As though summoned by my thoughts of him, Victor approached the monster. It waited in place for him, letting Victor struggle across the ice. I wanted to jump out. To shout for Victor to shoot from that distance. But he was wiser than I. Pistols were good only at short range, accuracy and power traded for convenience and stealth.

I trembled, waiting for the monster to attack. Wondering how I would help when it did.

Instead, it remained motionless as Victor walked up to it. Victor shouted, his words muted into unintelligibility by the wind. I could see him screaming, raging at the monster. Why did he not just shoot it?

But…what good would a bullet do against the sheer bulk of the thing? Even wounded, it would be more than a match for Victor. He was no smarter than I, with my knife. Apparently Victor had reached the same hopeless verdict. His shouting subsided, and he shifted, turning away from the monster. Doubtless he could not bear to look at it.

After several minutes of this—Victor appeared to twitch occasionally, to nod or shake his head as though they were in conversation—Victor’s shoulders slumped. He rubbed his face, running his hands through his dark curls. Then he pointed away from himself, back up the mountain, and hung his head.

The monster…left.

It turned and loped away, straight up the icy plain, covering in mere minutes a distance that would have taken me an hour.

His shoulders still lowered, Victor began the long, slow walk back toward the house. What had I just witnessed? What had transpired between man and monster?

Whatever it was, I was certain Victor had not won.

—

I did not try to beat Victor down the mountain. Trusting that he would not check my room that night, I gave him a large head start and then followed. My entire frame trembled with cold and exhaustion. But my brain burned with questions. In the morning, I would confront Victor.

I would have the truth.

All our lives, I had never pushed him to give me a full story. I had let him maintain his dignity, let him dwell in the gift of my grace. But I could not do that this time. Not after what I had seen. In order to protect him, I had to know the truth of all things.

Whatever power this monster had over him, I would discover it so I could break it and free Victor.

And then I would kill the creature.

—

I collapsed into my bed just before dawn, as physically tired as I had ever been in my life. When I awoke that afternoon, I dressed in all white. It was my uniform. My costume, as Victor’s Elizabeth. I wanted to remind him who I was—that I was his, that I had always been his, and that he could trust me with whatever terrible secrets he sought to protect me from.