Chapter 13

Chapter

Thirteen

PRINCE

I'm gonna throttle Darren.

Sure, Quarrel prodded me into calling Vibes' manager after we ran into Beauty in the coffee shop. And I was the one who worked my magic to get myself top billing. But Darren put my face on the freaking flyer without even asking me.

Yeah, that's how promoting works. I know, I know. I just want an excuse to be mad at someone other than myself.

My love life is a disaster. If I crash and burn tonight, that's it for my career, too. And all of it will be my own damn fault.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. At least the weather fits the mood. It's raining so hard that my jacket is already soaked through.

Briar.

It's such a beautiful name, but I can't bring myself to think of him as anything but Beauty. My Beauty.

All I wanted was to sit and talk with him in the dark, where I'm safest. Where I was starting to believe that I could be cared for, even wanted, once I finally stepped into the light.

Of course I've been worried that he'd react this way. I've spent my life with my guard up and my heart behind a wall, expecting to disappoint people. But the way we were getting to know each other in the night…

For a moment, I dared to hope that this time, it would be different in the daylight. It felt too perfect, the way he called me Prince without even knowing who I am. Like it was meant to be.

I'm effortlessly confident when I'm around Beauty, and he responds so well to it. Bringing out his true nature is as easy as breathing. His desire to be helpless makes it obvious to us both that he isn't.

I was starting to feel like I could be the prince in his story and not the wicked fairy after all. But I was too selfish—and, under all my bravery, too afraid—to tell him who I really am.

Of course I wanted to. I wanted him to know why he felt so safe with me—why it wasn't so crazy after all, the two of us falling for each other. I wanted him to be happy that I was his Prince Charming.

I just… wanted Beauty to want me.

That's not a good enough excuse for what I did. I just wish I could tell him I wasn't playing games—that I wanted him to see me as much as I loved to see him.

I don't think he has the slightest idea how special he is. There's nobody else quite like him. Even Sleeping Beauty is destined to be a queen. And I know my Beauty is destined to do big things, too. I just wanted to be up close to watch him blossom.

Truth be told, I think I've been falling for Beauty since the first time we met. But now that he knows who I am, he hates me.

Feels like my chest is about to break open and spill my guts right onto the sidewalk.

The truth fucking hurts.

As I duck under the awning at Vibes, my eyes land on the stupid poster plastered all over their front door, mocking me—my own face with my mask up on my forehead, the way it is right now.

I guess a mask can do one of two things. It can help me be myself… or it can help me be someone else when being myself hurts too much. For tonight, I can put on my mask and pretend to be okay.

And then I'll figure out how to rip out my broken heart and put it somewhere it'll never hurt me again.