I smiled as the sunlight kissed my face as I lied down in the almost-dead grass at the entrance to the garden maze. The book that I took from the library was now being repurposed as a pillow for my head. Although it was not very soft, it worked. I clasped my hands against my stomach and counted the clouds I saw, giving each one a shape that they would eventually change out of.

A dog. A cat. A little duck.

I smiled again and closed my eyes, not thinking about anything. Something tickled my nose. I open one eye slowly and see a black something on the end of my tanned nose. The black thing rubbed its front legs together and flexed its wings.

"Eep!" I screeched, jumping up a swatting at my nose. "Cockroach! Cockroach!"

The one insect that I really, really don't like.

I shivered as I made sure that there were no more on me or around me, although I honestly couldn't tell because my skin was crawling. I shuddered again and snatched up my book, then headed straight for the middle of the maze. As many times as I had studied it from my room, it took me no time to get to the center of it. I looked around. The smiling baby angel at the top of the stone fountain was covered in moss and grime, with thin cracks running down its arms and face. A small puddle of rainwater was in the bottom of the round fountain, calling mosquitoes and other insects to it. The roses that used to sit at one of the walls of the maze were now no more than brown sticks, home to the spiderwebs that used two of the sticks to hang across. Dead leaves and remnants of vines covered the walls of the maze, securing the look of death that the garden gave off.

"What happened here?" I mumbled to no one. This place had once been beautiful, I was sure of it. I carefully set the book down on the edge of the stone fountain and opened it up to the page I was reading the night before, labeled Ut ea movere. I closed my eyes and thought of what I would want to move. Something small. My eyes snapped open and I bent down, searching underneath the fountain for a tiny pebble. I felt like shouting 'victory' as I stood back up with a pebble in hand. I took it and laid it smooth side down in my left hand. Then I glanced back down at the book. It said to concentrate on the rock. Feeling incredibly stupid, I squinted my eyes almost shut, staring only at the pebble lying in my hand.

"Kinisi," I mumbled the words, trying to make the pebble at least shake. Nothing happened. "Kinisi!" I said louder.

Maybe the louder you get the better the spell works.

The pebble did absolutely nothing. I stood there, alternating yelling and mumbling at the rock in my hand, trying to get it to move. When it felt like I had been doing that for hours, I stopped

"This is how to make things move the easy way!" I screeched.

I turned and threw the pebble as hard as I could away. A pale hand caught it with a smack.

"Kinisi," whispered the Beast, moving the rock into my palm.

I took a step back, heat spreading across my face. I locked onto the Beasts eyes and didn't move.

"It's not how loud or soft you say the word. I can get away with being completely silent and still move the rock. Think about where you want it to go, and while you do that think the word."

His voice was quiet and he didn't want to meet my eyes. He held his head slightly bowed so that his blonde strands of hair fell to the side of his face, framing it. I didn't move, still holding the pebble.

He sighed in exasperation. "If you're going to steal books from my library and come outside without permission, you might as well try the spell that I just told you how to do instead of staring at me."

The corners of my mouth flicked up in a grin as I looked down at the stone in my hand.

"Close your eyes," the Beast demanded. "It'll help the concentration."

I looked into his dark red eyes one more time, then closed mine slowly. "Now what?" I asked, waiting for more instructions.

"With you, I'd whisper the word. Don't yell it, it won't work. While you whisper though, imagine where you want it to go. You can try up and down, side to side, around in a circle, whatever you like. Just concentrate on the rock and nothing else." He was very patient, telling me how to do everything slowly and carefully.

An image of my father floated into my mind of when he was younger, trying to teach Joshua how to ride a horse. He and the Beast sounded almost the exact same. I calmed myself with three deep breaths then drew my focus back to the pebble. The Beast's words echoed in my mind as I thought of where I wanted it to go. Up and down seemed like a good idea for the first time trying.

"Kinisi."

The weight from my left hand disappeared immediately. My fingers on my right hand were moving up and down involuntarily, telling the rock which way to go. I smiled triumphantly. A slow clap caught my attention, making the pebble fall to the ground. My smile faded.

"Can you do it again, but this time send it over to me?" the Beast asked. The way he cocked his head to the side and barely squinted his eyes told me that he was testing me. He didn't expect me to be able to do it. I prepared myself for a comeback as I bent down to pick up the rock. A sharp rap on my head stopped me and I stood up angrily.

"What was that for?" I questioned, turning the palms of my hands upward like I do when I'm angry. The Beast walked back to his original standing spot. I rubbed the back of my head.

"You just moved a pebble up and down in the air with your mind, and you want to pick it up with your hands? Tell me how that makes sense," he retorted. He began to circle his cane around in the air, changing the direction he circled it every few seconds.

Rage built up inside of me at this man. How could one person be so aggravating? I pictured the pebble flying directly into his face and didn't even have to say the word to make it rise up from the ground. His eyes widened as he realized what was about to come next. My pebble flew straight for his forehead and stopped, less that a hairs width away from his skin. I didn't stop it though. His left hand was held up in the air, the force of his (dare I say magic?) greater than mine.

"Good. Don't act on rage though. It gets you nowhere." He was unfazed as the rock soared back to me.

He turned around to leave and I flicked the rock back, smacking the back of his head as I mumbled, "Pridurok."

He froze and turned around slowly, as if in a challenge.

"What did you say?" He turned his head to the side again and alarm bells went off in my head. The exchange we had when he was telling me how to use the magic was so much like an exchange I would have with my brother that I had seen Joshua standing there for a moment.

"Nothing," I squeaked out. He raised his eyebrows at me. I heard a low clink from behind me and I wheeled around. A rock twice the size of my pebble was barely touching my head in between my eyes.

"Good," he said. "If you were after a fight, let me tell you, I'd win."

"I'm sure you would." The rock was still hovering between my eyes as I thought of some of the stray dirt from the ground, trying to get it to glance off the Beast's shoulder. My distraction was enough to make him lose concentration on the object at my head, and I scampered out the other side of the maze. A sound like a laugh came from underneath his mask.

"I can move things bigger than rocks, girl."

I felt my feet start to come off the ground and I started to float into the center of the maze again.

"I have a name, you know," I called back as I made about ten pebbles hit him in the back. I ran right past him as he turned to stop the barrage of tiny missiles coming at him.

"Ah, yes. Lizaveta, isn't it?"

He said it so casually it hurt. I stopped. "No. Not Lizaveta, Zara."

"Why don't you like Lizaveta, girl? It sounds fine to me." He shrugged his shoulders and a splash of cold water hit me from behind, making me jump about a foot in the air.

"Why don't you tell me your name? Once you tell me yours, then you can call my whatever you want to call me," came my comeback as I took all the water he splashed on me and fling it back toward his face, landing a perfect hit. Silence was my answer to my question of his name.

"I see we both hit a nerve with our questions," he finally says, not throwing anything back at me. Water dripped down his pale face from my hit. Both of our shoulders rose and fell as we tried to catch our breath. He stood straight, gripping his cane tightly and putting most of his body weight against it, like the dark rod was the only thing keeping him upright.

"When you fight, remember to watch your opponents eyes. Those are the things that can tell you when they give up or not, whereas their body language can lie to you."

With that, a swooping sensation came over me and I found myself lying on my back.

"Like that," he said again. "Read their eyes, not their actions."

I slowly crawled to my knees and stood up again, glaring at him. His eyes twinkled in amusement, but his face was considerably whiter that before. A drop of sweat fell from his forehead. He noticed my gaze and turned away.

"Is your arm okay?" The Beast's voice was soft, and he didn't meet my eyes.

I looked down at my arm that was cut by glass a few days before. It was already almost healed.

"Yeah."

We both stayed silent. I was the first one to speak again.

"You know, I didn't technically steal the book from the library. There was nothing that said for me to stay out, and no one has ever told me that I can't come outside before. I'm not disobeying your rules."

He held up his hand. "You aren't exactly following the either, though. You found loopholes."

He seemed to think for a moment, then spoke again. "As long as you do not leave the castle grounds and come inside before sunset, I see no reason you couldn't be outside." He looked at me almost kindly. Neither of us mentioned the book.

"What happened last night?" I finally mustered up my courage to ask the question that had been bugging me. He debated for a moment, then spoke.

"From time to time, I--" he hunted for the right word, "turn. It's not willingly and I-- I can't control it."

I looked at him curiously. "What triggers you turning?"

"Emotion," came the automatic answer. "It has to be strong emotion though, not just a small bit. Normally it's associated with--" he shook his head and closed his eyes, not finishing the sentence. I knew what he was going to say, though.

"A memory," I finished for him, softly. He opened his eyes and met mine, each sharing a moment of understanding before he turned away.

"Wait!" I held out my hand and stepped forward a few steps, surprising myself. He turned around and silently asked 'what'.

I took a shaky breath. "I know what I want to call you."

Why did I say that? I have no idea what I want to call him.

"Ah, yes. I am Nothing, correct?" Amusement was evident in the sound of his tone.

"I'm not calling you Nothing."

"Then you will call me Something, then."

"No!" I almost laughed at our ridiculous conversation. A name came to my mind. "I want to call you--"

"Beast," he interrupted firmly. "It's only what's fitting." His eyes were cold, staring me down, daring me to say no. I took the dare.

"No one deserves to be called a beast."

He halted and something clicked behind his eyes. "I do." His voice was low and sure of his words, but I heard the sadness behind it.

"You aren't a beast. You're nowhere close to that."

He closed his eyes and gulped, slowing his breathing. When he opened them again, they were like stone.

"But I am though. I am a beast." He walked up closer to me menacingly. "A monster," he continued, "who enjoys the pain of others. Snacks on weakness in humans and enjoys it. I have gutted many people just for saying no to me." He moved up close to me, his masked face looming in front of mine. "You, girl, are merely a tool for me. A plaything. When I tire of you, I'll get rid of your pretty little face around here." If his mouth wasn't covered by a mask, he would have been breathing on me. As it was, he stood in front of me, moving like a snake trying to hypnotize its prey. He grabbed my shoulder, hard. "I killed the family that used to live here, just to get my own castle. Everybody loves a big house, right!"

A tear fell down my cheek. My heart was pounding a million miles an hour inside my chest, screaming at me to run away.

"I am the monster lurking in your dreams, girl. Don't ever think I'm anything more than that."

I looked at him with fury, torn out of my fear. "You may be the monster in someone else's dreams, but not in mine. That's something you will never get the sick joy of having. I will not be afraid of you." I was amazed at myself. While I said that I wouldn't be afraid of the man in front of me, I didn't feel that way. I was terrified.

He turned away and started to walk away from me quickly.

"Goodbye for today, Lizaveta," he spat at me as he left.

I fell to my knees when he vanished my vision and stayed like that, defeated.

He was wrong. He was no beast.

He is a monster.

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This chapter is dedicated to TheFaeFolk. They are a profile that recognizes high fantasy stories. Go check them out!

*****

Translations: ut ea movera- how to move things

Pridurok- moron

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Hi guys!

So what do you thing so far? How do you like Zara's attitude toward the beast? I'm trying to do it so that she is okay with him being around when he's not being horrible, but when he is being horrible she wants him to curl up and die in a hole.

(Wow. That was a bit on the mean side for the character, wasn't it...)

*shrugs*

What do you think about the fact that she can use magic?

P.s. Would you please be kind and orange-ify that star down at the bottom of your screen? Or, you know, click it or whatever?

Thanks!