Once Upon a Twist by Michelle Smart, Aimee Duffy Page B

bunch of hairy black spiders’ legs splayed out the sides of the matching knickers. Her neck had been chewed through to the bone, and where her left eye should be was nothing but blackness. Her remaining eye displayed the same vagueness that was in the teenage creature’s.
    He would bet his palace the pair of them had undergone numerous attempts to breach the barricade.
    His loyal soldiers, their arms aloft, their swords primed, were ready.
    His fiancée was ready for them too. There was something majestic about the gleam in her eyes and the defiance of her stance. She shone under the moonlight and for a split-second he forgot the danger, so full of admiration was he for her matchless beauty and her breath-taking nerve.
    He almost forgot himself.
    The creatures charged upon them, Ana’s red eyes fixing upon Ella.
    With a primitive howl, Ella charged right back.
    Her movement galvanized James and his soldiers into action, and they followed suit, slashing and stabbing at the bloodthirsty creatures.
    Ana, not caring in the least for the slashes of Ella’s sword penetrating her skin, opened her mouth. Spittle dripped down her chin.
    “Don’t you touch my fiancée, you bitch,” James roared, slashing his sword through the air and bringing it down on Ana’s neck, hacking it off in one slice.
    “Nice aim.” Ella nodded, her voice choked. Admiration shone from her eyes, but there was sadness reflecting there too, a sadness that twisted his heart. Ana did not deserve her compassion.
    “I aim to please,” he quipped back, quickly stroking her cheek to let her know he understood her feelings, whilst discretely kicking Ana’s face into the undergrowth.
    How could he feel compassion towards a woman who had made his fiancée’s life such a living hell?
    The soldiers made quick work of dispatching the other creature. Only once it stopped twitching did any of them dare relax their holds on their swords.
    “Is that all of them?” Gustav asked.
    Automatically James looked at Ella for her opinion.
    “I would think so but I would not assume so,” she said, flopping onto the grass.
    He considered this before saying, “Sebastien, Gustav and Phillipe, I want you three to do a thorough check of the house. We shall stay here and see if anymore come out from the woods.”
    He waited for Ella to disagree. Instead, she lay on her back and gazed up at the moonlit sky. Laying down next to her he traced a finger down her filthy cheek. “Are you all right?”
    “Me? Oh I’m marvelous.”
    “You don’t think there’s any left here do you.” It wasn’t a question. She would certainly have insisted on them all checking the house out together if she had.
    She shook her head. “Not within the enchantment’s boundaries, no.”
    With Jonas keeping watch on the forest, James pulled Ella into his arms and held her tightly.
    Now the danger had passed it seemed all the fight had been knocked out of her.
    She shuddered into his chest.
    “Are you sure you’re all right?”
    “I might be getting a little hysterical. I’m trying to think of how many people I killed today.”
    “Ella, they weren’t people. Not in the human sense.”
    “I know that. It was kill or be killed. That doesn’t mean I can’t feel some compassion towards them.”
    “Even Ana?”
    “Especially Ana.”
    Together they lay in peaceable silence, marveling that they were still alive, still together.
    Gustav came back into the garden followed by his comrades. “All clear, sir.”
    “Except for this sir,” said Phillipe, carefully holding aloft the fattest, furriest creature James had ever seen.
    He sat up and examined it. “What is that?”
    “It’s a cat sir. We found it hiding under a bed. Be careful. It bites.”
    James looked at Ella. “Is it yours?”
    “No. It’s Christell’s.”
    “What do you want to do with it?”
    Ella considered before glaring at the obese feline, who in turn hissed with what could only be described as haughtiness. “Domino,