what do three wishes seven, porosity, a lingonberry forest and a larkbell have in common? i've no idea.

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The Beast and Bella Swan

Tenth Bit

"Is the enchantment broken?" I asked him, breathless. My heart had stopped altogether from the shock of him, and wouldn't pump, and I had no oxygen, and I was fighting for my life.

"No," he said. "Startled, certainly. Shaken, definitely. Shifted, absolutely. I have no idea how it will operate now. But look about you, the walls stand."

I looked about, because it was preferable to looking at him, since looking at him made my eyes wobble. The wall was intact as ever.

"Can I still get out?" I queried, nervously. God forbid that I should stay a hundred years with a naked Cullen, more perfect than a Greek statue. I had told him things I had told no-one else. I had let him explore my mind. I had thought myself safe in the presence of a beast, but this Cullen, with no tusks, and no hooves, who didn't snort and snuffle and grunt - this Cullen couldn't possibly be safe.

"You can get out if you want to," he said.

"What happened?" I asked, and I decided quite happily to shut my eyes, because when I couldn't see him he was still my warthog.

"Don't you know your fairy stories, Bella?" he asked. "You kissed me and I was transformed. But I can see how uncomfortable you are. Come along, and I'll get dressed. I know I've got some clothes around here somewhere..."

I dared to peep, and he reached a hand as though he was grasping a doorhandle, and the air opened, he took me by the elbow along with him, and we were in his chamber, just like that. He bent to a drawer, and when he righted himself he held jeans and a shirt, not that I was looking.

"No velvet?" I asked.

"The Little Lord Fauntleroy outfits won't fit me anymore," he smiled. "Turn around, Bella, spin."

By the time I performed a pirouette, he was dressed, thankfully. He looked just like any other impossibly gorgeous boy, not that I'd ever seen one before, except really Jacob. Oh! Jacob!

"Is Jacob's spell undone too?" I asked.

"No, Jacob is a lycanthrope, and he will remain so. It's not a matter of magic with him. He may be able to be human inside the castle now though, without waiting for the hour. I don't know."

If I looked around the room at how eclectic it was, I would probably be able to keep talking, just like old times. His voice was different now that it wasn't resonating around that enormous echo chamber that had been the barrel of his chest, but it was still him, wasn't it? In there?

"Can I keep visiting you?" I asked a candlestick.

"Yes, please do."

"Will I still turn into a swan?" I asked the curtains.

"Yes, it is in your heart to fly."

"Oh, I've just remembered something," I said to a grecian urn. "I've told my mother I study on Saturday afternoons. I've said I have a study partner called Alice Cullen. I didn't want to lie, but I had to think of something. Mum has asked me to invite Alice over. So next Saturday I might not be able to come, because I have to find a girl and persuade her to pretend to be called Alice and to be my age, and to visit me."

"I have a sister called Alice, and she is your age, and she will be more than happy to visit you, I'm sure."

I whirled around and he was standing so close that some of my hair splashed him in the face. He blinked.

"You have a sister?" I blinked.

"Yes, I'll go and get her. But Bella, perhaps you could wait in the garden. She will show no mercy if she thinks I'm entertaining a girl in my bedroom."

He did that trick again where he turned an invisible door handle, and the air parted, and there, incongruously, I could see the inside of an ordinary house, nothing like the castle at all. I craned to get a better look, but he said, "She'll be very nice to you, but she'll make my life hell if she catches you in here," and he stepped into that other place and disappeared. The day couldn't get any stranger.

Wolf Jacob was outside lying in the sun when I got out there, stretched full length, luxuriantly relaxed and glossy, tongue lolling. He raised his head.

"So now you've seen Cullen in his full horror. He looked better before, didn't he?" he said.

"I wouldn't really like to comment," I answered. "He's bringing Alice to meet me. Do you know Alice?"

"Yes, she's kinda cute. I chased her down a rabbit hole once, and she's never forgiven me."

"Jacob, what's going to happen now? Now that Cullen's human?" I asked, sitting next to him. He put his chin on my thigh, and clearly thought he was getting away with a lot, which he was.

"I have no idea. It's up to you. You and I could go to your grandmother's house and I could get into her bed, and you could get in too..."

"Jacob," I warned.

"I'd have you crying wolf in no time..."

Voices turned me around, and there was Cullen with a girl, little and pretty and beaming with smiles.

"Hey, dogbreath," she said, noticing Jacob, whose head was in my lap.

"Fluffy," Jacob said, and I scrambled up so fast I wouldn't have been surprised to have dislocated his jaw.

"Alice, this is Bella," Cullen said, and I held my hand out for her to shake.

"So that's why my dear brother has been disappearing every Saturday for hours and hours. None of us knew quite how or why, but the dissociative disorder was persisting and he was obviously in the castle, and now here you are! All is clear."

"Cullen, I don't understand," I said to him, nothing being clear.

"Nobody does, Bella. I don't understand myself. But - "

"You call him Cullen? Okay, well come on Bella let's go and chat. I've never been here, you know, it's quite an honor that he lets you in - so you're in final year? So am I! What subjects are you doing? I can tell you right now I study kissing, love, and the theory and practice of Jasper, and I'm happy to talk to you about all of them. Jasper's my boyfriend. Maybe you can meet him, but you can't do any study on him, and you certainly can't do any practice!"

Her laugh was tinkly, and if Cullen was an ogre, perhaps she was a sprite, and she talked and talked, "Who's your boyfriend? Ha ha, what a silly question..."

Cullen whispered "She's unstoppable," unnecessarily to me as she swept me past him, and we went to admire the koi.

Her interrogation was very thorough and relentless. She fixed me with a sweet eye and fired questions I couldn't duck or evade or dodge. I told her everything about me, even things I hadn't remembered.

Then, "So, Bella," she asked, at the sundial. "How did you get in?"

"Through the walls," I shrugged.

"Edwar - ah - Cullen's got those walls set at Impregnable. Hmm. Most interesting. Now, Bella, are you magic?"

"No, just ordinary, but I can turn into a swan. In fact it might happen quite soon," I said, glancing at the shadow thrown by the sundial's fixed axial gnomon. "Soon, as in right now."

The change started, and Alice watched in alarm, hovering and trying to help, but of course, no help was needed. Once I was fully anatidae, she was thrilled.

"I wish I could do that - I'm the ordinary one - look at you! Can I watch you swim?"

I couldn't answer her questions any more.

"Can you fly?" she asked.

We played for an hour, until it was time for me to go. Jacob appeared then, nearly two feet taller than her. Alice's arms were around me, her soft pale cheek warm as a peach against my feathers.

"Oh, get off her, Pixie-pie, she'll bite you," he told Alice.

"No, she's my friend now, Whiskers."

I raised my wings.

"She doesn't like people fighting over her. She wants everyone to get along," Jacob sighed. "So I guess that means you'll just have to put up with me, Ms Alice Cullen, and I'll have to put up with you."

I tilted a farewell at both of them, and made for the sky.

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