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CHAPTER TEN — THE BOY WHO WAS A STORYTELLER
WHEN SHE WAS A CHILD, CLAIRE DID HEAR A LOT ABOUT FAIRY TALES. It was her mother who at night would came to her room, telling her stories about a princess that only woke up from a magical dream with a kiss of true love from her prince, and evil curses that transform a princess into a swan at midnight, which were only broken with the promise of true love.
Claire would not lie hiding that in fact, she spent years of her childhood fantasizing about the kind of love of "I saw you once in my dreams" and happy ever after while she watched Disney's movies, with a puppy Phillip by her side. Wearing a princess tiara and calling herself a princess was her thing during that time, long before she started collecting shells and completely forgot about her old costumes dresses. Sometimes, she had had convinced Mike to act as her prince charming when they played together, and though he did never admitted it, Claire knew that in deep, he enjoyed being the hero of the history.
Although she had forgotten all about fairy tales quite time ago, the mere way that Sam Uley saw his fiancé every time they were together made her think that maybe, fairy tales had been right all those years. Claire was not sure if they had had that type of dream about the other, but she did knew that they looked each other as if they were the best dream of all. True love, just like the one from the histories her mother told her and the movies she watched— fairy tales were not wrong about love anymore.
And neither they were wrong about their magical creatures.
She remembered herself at the Clearwater's living room, and the way Leah suddenly started arguing with her dad about Sam and how he didn't mind that the boy dumbed her for her own cousin. Claire, unware of the information until that moment, remained quiet. She was there after Seth invited her to take breakfast with his family, and though the discussion was nothing from her business, she couldn't avoid to think that usually, the only obstacle for true love in the histories was represented in the form of a wicked villain, but the truth was that Sam's and Emily's love hurt Leah, she easily noticed it. And Leah was not a villain because of that; she was just a girl with a golden broken heart.
Or so she was until everything changed— actually, she was the one who did it.
By that moment, Seth was part of the discussion too, and the young boy tried to calm his sister when her shoulders began to shake in sudden and strange moves, but it didn't stop there. It didn't even stop when a whole breeze of motion covered Leah's body until it wasn't her anymore, destroying a small table and almost touching the ceiling when she howled as the transformation was over.
Claire went back in a staggering pair of steeps, flickering to ensure what she witness. Where was Leah? Had that beast somehow devoured her? What had it done to her? Her mind kept running in a rush of questions without answers—but it didn't stop there yet, of course not. In a moment, Harry Clearwater was lying in the floor, a hand placed on his chest, and it was now Seth the one who was shaking, his whole body disappearing just as his sister's own, leaving an enormous wolf in his place, and only causing Claire to stare in confusion.
