EPISODE 4:The Beast Remembers
1873 Words
Azrael's eyes were black.
Not dark gold.
Not amber.
Black.
Lucia stood frozen before him, her mother's silver pendant trembling against her chest.
The creature that had once watched her from the forest—the creature that had carried her through the rain, protected her from Malachi's men, and looked at her with something dangerously close to tenderness—was gone.
Or perhaps it was still there.
Buried beneath the monster.
Vespera smiled.
It was not the smile of a queen.
It was the smile of someone watching a trap close.
“You see?” she whispered. “This is what he truly is.”
Azrael lowered his head.
His claws scraped against the marble floor.
One step.
Then another.
Lucia backed away.
“Azrael?”
The beast stopped.
For one heartbeat, something flickered behind those black eyes.
Then it vanished.
“Don't,” Vespera warned.
Lucia ignored her.
“Azrael.”
The beast snarled.
The windows shook.
Guards pressed themselves against the walls.
But Lucia did not run.
She didn't know why.
Perhaps it was madness.
Perhaps it was courage.
Or perhaps, somewhere inside the monster, she could still feel the man who had looked at her as though she were the first gentle thing he had seen in eighteen years.
“You told me to run,” Lucia whispered.
Azrael's claws tightened.
“You told me to stay away from the crown.”
His breathing became uneven.
Vespera's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Lucia noticed.
The queen was afraid.
And that realization gave Lucia courage.
“You warned me about her,” Lucia continued. “You protected me.”
Azrael lifted his head.
A low sound escaped his throat.
Not a growl.
A broken sound.
Almost human.
Vespera's face hardened.
“Enough.”
She raised one hand.
Purple light exploded across the chamber.
Azrael screamed.
Lucia cried out as the force threw her against the wall.
The pendant around her neck burned.
She grabbed it.
And suddenly—
she saw him.
Not the beast.
A boy.
A young prince standing beneath golden banners.
Azrael.
He was laughing.
There were people around him.
His mother.
His father.
A younger version of himself.
Then the vision changed.
Fire.
Blood.
Vespera.
A sword.
A crown falling to the floor.
And a voice.
His voice.
I will never bow to you.
The vision shattered.
Lucia gasped.
Azrael was on his knees.
His black eyes had begun to change.
A ring of gold appeared around his pupils.
Vespera stared at the pendant.
“No.”
Lucia slowly rose.
“You're afraid of this.”
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
Vespera's violet eyes flashed.
“You don't understand what you carry.”
“Then tell me.”
“You carry the last piece of a dead queen's rebellion.”
Lucia's breath caught.
“My mother?”
Vespera said nothing.
That silence was answer enough.
Lucia stepped closer to Azrael.
He snarled again, but he did not attack.
She knelt.
The beast stared at her.
“I know you're still in there.”
Nothing.
“My name is Lucia.”
His ears twitched.
“You know me.”
His breathing slowed.
“I don't care what she turned you into.”
The golden ring around his pupils widened.
“I remember the forest.”
Azrael's claws stopped moving.
“I remember you saving me.”
His head lowered.
“And I remember that you were afraid of yourself.”
A tear slipped down Lucia's cheek.
“You don't have to be afraid of me.”
Azrael stared at her.
Then, slowly, painfully, his hand opened.
The claws remained, but his fingers trembled.
Lucia reached toward him.
Vespera screamed.
“DON'T TOUCH HIM!”
The sound of her voice shattered the moment.
Azrael roared.
The palace windows exploded.
The guards fled.
Vespera raised both hands, but Azrael lunged.
Lucia threw herself between them.
“STOP!”
The beast froze.
His claws hovered inches from Lucia's face.
For a terrible moment, nobody moved.
Then Azrael whispered a single word.
“Run.”
Lucia's heart broke.
“Where?”
His eyes flickered gold.
“Blackwood.”
Vespera attacked.
Azrael seized Lucia and leapt through the shattered window.
They fell.
Lucia screamed.
But instead of striking the ground, darkness rose beneath them like living smoke.
They landed deep within the palace gardens.
Azrael collapsed.
Lucia scrambled toward him.
His body was changing.
The claws receded.
The blackness beneath his skin faded.
His face became human again.
He lay unconscious.
Lucia touched his cheek.
“Azrael?”
His eyes opened.
Gold.
Weak.
Human.
He looked at her.
And for the first time, there was no monster in his expression.
Only exhaustion.
“You shouldn't have come back for me,” he whispered.
Lucia swallowed.
“I couldn't leave you.”
His eyes lingered on hers.
“That,” he said quietly, “is what will get you killed.”
A distant bell rang.
Then another.
Then another.
Azrael's expression changed.
“The palace has been sealed.”
Lucia looked toward the towering walls.
“Then how do we escape?”
Azrael pushed himself upright.
“We don't.”
He looked toward the forest.
“We disappear.”
Behind them, high above the gardens, Queen Vespera stood at the broken window.
Watching.
Smiling.
Because the moment she had feared had finally happened.
The girl had chosen the beast.
And now the curse had begun to change.
---
EPISODE FIVE — THE PROPHECY OF SILVER
They reached Blackwood Forest before dawn.
Neither spoke.
Azrael could barely walk.
Lucia supported him beneath the shoulder, though he was twice her size.
Every few minutes he stumbled.
Every time, he apologized.
It was strangely human.
And somehow that frightened her more than his claws ever had.
At last they reached an abandoned stone chapel hidden beneath twisted trees.
Azrael pushed open the ancient doors.
Dust drifted through the moonlight.
Lucia looked around.
“This place…”
“My family built it.”
She stared at him.
“Your family?”
Azrael nodded.
“Before Vespera took the throne.”
Lucia's fingers tightened around her pendant.
“Why did my mother know about her?”
Azrael didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he walked toward an old stone altar.
There was a carving above it.
A woman holding a silver pendant.
Lucia approached slowly.
It was identical to hers.
“What is this?”
Azrael looked at the carving.
“The prophecy.”
Lucia's heart began to pound.
“What prophecy?”
“The one Vespera spent eighteen years trying to destroy.”
He touched the stone.
Letters appeared beneath his fingers.
Ancient words glowed faintly.
Lucia read them aloud.
“When the kingdom falls beneath the shadowed crown,
the lost prince shall walk among beasts.
And when silver finds the heart that darkness cannot claim,
the crown shall break…”
She stopped.
There was more.
Her voice trembled.
“…but only if the bride chooses the beast freely.”
Silence.
Lucia stared at Azrael.
“The bride?”
Azrael looked away.
“That is why Vespera summoned you.”
“But how could she know?”
“She has been searching for you.”
Lucia frowned.
“For me?”
Azrael nodded.
“Your mother knew the prophecy.”
“And she knew it was about me?”
“She suspected.”
Lucia touched the pendant.
“Then why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she was trying to keep you alive.”
The words struck harder than any accusation.
Lucia sat on the chapel steps.
All her life, she had believed her mother had simply disappeared from her life.
Now she understood.
Her mother had known.
She had known the queen was a witch.
She had known about Azrael.
And somehow, she had known that Lucia would become part of the battle.
“Why me?” Lucia whispered.
Azrael crouched before her.
“I don't know.”
For once, he did not pretend to have an answer.
“I only know that Vespera is afraid of what you might become.”
Lucia looked into his golden eyes.
“And what do you fear?”
His jaw tightened.
“You.”
She stared at him.
“Me?”
“Not because you're dangerous.”
He looked away.
“Because you make me remember who I was.”
The confession hung between them.
Lucia felt something shift inside her.
Something she was not ready to name.
Azrael stood.
“We leave at first light.”
“Where?”
“North.”
“To where?”
“My father's old fortress.”
Lucia rose.
“Can we trust anyone there?”
“No.”
She almost laughed.
“That isn't comforting.”
“It wasn't meant to be.”
For the first time, the corner of his mouth lifted.
It was barely a smile.
But Lucia saw it.
And for one brief moment, the darkness seemed less absolute.
Then—
a sound came from outside.
A branch snapping.
Azrael's expression changed instantly.
He drew his sword.
“Stay behind me.”
Lucia obeyed.
Footsteps approached.
Slow.
Heavy.
Then a voice came through the trees.
“Lucia.”
She froze.
She knew that voice.
Malachi.
Azrael's eyes narrowed.
Lucia's blood ran cold.
Malachi stepped into the moonlight with armed men behind him.
He wore a dark coat, his face calm and composed.
Almost amused.
“I told you,” he said, looking directly at Lucia.
“You can run.”
His eyes shifted to Azrael.
“But you cannot hide.”
Azrael stepped forward.
Malachi smiled.
“Prince Azrael.”
Lucia's breath caught.
“You know who he is?”
Malachi laughed softly.
“Oh, my dear Lucia.”
He looked at her pendant.
“I know much more than you think.”
Azrael raised his sword.
“Leave.”
Malachi's smile disappeared.
“I would.”
He lifted one hand.
Behind him, the soldiers raised their weapons.
“But the queen has offered a generous reward for the girl.”
Lucia stepped backward.
Azrael moved in front of her.
Malachi looked at the beast with cold satisfaction.
“And she has given me something else.”
He reached inside his coat.
Lucia's heart stopped.
He pulled out a small silver locket.
Her mother's locket.
Lucia stared at it.
“No…”
Malachi smiled.
“Your mother left behind many secrets.”
Azrael's face became pale.
Malachi opened the locket.
Inside was a miniature portrait of Isabella Vale.
And beneath it—
a tiny piece of parchment.
Malachi unfolded it.
“Would you like to know what your mother wrote before she died?”
Lucia could barely breathe.
Azrael whispered:
“Don't listen.”
But Malachi began to read.
“If my daughter ever finds the prince, she must never let him take her to the northern fortress…”
Azrael's eyes widened.
Malachi looked up.
“Because that is where the curse truly began.”
The forest fell silent.
Lucia turned slowly toward Azrael.
He said nothing.
For the first time since she had met him—
he looked afraid.
And somewhere far away, inside the palace, Queen Vespera began to laugh.
The game had only just begun.
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