Beautiful Torment *Book One of the Beautiful series*

34) Bea

A day and a night passed before the three reached what Sabrina dubbed the Witchlands; a place that stretched high with red oak and flushed low in seas of thick green ferns. Their horses stepped wearily through the underbrush, and Bea followed, hackles raised at every snap of a twig, her sky blue eyes scanned the forest around them with a sharpness Lucy would have envied if she could focus on anything other than the way her heart ached the further they moved away from the Prince and Victoria.

By now, she knew Alexander must be wild with worry. Or perhaps he would only feel betrayal at her abandonment. She wanted to scold herself for ever believing it would end differently--for ever imagining that she might take a slice of happiness for herself instead of serving it to others as she had done for all the years of her life. How could she have been so stupid? So hopeful, to long for a future as delicate as spun silk? Even now, as they trundled on their tired horses towards a great unknown, she could feel the tendrils of that hope unraveling, shredding into a thousand tiny pieces that could only be mended by the hand of a miracle or one of the gods themselves.

Out of anger, or perhaps spite, she glared up through the yawning branches towards a sky that was turning indigo with dusk. Beyond it, she envisioned Celestia--the realm of the gods. She imagined the place with all of its gold and silver luster. Trees fat with an endless harvest. Fires that never burned low. She imagined how the gods and goddesses would laugh, staring down their noses at the lives of mortals below them, a never ending supply of entertainment.

Look how she cries, how she aches for what she may never have. The fool, to think she was destined for such a man! They would laugh to one another, pointing fingers that glowed gold with their godly power.

A familiar taste of ash coated her tongue and slithered it's way down her throat. Her thoughts drifted to Endon, her supposed father, and she had to wonder what he was ever thinking coming to earth. To a world riddled with disappointment when he could have stayed in the kingdom where such a thing likely did not exist.

"We are here," Sabrina spoke softly through the gloom and urged her horse to a stop.

Lucy followed suit, and just in time too, as a wall of blazing flame erupted in front of them. The horses shrieked, rearing onto their hind-legs without so much as a warning. Lucy fumbled for the reins but not quickly enough and soon found herself sliding off the beasts backside. Her arms flailed but she hit the ground all the same, wind rushing out of her lungs and pain shooting up her spine.

Sabrina, seeming more prepared, held tight to her mount but urged the creature back from the flames before jumping down to gather Lucy into her thin arms like she was her small daughter once again. She dragged them both away from the roar that danced with color like Lucy had never seen–brilliant shades, rich and enchanting. If it were not for her mother tugging her away, she would not have been able to move out of its hungry reach. Bea circled them, pawing restlessly at the forest floor and baring her teeth at the flame.

"Artemisia!" her mother cried out a bone chilling howl.

At the utterance, the fire began to dwindle until nothing but smoldering embers remained. Soon even their twinkling orange light vanished and any trace of the unnatural flames existence was gone.

One by one, figures stepped out from the thicket of moss covered tree trunks. To Lucy, they looked like creatures from another realm, clothes made of animal skin with antlers decorating the hoods, hair braided with leaves and flowers, and faces painted in dark shades of blood red and smokey brown. What was even more startling was the fire that danced along the tips of one or two separate figures' hands, the same enchanting colors that had erupted in front of them. It did not come from a torch, but their very skin.