What is it about this book that makes it special?
Bound Beauty is the third book in my Wylder Tales
series, a dark fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It is also the
book that taught me how to fall in love with writing again. The writing process
was truly a labor of love, labor intensive, and laboriously brought to life
over the course of this past year. There were days when I rewrote, and revised,
and chiseled away at the parts I deemed unworthy. What emerged is a story that
resonated deeply with me as a person, and I hope will inspire you.
I dedicated Bound Beauty to “everyone who has dwelled
in despair and had the courage to seek the light.” As someone who struggled
with bouts of melancholy from childhood all the way to my early twenties, I
have often found myself returning to this theme in my writing. What do you do
when you’re in that pit and the weight of it all makes it feel impossible to
climb back out?
I was never diagnosed or medicated as a child, so I
struggled through trial and error to cope using other methods. I’ve often
thought of it like picking myself up with my own bootstraps or clawing my way
out of the proverbial pit. Eventually, I found the easiest method to avoid
sinking back into that pit was to choose happiness and joy every chance I could
and hold on tight. I found I could ride the tide of those feelings, so long as
I did my best to expel them through writing, art, and music.
In the third installment of Wylder Tales, Vynasha is
put to the ultimate test. Despite all her struggles, her internal and external
scars, she is determined to grow her power to protect her newfound family. But
betrayal and loss come in the most unexpected places, and she’s left with
nothing but grief and despair for a time. Nothing except for the patience and
love of a prince she refuses to trust. Vynasha must decide if she will give in
to the prince and the role fate has led her to, or to fight for the kind of
future she wants.
As I mentioned above, Bound Beauty was a labor of
love, but it challenged me more than any book I’ve written to date. Over the
past year I’ve grown so much as a storyteller and a person. Somehow, all that
is tied up into this novel. Perhaps I was meant to struggle because Vynasha
struggles so much throughout this volume of the Wylder Tales series?
Perhaps art really does imitate life? Either way, I’m happy to share Vynasha’s
story with you today.
Excerpt
IN A FORGOTTEN CASTLE IN WYLDERLAND…
Alone with Grendel, the man she had been tempted to love, the prince she loathed, Vynasha didn’t want to wake up. Let her sleep for a thousand years like the cursed princess, Morana. Let these walls crumble, the rose garden spread throughout the keep with thorns and vines to keep the world out forever.
“I know you are awake, Ashes.”
Vynasha opened her eyes. The prince stood before the hearth, his back to her. He hadn’t changed clothes since she had last seen him. Yet his faintly luminous skin had dimmed from bronze to the dull gray she remembered. “What happened?” she asked.
“A fever in your sleep. Odym says it was the runes.” Grendel’s shoulders hunched as he hung his head. “I should not have come, I know this. But I…” he twisted to face her. “Forgive me, Vynasha, but I cannot stay away from you any longer. I could feel your pain through the bond, yet there was nothing I could do to stop her,” he growled. “Do not ask me to leave you again, I beg of you.”
Vynasha should have been disgusted, but she was coming to accept the fact that Odym had been right. No matter how she truly felt, they needed each other. And she could not deny the way his words danced about her mind and breathed life back into her limbs.
“I wish I could tell you I was different,” he continued, “before my mother cursed me. But the truth is, I was always a monster.” Grendel drew his shoulders back and lifted his chin, pushing away from the fireplace mantel. He shook his head and held his hands before him, palms upturned. “I never wanted to be my father. I shall not make his mistakes, and so I will be honest with you, Ash. No more secrets.”
She shuddered and desperately wished she could bathe, could banish dreams of Nymwe and be rid of the prince. The dread she felt before only grew as Grendel paused, clenching his fists as though steeling himself for words he could not take back.
“I owe you everything, so much more than you know. When you willingly accepted the curse, you took some of the monster into you. I have not been forced to change into a beast ever since. It has given me time to remember myself in your absence, who I was and who I hope to be.”
Vynasha ground her sharp teeth. So they not only shared a bond with his spirit, but she had taken part of his beast? That they were forced to share something she had learned to take pride in made her ill.
Whatever he saw in her face must have pained him, enough for him to turn away. “Forgive me. I shall go. I should have never hoped…” He shook his head, dispelling whatever he might have said as he took two more steps to the door.
She traced the tip of her tongue on her lip, tasting the blood she spilled to forget. His hand was on the doorknob when she said, “Wait.” The strength behind her command surprised her and caused the prince to freeze in place.
Vynasha lifted her hand with surprising ease. “Stay?”
We need each other.
His graying skin flickered to golden life as he turned with hope burning in his violet eyes. “Always.”
At his word, his promise, Vynasha released the breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Even then, a small corner of her mind railed against her actions, at the feelings she couldn’t seem to control. It must Grendel’s influence, his feelings trickling through their bond.
This is wrong.
Still, she couldn’t deny how the persistent itch beneath her skin abated with him beside her, holding her hand. It shouldn’t have mattered. Truly, she hated how easily she gave in to these feelings. She could never tell him. Grendel had bound her life to his. Even if she were to leave, to beg the wylderfolk to take her back into their home, she would never be rid of him. And the longer she remained in the prince’s castle, the less she wanted to be free.
