There was a loud thud as she slammed into the other side of the door and I twisted the key in the lock before she could open it. The handle rattled twice before another bang shook the door.

"Let me out!" She shrieked, and I listened as her little fists beat against the solid oak.

I knew it would never give to her fury, but that didn't make it any easier to hear. Laying my head against the wall, I fought to calm my racing heartbeat. Better for her to be angry and alive than dangling precariously from an enchanted building she had no real understanding of, as she had been just moments earlier. My skin rippled, and I was thankful she hadn't noticed the fur beginning to spring up along my arms as we argued just moments earlier.

Ever since that first transformation, any extreme emotions had triggered slight changes in me again. Sometimes whiskers on my cheeks, or my teeth stretching out over my bottom lip. I had gone through countless shoes and gloves when the claws burst free from me.

Thankfully, though, the fur was far easier to hide as it pressed uncomfortably against the fabric of my clothes. Usually, I was able to keep my feelings in check and avoid triggering anything at all. After all, remaining emotionless and keeping a mask in place had trained into me from my earliest memories.

The fear when I spotted her dangling there, face tight with determination, had sent chills through me and the emotions were so raw they escaped before I could stop them. She wasn't the first to try to escape me, but she was the first to try it so soon and in such a dangerous fashion.

"You can't keep me here! What is so dangerous? Why won't you let me out?" She screamed, punctuating each comment with a pounding of her fist.

Of course, she didn't understand. She couldn't discover the truth without ruining it for everyone and how could I tell her the danger I was protecting her from was me?

I would keep her safe. Even if she fought against my protection like the little wildcat I had seen in the carriage and just now. Perhaps that fire would serve her well in the month ahead?

With a deep breath, I straightened. "Someone will collect you at six." I repeated, "There is plenty to entertain you in there. Paints and canvas in the trunk at the foot of the bed, books in the cabinet under the window, and parchment and ink on the desk."

Things left behind by the girls that came before her and my attempts at placating them would hopefully stall for time until I found out what she needed. There was a long silence, and I took a step towards the door again to listen more closely and see if she was trying to escape again.

"Is that ok?" I asked, listening as her footsteps moved across the room.

There was a creak as the book cabinet opened and I smiled. A bookworm. I filed that information away in my mind for future reference.

"I can organise other things if you need them?" I offered after the silence stretched on a little longer, "I am not a cruel man, Miss Weatherby. I just want to keep you safe and happy."

I didn't add that I wasn't really a man at all. Not anymore. Not after all these years. Curses had a nasty habit of changing us. I wasn't sure who I was now, but it was nothing like who I had been.

"Locking people up is not how you make them happy." Came the slightly muffled reply.

Not for the first time I longed for the magic which was buried somewhere inside of me. At some point in the last thousand years, I had forgotten how to access it. With no royal fae of my own court still around to communicate with, those skills had been left in my past.

"I am only trying to keep you safe. Perhaps I can explain more later if you'll just stay here?" I asked.

"Do you promise?" Her voice was closer again as she made her way back to the door.

"You have my word that I will explain everything in time." I replied, ignoring the stinging burn of the bargain in my throat despite my carefully worded reply.

Just vague enough that I couldn't truly be held to delivering on it tonight as she was trying to ask of me. Humans made verbal contracts and promises so easily. They had long since forgotten the meaning of those words when held by the fae.

"Hmmm."

The soft noise was about as close to an agreement as I thought I would get this time. I wasn't accustomed to begging a woman to speak to me, and I wasn't about to start now.

If she did disobey me again, then she and the dungeons she so feared would become very well acquainted. I wasn't someone to be played with and she would do well to remember that.

Turning on my heel, I took a deep breath before marching towards the West Wing. Time to face my greatest shame.

"You've returned, sire."

The husky voice stopped me just as I made my way up the staircase and I turned to face Atticus. Once the second in command of my guard, he became commander of them when he chose not to run. Though the decision cost him dearly, he had remained surprisingly loyal to me. The half-rat, half-man features were an odd sight to behold. His human eyes, watching me from a fur covered face behind an elongated nose.

"Yes, just in time." I replied tiredly, scrubbing a hand through my hair. "How were things whilst I was gone?"

"Quiet as the grave, sire. Did you manage to find a girl?" He asked hopefully.

For all the years and the pain and struggles, I had never seen him lose hope that I might break this curse. Even in the numerous times I had wanted to give up and felt I had failed my people, he had helped me to stand once more. I hated he had seen me so weak, but he never mentioned it outside of those moments.

"Yes, she's in the rose room. Not too pleased about being locked in, either." I felt my lips curve up in amusement and Atticus raised a brow.

"Feisty one?" He asked, glancing back the way I had come.

A strange wave of annoyance swept through me at his interest, and I frowned. "That's one word for her." I shook my head to dispel the feeling. This was my guard. He had been with me for a thousand years and wanted this curse broken more than I did even. I had nothing to fear from him near Gwen.

"You should probably be the one who brings her down to dinner. I haven't told her anything about the curse or how you all look, and I know the maids take great offence when the girls run screaming." I suggested.

See? That wasn't so hard. I am totally unbothered by him.

"You really should attempt to warn them before the first time they see us." Atticus sighed.

I rolled my eyes. "Where's the fun in that? I consider it part of the test. If they cannot hold their own against the unexpected, then they certainly won't be my soulmate."

"It's cruel sire, and you know it too. You have to stop torturing these girls. They are not to blame for us being in this mess now, are they?"

I rolled my eyes at his reproach. I had tried his method once or twice before and it only made the girls fear me as someone involved. At least this way, when they fled my people, it was my arms they ran into.

"Please inform the kitchen. I'd like dinner at six. Have the usual first night meal prepared. I'll win her over with their amazing cooking, if nothing else." I replied, waving a dismissive hand and stalking off before he could reply.

For all the years and all his attempts at friendship, the distance between us was clear. I was the one who had got us into this situation and he, like all my people, was the one suffering for it.

The stone staircase to the tower in the west wing was worn from years of my pacing the steps, seeking answers. As I approached the familiar door, I could hear them. They were scurrying and scratching against the floors as they heard me coming.

Mindless with hunger and animalistic senses, they were beyond sanity right now. I pushed on until I came level with the room and, with a deep breath, entered the room of rats.

The squeaks and noises were near deafening as they all scrambled over each other in the cages. Some attempted to flee and others to get a better look at me.

Retrieving the pipe from the loop on my belt with practised ease, I began to play. Softly at first. A light, lilting song of sorrow and loneliness that cut through the noise and quietened them down until they all stopped and listened to me.

Each note bringing them back to me like nothing else would. I would never know if this was an intentional part of the curse. Made so to extend my suffering by allowing me near them, but never with them again.

As they always did, they calmed and lay down to listen. It was early in the curse when I realised when the effect my music had on them. Watching as it somehow pulled them out of their animal nature and back into their bodies long enough for me to see the light of humanity in their eyes. The small swinging cage which hung from the ceiling on my right contained my mother and two sisters.

Their eyes pleaded with me to tell them this would soon be over. I wished I could tell them it would. The song ended, and I brought the pipe down slowly, knowing sudden movements could shatter the spell held over them.

"I've found another girl. She is different to ones I've returned with before and I had every hope I might break the curse this time." I offered them softly.

Hundreds of beady eyes searched my face to see if it was the truth, but I kept my expression shuttered and my emotions in check.

Their unspoken questions hung in the air. Questions I might never have the answers to.

"The dinner leftovers will be brought up to you tonight, but I must ask you to keep quiet if you're able. You know that if they find out too much, the curse will take the girl's as well." My eyes drifted to the smaller cage in the corner that contained the few who had discovered too much and been transformed into rats before the month end.

The curse was clear, and I knew how to navigate it at least, even if I couldn't break it yet.