“Awhile,” he admitted with a smile. “The first time my clothing floated out of my closet to me, I screeched.”
“You did not.”
“I did”–he laughed–“and I wasn't the only one. My brothers both shouted in alarm and we all went rushing into the hallway naked.”
“Oh, my.” I tried to hold back a giggle and failed.
“Yes, well.” He gave his body a pointed look. “It's not like we were really naked.”
“An entirely different shock,” I said.
“A shock and a pain.”
“Does it hurt?” I asked in surprise.
“No, I meant that it's annoying to be covered in fur.” He smoothed the thin pelt on his face. “Can you imagine having to brush your face? And then there are the tangles. Ugh, the indecency of standing there while a horde of hairbrushes attack the snags in your fur is nearly unbearable.”
I burst into laughter.
“Yes, go on and giggle.” He stood back and allowed me to chortle it up. “I haven't even got to how awful it is to wear fur in the summertime.”
“Oh, no,” I stopped laughing to whisper.
“Oh, yes.” He groaned. “I tried to shave once. That didn't go so well.”
“Blaise, no.” I held a hand to my mouth.
“I sure did.” Blaise nodded. “You should have seen the flurry of brooms.”
I burst out laughing again. When I settled, I found him staring at me sweetly, his pale blue eyes as bright as a robin's egg. I smiled at him softly and took his hand instead of his arm. His eyes widened in surprise, but then his fingers closed over mine carefully, his claws forming a cage around my hand. We began to stroll again, our clasped hands swinging between us.
I knew then that I was right where I belonged. My family had a lot of strange beliefs, one of them being that we each had one person we were meant to be with for our entire lives, but another belief we had was that we each had a destiny. Maybe my destiny was not to find one person to be with, but three.
Chapter Six
After we had roamed the gardens, Blaise took me to the library. It was evident that we shared a love of literature, and he was eager to show off his family's hoard. And it was quite a treasure.
The library soared three stories up to a domed glass ceiling which shed the perfect amount of light into the room without managing to touch any of the precious books. Above the main floor, there were two balconies circling the walls. They were both lined with bookshelves, as was the bottom floor. The bookshelves were tall enough to necessitate the use of the attached, rolling ladders, and they were full of books.
“How many books are there?” I whispered in wonder.
“Thousands,” Blaise said gleefully, “maybe hundreds of thousands.”
“I don't know where to start.”
“It can get overwhelming,” he agreed as he led me past heavy wooden furniture polished to glassy finishes. “We have a ledger there.” He pointed to a massive book, sitting on a pedestal to our right. “In it you can find an alphabetical accounting of every book we own, and its location in the library.”
“You have a book to tell you where your books are.” I laughed. “That's wonderful. I wish I had that many books.”
There were no windows on the lowest level, only shelves, glass cases, and one massive fireplace. Several seating areas spotted the enormous Persian carpets, just waiting for someone to curl up and read while they lounged. But Blaise led me to the back of the room, where a slim staircase spiraled up to the two balconies. We climbed all the way to the top floor and then walked out onto the spacious loft. I trailed a finger over the spines of the books as we passed.
Blaise took me to a spot between the shelves, where a bay window, similar to the one in my room, curved outward. Set into the curve were two armchairs, padded in blue velvet. He motioned to one chair as he took the other.
“This is my favorite place,” he said.
“I can see why.” I looked out of the window at a fantastic view of the countryside.
I could see the entire forest, past the village, and all the way to the sea. Viewed from above, it was shocking that no one had stumbled across the castle. It wasn't all that far from the village, and was even closer to my home. But then Theo had said it was enchanted to remain hidden. That witch had made it doubly hard on the brothers; charging them to find a woman to love and then preventing them from being found. Though, my father had found the castle, and then Bertrand had led me here. Perhaps the spell was meant to block only those who couldn't help the beasts.
