Page 106 of Beauty

Shim picks up the tablet and runs to find his brother.

And then everything seems to slow down.

I stand in a barn, my hands brushing my favorite horse.Shim. This is his memory. Shim is satisfied. Satisfied with life. He misses hismother, but things are finally going well again.

And he found me. He found the girl from their dreams. Shimsmiles and pats his horse, thinking of me all the while. It was fun at first. Iwas a playmate who knew all sorts of games. And over the years, he knew he wasin love with me. Since the moment he realized what love is.

And now he’s going to marry me. Gillian went to arrange amarriage. She’s the only one who believes the princess in his dreams is real.He and Lach tried to tell Father, but he doesn’t want to listen to them and heforbade them to talk about it to anyone else, but Gillian believes.

He’s going to marry his Bron. I’m real and his heart is sofull.

And then it hurts.

Shim hits his knees. His whole body aches, and he wouldswear there is a hole in his gut. What’s happening to him? Fear takes over, butthen he hears the hum. He hears it each night in his dreams, and when heconcentrates very hard, he can sometimes hear it during the day. It’s a softnoise, usually, but now it’s a roar in his head that drowns out everythingelse.

Except his brother. He can feel his brother’s panic. How canhe hear his brother? Lach is on the other side of the palace, but Shim knowshe’s running.

And he knows something else, too. I’m in trouble.

Bonded. Somehow, I reached across the planes and made thatconnection that ties us to each other outside of our dreams. I grasped someinvisible thread and I’m pulling him to me.

And it hurts. The agony. As though his being is yankedsomewhere it shouldn’t go.

He feels the fire building in his belly. He hears my panic.Despite the horrible pain, he forces himself to listen—to himself and his body.The fire is his power, given to him by the bond, pulled from him by anintensely strong bondmate.

I am in danger, and he has the power to save me.

Get me close, love. Get me close. Can you feel me? I amwith you always. Always, love.

He needs me to listen. He can do this. He can control it.It’s right there on the surface. Fire will save me, save us all.

And then his power dies.

Too weak. I’m too weak. Gods. Shim screams. He can feel mefading, dying. Not now. Not when we haven’t kissed, haven’t loved, haven’tmelded into one another’s souls.

Rage threatens to take over. He was promised. He andLachlan. I was promised to them. More than any crown or kingdom, I am theirbirthright and he won’t be denied.

He hears his brother shout as he does the only thing he can.He reaches across the cord that connects us and sends his life to me.

As he feels my breath, he takes his final gasp, and theworld becomes fire.

Feet pounding. Panic floods his system and I am Lach again.Shim. Something is wrong with Shim. Something changed, in his head, in hissoul, in the whole fucking world. He was standing there talking to Duffy andsuddenly he knew where Shim was, been able to feel what he felt, sense what hewas thinking. He was always able to feel his other half, but not like this.This is overpowering, overwhelming.

And then it’s over. Lach feels the connection cut andsilence reigns. Nothingness. He can’t feel Shim at all, as though he doesn’texist.

Lach runs. He knows where his brother is. The stables. Andnow he sees something that terrifies him.

Fire blazes, engulfing every wall of the small stables wherethe best horses are kept. The family’s private stock. And it looks like nothingcan be saved.

But Shim is in there and if he can’t be saved, then Lach hasnothing left at all.

Shim is the smart one. Shim is the one who can love. Shim isthe beautiful part of his soul. Without Shim, there is only Lach, and Lach isviolence and dominance and cold power.

Lach doesn’t wish to live without the best part of his soul.

He hears Duffy screaming at him to stop, but he can’t. IfShim is gone, then the fire can take him, too.

Heat assails him so strong that for a moment he can’t move,can’t breathe. The smoke is so thick he almost can’t focus. His eyes water andhis lungs burn. Something large knocks him down, and he watches in horror asShim’s horse flees, its entire body on fire.