So here's another chapter...i hope you all are enjoying it so far! Thank you so much for all of your reviews...i'd list and thank all of you, but there's quite a few! lol...

anyway...this story is winding down and we'll soon find out what happens to Gwen and the beast and Merric...

A/N - just a notice...when this story is over...please check out its sequel The Secrets of Silver...it tells the story of Gwen's granddaughter, Katherine.

Chapter Nine

"Who…who are you?" Dom shivered. Snow began to fall.

The woman smiled faintly with full red-rose lips, her skin perfectly white. Her blonde hair almost touched the ground and Merric imagined her sapphire eyes had pierced him beyond all fear. He knew that kind of fear, when his masters looked at him as thought staring at something far away.

A few unnecessary words are exchanged before the woman's voice, sounding of breaking ice and howling wolves echoed throughout the dead forest. "You are not welcome here," she cried. "Why should I let you pass?" Power flowed from her hands.

Shaking Dom mumbled something, raising a trembling hand to shield his eyes from the light that flowed from her. The first growl grunted from his parted lips. "I have to fine him…for…Gwen."

Another growl. The woman gripped his chin and held it fast, forcing him to look into her eyes. Her voice glittered with prophesy. "Three hundred years have passes since I was placed in this realm," she cried, her eyes blazing. "I was forced to wait, watching as the portal between this world and yours shimmered and flickered until finally it was broken." She laughed harshly. "You fool humans, passing this way year after year, weakening it's strength. How upset I was to find that the one who finally broke the portal's power was a being that I couldn't trade life forces with. No, he was too old."

She reached with her free hand to stroke Dom's hair. Merric could almost feel, himself, the shards of pain that he knew slashed through Dom's body from his head to his toes. "Now, thanks to you, I have finally been set free. I do not know what Fate has for you. Your fate will be different from the one I was forced to serve, just as mine was different from the one before me. Now, I can return to the world, free at last to die in peace."

She looked him over, an odd, frightening look in her eye. "My keeper has granted me one wish, before I die. My wish is this – to leave you, my dear," The endearment came out like a curse, "to leave you suffering ten fold what I had to endure. Kept away from civilization, awaiting the day my true love would set me free."

Dom, Merric knew, couldn't believe what he was hearing. He most likely couldn't even think. The pain of her grip would have forced all thoughts from his mutating mind. Some sort of magic, ancient, nearly forgotten, flowed from her into him. It would have been eating him alive. Pain must have flowed through his body, tearing, wrenching, distorting.

"I give this to you," she snarled, handing him a long stemmed red rose. "This same perfect rose that has held me captive. It will bloom eternally." Even in his mind's eye, he couldn't take his eyes off of the woman. "It will bloom until your true love sets foot in your castle. After she does," she shrugged, her face twisted with malice, "who knows what might happen." She leaned down to whisper in his ear, grabbing a handful of hair, "Don't count on it." She thrust him away. He fell, hitting his head with a smack.

The woman closed her eyes. The blackened ground shook violently, and with a thrust of her arms, a great castle made from the purest of ebony escaped from the earth. Its towers and foreboding form loomed over the enchantress and the peasant boy. She turned steel eyes to the boy cowering at her feet.

"The portal opens, the earth, it dies. Poor little human – no time for good-byes." The woman's laugh rang out through the trees and Dom's eyes widened in fear. He stared helpless as she shoved him back and screamed, "Unless you find someone, my dear, who loves you for the hideous creature that you have become, forever will you remain a beast."

Merric let the memory fade as he had done so often in the weeks since that day. He had been there. He had been waiting silently behind the blackened trees as he watched himself become enslaved by yet another uncaring spellbound master. The young man, Dom, he had been on a quest for Gwen. Gwen. Merric clenched his hands.

"This wasn't supposed to happen!" he cried in anguish. To think he had actually waited thousands, millions of years, enduring master after master, watching as each failed in love. No one had ever come close to breaking the spell. Merric had tried his very best to make his masters and mistresses happy. But love had eluded all. Until now.

Now that love had finally invaded the desolate spellbound landscape, Merric couldn't encourage it. Love meant death. His death.

Merric gritted his teeth with resolve. He couldn't let Gwen find out who the beast really was. He couldn't let the beast fall in love with that mere slip of a girl. However, it seemed as though, despite his best efforts, that was exactly what was happening!

Whenever the beast decided to take Gwen for a walk, he'd always run ahead to make sure that Gwen was busy with some project or other she'd undertaken. If Gwen sought out the beasts company, to read to him or some such nonsense, Merric made sure that his master was nowhere to be found. He always added words or phrases such as "sulking in the southeast wing" or "shattering furniture again" when dealing with the girl. Anything! Anything to turn her heart and mind away from the beast. If nothing, else, Merric was going to make sure that the girl and the beast spent their entire lives avoiding each other.

But nothing seemed to be working!
Four months ago, when Gwen had first entered the castle, he had given little thought to the presence of this young woman. But the moment he saw, or rather, it was revealed to him that the beast had developed a liking for her, he's nearly cut off his own arm! Despite his best efforts, Gwen and the beast still managed to find time together, to explore the castle, to read together in the large library. Or play in the swiftly melting snow!

Gritting his teeth, Merric stalked to the large window taking up one entire wall in his own private study. It seemed as thought love could not only melt the stone from a beast's heart, but could melt the spell-made snow of winter. He sighed, slamming his fist against the glass. His only consolation was the rose.

The once perfect rose wasn't so beautiful anymore, though he doubted the beast cared a switch. The spell was being unraveled, and time was running out. If woman and beast didn't realize their feelings for each other soon, all would be lost. Merric had to be sure it turned out that way!

Seething, Merric turned to the corner table and poured himself a glass of liquor. As it burned down his throat he let out a yell and threw his glass across the room. It shattered, but Merric paid no mind. Stalking from the room, he went to make sure his wards were on opposite ends of the castle.

The snow was melting. And if felt as if her heart would soon follow suit. Four months. Four very long months she had been confined to this castle and its grounds.

Gwen snapped a growing blade of grass from the ground, running it through her fingers. Harvest time would be about at its end back home. Her brothers would sell the colts and fillies they'd tried so hard to train. Her mother would have sent for young men to help with the harvesting. Her sisters would be busy selling the blankets and rugs they had made throughout the year. Gwen would have been helping them, grumbling about her work, and forever wishing she could go off on some grand adventure.

Well, Gwen sighed, flicking the grass away from her, she got her wish. Encountering an enchanted castle wasn't exactly what she had in mind however. Her father was dead. Merric had buried him months ago beneath a deadened willow tree behind the garden. She had been kept from her family. And Dom…

Gwen clutched her thick fur-lined cloak closer to her. While spring was clearly on its way, the harsh winter winds had yet to abate. Thinking of her friend didn't help much. Just thinking about Dom sent shivers down her spine.

Was he still alive? Had he traveled this way only to meet his end at the beast's claws? Gwen didn't have the heart to ask. For while the beast was still her captor, she thought of his as such less every day. The beast smiled more often than not, and he hadn't raised his voice to her since the day she'd tried to run away.

He'd asked her just last night, as they shared dinner, if she was happy with him.

Gwen looked up, startled by the beast's question.

"You are not happy here?" the beast asked after the hesitated a moment too long.

Gwen shook her head. "No. Yes. I-I don't know. I mean, yes, this place is very nice. It's just taking some time to get used to," she'd stammered.

The beast had frowned and went back to eating as Gwen blushed and fought back tears.

In truth, she tried not to think about life back home. She tried to focus on living right now, on figuring out a way to escape. But as each day passed and her friendship with the beast grew even stronger, Gwen found her thoughts drawn more and more to a life with the beast.

It shamed her to find herself thinking of such a life. For this life wasn't truly hers. She was a prisoner, stolen from her home. Dom was gone. Her very best friend. If she was completely honest with herself, Gwen knew she most likely would have married Dom. However, it was only after they were separated, did she realize that he was the only person with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life.

But now that could never be. Dom was gone, most likely dead. And here she was, prisoner to a monster. Her life was not her own.

Gwen stood, leaving the cold stone bench in the garden behind her. The melting snow left the ground muddy and wet, but Gwen paid little heed. She walked past the numerous gardens, taking the shortest path. She stopped just before the willow tree where her father was buried. There, she sank to her knees.

She sat there, a long time. Waiting.

And then the tears came. She hadn't cried since the day she'd tried to escape. But now, she cried. She cried for the life that she had lost. She cried for her father and her family. She cried for Dom and the life they could never have. She cried for the beast and his terrible existence. She cried and cried, her heart breaking.

He'd only seen Gwen cry once, a long time ago. He hated seeing the sight now. Standing in the shadows, unseen, the beast watched the young woman kneeling before her father's grave. Somehow, he thought, he was responsible for her pain. And he felt her pain as if it were his own.

Not that he'd known many people, but the beast had never felt this way about anyone. Watching her wipe her fingers across the crude headstone and stand, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. His stomach flip-flopped and his heart raced as his eyes softened.

His heart was softening too. It was a rare time when the beast found himself thinking about something other than Gwen. Slowly, she invading his heart. He asked her to read to him often, just so he could hear her voice. He loved it when she laughed and they shared a joke or two. A strange thing, friendship. It left him wanting more.

But she was unhappy. And somehow, he had caused it. Pain seared his heart. He had to make it better. He had to do something for her, to make up for the misery he had put her through.

But what?

He bit his lip, and went back to watching Gwen. Startled, he found her watching him. Their eyes met and Gwen wiped at her tears. She smiled. His heart lurched, sending shivers coursing through his entire body. With a little wave, she left him standing in the shadows gazing after her. He watched her until she reached the alcove where she kept and fed Piper, the last remnant of her former life.

How she loved that horse.

The beast blinked, struck with an idea. Grinning to himself, he retreated back into the castle.