of the two of them."