I knelt beside him and put my hands on his cheekbones. His neck was limp. I breathed on his face, whispering his name. My breath made a cloud and it melted the icicles on his eyelashes. I said, Come back here. I just want to see if you’re okay. Then I’ll leave if you want. I promise, I’ll leave.
She was watching us, amused, I think. She stood up and stretched languidly and slipped off her white satin gown and waited there naked, burning white and not shivering at all in the chill air. She was so beautiful that I thought I had really gone mad this time, even trying to get him to look at me.
My tears were so hot that they didn’t freeze on my cheeks. They poured off of me onto him. They splashed on his upturned face. They poured over his eyelids, dripped into his eyes, seeped into him. I wanted them to wash away the particles of glass.
He looked up at me. He seemed to have shrunken, gotten even paler. He said my name. I wanted to drag him away, covering his eyes, but instead I let him see her there, behind us. Naked and glistening. He stared and I could feel his palm start to sweat, his heart beat fast like it was going to jump into her. I wanted to die, then. I wanted to destroy the body I was trapped in, become what she was, no matter what it took. No matter how much mutilation or pain. But he looked away, at me. He pulled my face down and pressed my lips against his like he was almost trying to suffocate us both.
Once he and I were children, before this happened.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my mother, Gilda Block, for her endless nurturing, and my brother, Gregg Marx, for his strength. My editor, Joanna Cotler, has made my dream a reality once again by guiding me with her profound warmth and wisdom. I will always be thankful to Charlotte Zolotow, who was the first editor to take a chance on me and open the doors to a whole new life. And Michael Cart for years of professional support and personal understanding.
I would also like to thank my agents, Lydia Wills and Angela Cheng; and everyone at Harper, including the wonderful Bill Morris, Alicia Mikles, Andrea Pappenheimer, Justin Chanda, Jessica Shulsinger, Ginee Seo, Virginia Anagnos, and Kim Bouchard.
My deepest appreciation to the brilliantly talented Suza Scalora for transforming my books forever with her stunning, enchanted cover art.
My friends who have given me so much understanding and inspiration are too many to be named here, but I would especially like to express gratitude to Tracey Porter, Elana Roston, Elise Cannon, and Hillary Carlip for their kindness, faith, and visions.
Special thanks to Kerry Slattery and her staff at Skylight Books for such an enthusiastic and personalized approach to bookselling.
Finally, I want to send my thanks to all my readers who have shared their joys and pain with me in letters that I treasure.
About the Author
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Copyright
THE ROSE AND THE BEAST: FAIRY TALES RETOLD. Copyright © 2000 by Francesca Lia Block. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub © Edition SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780061757037
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