“I need to go outside, Adrian.”

Something in my voice must have convinced him to let me go, and as soon as his arm fell from me, I bolted from his room. I raced down the stairs, only slightly aware that people were around and watching. None of them tried to stop me. Instead, they pressed themselves into the walls. I assumed that had to do with Adrian, who I could feel at my back, stalking like a shadow.

I ran into the cold night, my bare feet sinking into the snow—and I was still so hot.

My body was changing. I could feel it in my bones, which ached in a way that caused my insides to throb.

“Isolde.”

I turned my head and looked at Adrian. He stood naked on the stairs of his palace.

“Tell me what is wrong.”

“I don’t know,” I said, frowning. Then I turned and looked toward the garden, bolting again. As my feet carried me at what felt like an abnormally fast pace, my bones broke.

It was the only way I could describe it.

The pain sent me to the ground, and I screamed. Tears welled in my eyes and spilled down my cheeks, and as strange as it was, the only thing I could think about was water.

Water is rebirth.

You will survive in the water.

And it was near. I could smell it.

I reached out with my hand to crawl when a set of claws burst from my fingertips. Blood dripped onto the snow and while I screamed, I dug into the earth, using my claws to pull myself forward, propelled by my one and only goal—water.

Even as I crawled, my bones moved, fusing into something that made me feel completely other. The knowledge that I was no longer human passed through my mind before I rose to my feet with what energy remained in my body and staggered into the grotto.

My vision was blurry, but I knew where I was because of the lingering scent of jasmine in the air. I came to the edge of the pool and broke the ice layer on top as I waded into the depths. The water cradled my body in a cold embrace, and the burning in my blood and the ache in my bones ceased.

“Isolde.”

Adrian stood on the bank, and even in the dark, his eyes glittered.

“Stay,” I said. “I will be back.”

Then I submerged myself beneath the water, and there was no pain as I felt my body transform and become a foreign thing—an animal, covered in thick black fur.

Reemerging, I crept to the shore on all fours, holding Adrian’s gaze as I sat, allowing a long, black tail to curl around my feet.

The corner of my husband’s lips lifted.

“Aren’t you a beautiful beast?” he said.