The king was dining alone when Stefan entered and sat across from him at his small table by the fire.
"I don't know what you said to my mother, but I promise you she's not going to be passing messages from you in the future. She's leaving in the morning to visit her sister," said the prince.
"I'm well aware of her plans," said King Peter, wiping his mouth on a clothed napkin and pushing his plate away from him.
"So, what is it then? Am I grounded? Am I going to be sent away? What is my punishment?"
The king leaned back in his chair and set his eyes upon his son. "No doubt you have been slacking on your responsibilities. If there's anyone I should send away, it's the girl. I can see she is a distraction for you."
Stefan gripped the edge of the chair tightly. "You wouldn't dare."
"Wouldn't I?"
"Is this a threat?"
King Peter shrugged. "If I can't interact civilly with you, then I will take matters into my own hands. There are important things on the table—such as the fate of our kingdom."
Stefan scoffed.
"You agreed to choose a girl to wed at the ball. You've done as much. If you don't want me to send the girl away, then you will agree to marry her. And she must accept."
"What?!" Stefan exclaimed.
The king looked at him incredulously. "What's this? You don't want to marry her now? You said you were in love."
She would be marrying a dead man, Stefan thought with a horrible pang of sadness.
"I didn't bring her here to marry her," Stefan said stiffly. "Why are you forcing this?"
King Peter gazed at his son with a furrowed brow. "Because it's your duty. Marry the girl or lose her. You are destined to rule this kingdom and so you need to start thinking about producing heirs and fulfilling your obligations. Don't test me on this: I could make her disappear, if I wanted to."
The prince looked at his father with a mixture of disbelief and disgust. "You don't have the right to mess with her life like that. She's done nothing wrong!"
"Then marry her," said the king shortly. "You have until the day of the tourney to make your decision. If she agrees, I will announce it when we crown the champion so all the kingdom can celebrate. If you do nothing, then I will announce that another ball will be held, where you will have one more chance to choose a bride, or I will choose one for you."
"I just want you to know," said Stefan softly, "that I hate you."
The king said nothing as the prince left the room.
I woke from a night terror, screaming and sticky with sweat. Luckily no one heard me—I didn't want anyone to know, or to talk about me. But I would have to tell someone that my nightmare was about the Necromancer.
He's still out there, I thought to myself with horror, glancing around at the shadows in my dark room. He's out there because he got away.
I was told I had been the Necromancer's prisoner for weeks—but if that were true, then how did I escape? Why was I unhurt? Why was I wearing a necklace with a beautiful, silver rose pendant—and most importantly, why couldn't I remember?
Take off the necklace, I told myself over and over. But I never did.
Who would give it to me?
Maybe if I take it off, I thought suddenly, I'll remember.
I lit the lantern near my bedside and stood in front of the mirror on the wall, surprised to see my shadowy reflection appear so unfamiliar.
I feel like I don't even know who I am anymore.
My fingers trembled as they felt for the clasp and carefully took off the necklace. As it came off, I didn't feel anything at all. My eyes examined every inch of the necklace for any trace, any clue as to where it came from. Disappointment lurched in my stomach. I set the necklace down on the bedside table and crawled back into bed.
My dreams are true, I thought to myself. The Necromancer is still out there, and he is still looking for me. I can feel it...
.The wind whipped his hair and stung his eyes. The air moaned through the trees; it was a sound of sorrow. Adrian was familiar with this sound, and it grew louder every day. Autumn was coming.
He could smell it growing in the air, the dusk of the seasons. Soon he would be twenty-one years old. Half of his life he had spent here, at Blackhill. Standing upon the garden terrace staring into the sky. The loneliness he had long grown accustomed to—but now it felt like a fresh wound, raw and bleeding, with Belle gone.
"The Enchantress has taken her!" Martha had wailed, once the dead had been defeated and lay still and stinking throughout the castle. The castle was searched time and time again, and it was clear that Belle hadn't just vanished. Nobody just vanishes.
Three days had passed since the attack. Three days Belle had been missing, and three days forwards to the King's Beast tournament, where a champion would be awarded the honor of bringing the king his head. Time was just another enemy.
On top of all of that—Adrian's ears had been ringing since the day of the attack. No matter where he was or what he did, the ringing was that of high-pitched bells, and followed him everywhere. He couldn't sleep, and he couldn't think.
Is this another curse? He thought to himself as he yearned to hear silence.
The blackbird landed again beside him upon a statue of an angel. Adrian looked up through the hazy wind.
"Mary!" It squawked. And then it flew off down the path into the garden, where dead leaves fluttered in the breeze.
Adrian stared after it for a moment. And then he followed the bird down the path. Around a corner it perched upon a hedge, waiting for him. "Mary!" It squawked again. It led him deeper into the garden.
It's her name, Adrian realized. It's talking about Belle.
As he followed the blackbird, the ringing in his ears grew louder, more shrill and piercing. It was unlike anything Adrian had ever experienced before—even turning into the Beast was more tolerable than this. Pain was beginning to radiate through his skull and down his spine.
The bird wasn't taking him anywhere new. Around a few corners and twists there was a shallow pond beside a weeping willow tree that rippled in the wind. Adrian had lazed by the pond reading books there as a child, but had long ago lost interest. The blackbird landed beside the pond and seemed to peer into the water, tilting its head curiously.
Despite his pain, Adrian nearly froze in fear.
Why is the bird looking into the pond? What does it see?
A thought so horrific and terrifying passed through Adrian's mind that for a moment he couldn't bring himself any closer. And then the ringing in his ears amplified by a hundred, and he fell to his knees in agony.
"Mary! Mary!" The bird shrieked.
Adrian's hands clasped his ears so tightly his knuckles were whitened and shaking. He looked up through the pain at the rippling pond, and brought himself to his feet. The wind picked up, swirling around him with the warmth of summer but with the hollowness of fall. It was maddening.
With a leap of faith, or a step of madness, Adrian drew himself towards the pond and forced himself to look. He did not expect to see something looking back at him. But just then the ringing in his ears seized, and he fell head first into the water.
The land of magic is everywhere, and sometimes nowhere at all. Castle Blackhill existed in the land of magic, but it also existed in wild forest. It is a land hidden away, and growing smaller, its many thousands of doors closing one by one.
Adrian knew the land of magic very well: he had just fallen into it. When he broke through the surface of the water, he did not plunge into the shallow depths of a pond, but instead a passage to the land of magic that he was sure had never been there before. He fell into a subterranean cavern, illuminated by the daylight above. And there waiting for him was, undoubtedly, a fairy.
"Adrian," she said, her voice as soft as a whisper but as clear as the bells that had stung his ears.
Adrian got to his feet, temporarily disoriented from the absence of the horrific ringing in his ears.
"It was me," said the fairy, "I was calling you."
She was the image of Severa, though instead of wearing a crown of dark crystals, she wore a crown of flowers. Her wrists were bound in chains that connected to the stone wall.
"You're a fairy," said Adrian. "Like my aunt."
She nodded. "I am, though I am not like your aunt. My name is Pandora."
"What are you doing here?"
Pandora shook her wrists, jangling the chains. "The chains are enchanted. Severa has kept me here for some time. She certainly didn't want us to meet."
"My aunt put you here? But, why?"
"Because I'm the only one who knows her plan, and I tried to stop her. Are you ready to hear the truth?"
Adrian gazed at her, wondering if he had hit his head in the fall and was in fact dreaming.
Pandora looked back at him sadly. "Don't tell me you've already given up hope."
Adrian looked at her with pain and fury in his eyes. "I've lost Belle. I've lost everything."
"Belle is alive," said Pandora, her eyes lighting up with excitement.
"How do you know?" he asked, his heart skipping a beat.
"Because she is wearing your mother's necklace. But she is still in danger. She is the one who can break your curse and Severa knows that."
"Where is she? Please—tell me. I can leave the castle if I have a plan."
"First you must know why Severa cursed you. I'm telling you now: once you know, it will change everything," said Pandora.
"Then tell me. I'm ready for it."
Once upon a time, there was a handsome prince. He was loved dearly by his family, friends, and the entire kingdom. The prince was bold, brilliant, and adventurous. Raised on the stories of his grandmother who told him of a land of magic, the prince vowed to go there one day and see it for himself. When he turned sixteen, his wish was granted. A mysterious man from far away presented him with a priceless map: one that would take him to the end of the world and into another. So right away the prince arranged a voyage in secret, for he knew his parents would never allow him to go.
The map led the prince to a land of magic, where he spent an entire year exploring. While he was there, he met a beautiful girl his own age. He came upon her as she was watering her horse by a stream. A storm was brewing in the air, so the maiden offered the prince shelter at her home. She lived in a castle, he found.
"Are you a princess?" he asked her.
She laughed. Her family had long lost their influence and power over the land; the only surviving members of her family were her and her sister. They lived in the castle and preserved it, as it was their childhood home and heirloom.
That night the prince and the maiden fell in love. The prince knew that he had to return to his home eventually, if not soon, for his destiny awaited him. But he did not want to leave her.
As their love unfolded, the maiden's sister watched from the shadows. She was a fairy, and a powerful one, hungry and desperate for her family's name to be restored.
A prince from the land of men, she thought to herself. In love with my sister.
Many ideas were growing in her head.
After some time had passed, the prince felt his calling to return home. He asked the girl to come with him, but her sister forbade it.
"My sister belongs in the land of magic," she said.
"I am with child," said the girl.
The prince swore to marry her, and so they agreed that he would return once the baby was born and bring them both back to his home. As a token of his commitment, the prince left the girl his sword—the only thing of value he carried.
"Sister, this is our opportunity to restore our family's power. Your child can rule both the land of magic and men with the blood of both," said the fairy.
"No," said the girl. "My child will be raised without that burden. The land of magic is dying, and when we leave, we won't need to return."
This angered the fairy more than she had ever been angered before, because she felt betrayed by her own blood. She left the castle and did not return until a year later, when the baby had been born. A boy.
"Let me teach him magic," the fairy insisted to her sister. "He can be raised to his full potential."
The maiden, now a lady and a mother, refused, and banished her sister from their home.
The prince kept his word and returned to the land of magic, looking for his family. The fairy was waiting for him, however. She produced an enchantment so powerful that she tricked the prince into believing that the girl and their child were murdered. The prince was heartbroken, believing he had lost everything.
So the fairy offered him a serum that would make him forget. He would forget about his girl he loved, and their child. He would be free to continue his life without the pain that weakened him so. In his desperation, he accepted the serum and returned to the land of men.
And so he had no memory of loving a girl in the land of magic, and he had no knowledge that his first born son was there. A son he had named Adrian.
"Her plan is to put you on your father's throne," said Pandora. "And as long as you are bound to the Beast, you are under her control. And so she will seize the power of the land of men and crush it, bringing rise again to the land of magic and the old ways."
"My father," Adrian said slowly, "is alive?"
"Yes," said Pandora. "Very much so."
It felt impossible to him. Too amazing to be true; too horrific.
I am my father's enemy, and he is mine, he realized. But not if I can break my curse.
"You said Belle is alive. Tell me—where is she? How do I find her?"
Pandora looked at him sadly. "Belle has been cursed. You will find her, I assure you. But it won't be as you wish it to be. She doesn't remember you anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"She's just like your father; you are not real to her anymore. It was the one thing Severa could do to prevent her from breaking your curse."
First my father, and then Belle?
"Severa's trying to erase me," Adrian said furiously. "If she wants to save the land of magic so badly, why would she do this? Tell me there is a way to change this!"
"Of course there is," said Pandora. "No one's fate is ever written in stone, as much as people would like to believe it, including your aunt. But it's not just your fate that's hanging in the fray—there are two others who play a role in this war against Severa. They are in just as much danger as you."
Adrian raised his eyebrows. "Who are they?"
"You know her: her name is Mary. When she became Belle, she was running from the Necromancer. Now she is Mary again, with no memory of being Belle. Her curse must be broken in order for yours to be. And the other is the prince Stefan. He is your brother."
Adrian's insides froze. "I have a brother?"
Pandora nodded solemnly.
"But that means… he is the heir to the throne. Severa will kill him!"
"All three of you were born with different destinations in life. Severa has meddled with things that she had no right to meddle with, and all three of you have paid the price. Now you will have to stop her, or she will win and they will die. Mary must remember; she and Stefan will die if she doesn't remember."
"How do I do it? How do I find her and make her remember?"
"You're going to have to put your life on the line," said Pandora. "You're going to have to un-erase yourself. Without revealing your curse."
"These are riddles!" Adrian exclaimed. "These are not answers. If I expose myself, they'll kill me! Or I will simply be putting them in even more danger."
"Trust in yourself," Pandora said firmly. "Trust that you will save them. It is the only way you can do this. Now I have told you all you need to know, and it is time for you to free me of these chains."
"How?"
Pandora smiled. "Come back with your father's sword and behold what it can do. Time is running out."