“It seems pretty bad,” I say.

“Well, you never get cold,” he points out. “Winter is coming. It’s getting chilly outside. You’ll be warm just as you are, but I’ll need a sweater.”

“I’d rather wear a sweater,” I say, scratching my arms. So itchy!

“I miss my sense of smell,” Mike says. “I feel blind without it. Handsome, but blind.” He stands up and sniffs one of his pots. “Cooking isn’t the same.”

“I guess. But I don’t really cook.” I try to slurp up a noodle but end up stabbing my bottom lip with my fang. I need to switch back. But how? “I wonder if there’s another fairy who can help me. Are you inviting any fairies to the wedding?”

“The only fairy I know is Jax,” Mike huffs. “And he’s not invited. He’s dangerous.”

“Good point,” I say. “I guess I could ask Maryrose. She’s a fairy who lives in our mirror. She’s kind of helpful. Sometimes. Maybe she’ll turn me back.”

Not that she helped Jonah regain his memory.

Maryrose does what she wants, when she wants it. We don’t know why she does what she does, either. Besides the fact that she brings us into fairy tales, she’s a complete mystery to us.

Maybe she won’t help me at all.

I’ll have to go to school as a beast.

Everyone will laugh at me.

Even Robin and Frankie.

And definitely Penny.

You can stop the wedding, a little voice inside me says.

No. No, no, no! There has to be another way.

There isn’t! the little voice inside shrieks. Stop the wedding! If you stop the wedding, then Mr. Beast will become a beast again and you will go back to normal!

I block the voice out.

Stopping the wedding of two people who are supposed to be together just to save myself would really make me a monster. And I am not a monster! Despite what I look like. Despite the fact that I ruined Penny’s painting.

I’m not, I’m not!

I finish my linner and march into the Great Hall to make sure the wedding setup is going well.

Mr. and Mrs. Butler are lighting candles and hanging white streamers. Good.

I head upstairs. In my closet, I find the pretty purple satin dress. I take a deep breath. I put it on.

It’s a little short. And with all that extra fur, it doesn’t zip up all the way in back. But it’s on.

I go to the mirror in the sitting room.

Sigh.

I look ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. The dress is way too tight and my fur is bursting out of the seams.

But what can I do? I’m Beastella.