“I’m so sorry, Henri.”
“But she could still be alive. Don’t you see? Maybe she escaped or … or was moved to another part of the castle. Maybe the tower became too risky.”
“Maybe,” I agreed, not holding out much hope. But this hope wasn’t mine to extinguish. Henri could use some of that right now. We both could.
I watched the moon through the window the next few nights, taunting me as it continued to fill out. As we spent our last day in the cell, awaiting dark and that fateful hour when Henri would shift into a mindless monster, we sat in silence. Henri held me against his solid chest as I listened to his heart pound beneath my ear. I felt oddly at peace, like a quiet was coming over my soul, and I tried to trick myself into believing that it even felt right to face my end here and now, at Henri’s hands. But it would never feel right to be a pawn to a cruel man such as Montoni. I wondered if he would come out to watch, perhaps linger on the ramparts as he listened to the sounds of his nephew transforming and then murdering me. Of course, that couldn’t actually happen. Montoni would require the antidote during the night and would be indisposed, but that didn’t stop me from imagining the worst of him.
Henri reread his mother’s note, as if memorizing her words, the slant of her hand. I couldn’t blame him for soaking it in, finding joy in the words left behind by one he’d loved so dearly. His distraction had made me feel oddly lonely these past few days. I had no parents. No one would miss me when I was gone aside from Henri and Blanche, and perhaps my aunt. That was why disposing of me would come so easily to Montoni, and why he could step into my inheritance without a fight.
The shadows in the tower grew longer and eventually darkened to pools that covered the walls. I shrunk deeper into Henri, watching the sky fade into darker shades of blue with each passing minute, trembling with the knowledge of what was to come.
I didn’t dare look at Henri when he began to pant and slunk off into a corner with a grunt. It was strange that I wanted him to continue to hold me, even as he became the thing that would be my destruction. He was sweating already, the change pressuring him to give in, as I glimpsed the moon in all of its glory outside our window, glowing radiantly, as if offering me solace in my last few minutes of life.
A clank from below gave me pause and I tilted my head, listening. It was a sort of crushing noise, like stone rubbing against stone. And then someone was standing at the top of the staircase, bathed in shadow. I stared at the figure, wondering if I was seeing things, or perhaps, being visited by Death, waiting patiently for Henri’s teeth to sink into my throat so they might ferry my soul to the underworld.
“My lord?” A hand reached out and I blinked at it in disbelief as I recognized Ludovico standing before me, looking shaken as he stared off into the corner, where Henri was panting loudly.
I leaped up and grabbed the item he held out to me, a leather case. I flipped it open with shaking hands to find eight syringes carefully tucked within, filled with blackish-green liquid.
“Ludovico, I could kiss you,” I said, pulling out a syringe and tapping the glass tube. “We’re saved. We’re going to get out of this.” I released the tiniest drop of antidote before I turned to Henri and froze.
Henri’s body cracked as the fingers in his bones elongated, his nails curling into deadly claws. His mouth pushed out from his face, teeth stretching into monstrous jaws while brown fur sprouted from every inch of his skin. He cried out, a sound that devolved into a gurgle in his throat, before resonating as a deep rumble.
I wasted no time. I lunged at Henri and sank the syringe into his arm, pushing the plunger in one fluid stroke. I stepped back and watched him for signs of the wolf retreating, but his eyes began to glow a golden yellow and his ears curved upward.
I cursed, grabbing another syringe and turning to him as he lifted his head and loosed a howl that turned my blood cold. But I didn’t give up. I emptied another syringe into his shoulder just as he swatted me across the room.
It felt like I’d been kicked in the chest by a horse. I slammed into the opposite wall, dazed as Henri took a step toward me, and then another, Ludovico frozen in horror at his back.
Too late, I realized, my head throbbing from where I’d struck the wall. It was too late.
Then Henri stumbled. He grunted and collapsed, and I saw that his feet had shifted back, shrinking in upon themselves, as had his hands. His hair began to retreat back into his skin as I let out a sigh of relief and allowed myself to close my eyes.
“Wakeup.”
I groaned and lifted an eyelid, wincing at the fingers digging into my arm. Then I noticed a hand at the ready to strike me.
“Whoa!” I sat up and scrambled back as Annette brightened.
“You’re up,” she sighed. “Thank goodness.”
I rubbed my cheek, which stung as if I’d been slapped several times, and I realized that was exactly what had happened. I felt the back of my head, where a sizable lump had appeared. “I was already beat up. You didn’t have to do more damage.”
“Apparently I did.” Annette shrugged. “You were out cold.”
“And you’re here. I didn’t know what had become of you.”
I suddenly realized that I was alive, and I straightened, looking around as the world came into sharp focus.
My eyes found Henri, pale and shaking nearby. “What? You didn’t eat me.”
Henri rolled his eyes. “Of course I didn’t eat you. You would be far too gamey for my tastes.” He touched my back gently. “You’re making a habit of saving me.”
“Very touching.” Annette interrupted, helping me to my feet. “But we mustn’t tarry; we’re in a hurry.”
“Hurry where?”
Ludovico held a shiny object up in front of my face. It was a key, large and gold, with a skull etched into the top.
