Scarlet Moon (Once Upon a Time) by Debbie Viguié

wrong?”
    “Everything,” he whispered. He turned, his green eyes boring into her soul “The last time we met you said that only the ignorant believe in witches. I disagreed with you.”
    “I remember,” she answered, heart beginning to pound.
    “I know that there are witches, because my family was cursed by one.”
    It was her turn to start shaking. Something cold and hard like iron settled in the pit of her stomach, and she began to sweat.
    “During the first crusade one of my ancestors killed a peasant farmer and his wife. Before she died, the woman put a curse on every male member of my family.”
    He stopped speaking and looked at her as though gauging her reaction. She didn’t know how he wanted her to respond, or how she should respond, so she sat, quiet and waiting.
    “I’ve never told anyone this,” he whispered.
    She reached out and touched his hand encouragingly, not knowing what else to do.
    “I don’t know how to say this,” he said, voice filled with anguish.
    “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”
    “Yes, yes I do.”
    He shook his head, and she watched the struggle helplessly, her heart breaking for him.
    Suddenly he reached a hand inside his vest and pulled out a wadded-up piece of fabric. He handed it to her without a word. Puzzled, she took it. When she unfolded it she recognized it as her sleeve.
    “This is the sleeve the wolf took from me. How did you get it?”
    “I was the wolf.”
    “What?”
    “I am the wolf who attacked you.”
    Terror filled her in an instant.
He is mad, completely insane!
She wanted to leap from the cart and run back home to her father.
He was right about William all along; he’s dangerous and he could hurt me.
Another, more horrible thought occurred to her.
What if he is telling the truth?
    Out loud she stammered, “How … how is that possible?”
    “The curse placed on all the men in my family is that we turn into wolves for the three nights surrounding the full moon as well as the two days between.”
    She continued to stare at the bit of sleeve in her fist. With her other hand she rubbed her arm where she could still feel the scratch from the wolf’s tooth.
    “You?” she whispered.
    “Yes,” he said, tears streaming down his face. “Can you ever forgive me?”
    And then it hit her, why his eyes looked so familiar. They were the eyes of the wolf that had attacked her the day before, the eyes of the wolf that had attacked her nine years before.
    Fear and anger coursed through her, and her voice was shaking as she spoke. “Forgive you? For how much?”
    In a flash she reached forward and ripped apart his shirt before he could stop her. There, upon his breast, was a jagged white scar. Her heart began to pound even harder, and she thought for a moment she might faint. “How did you get that?” she hissed.
    He shook his head. “I don t know. When I was young, I woke up after I had been a wolf, and I had been stabbed with something, I don’t know what.”
    “I know what,” she cried, snatching the dagger from her belt. “It was this—my brothers knife. He stabbed you to save my life.”
    “Your life?” he asked, sounding dazed.
    “Yes, when you tried to kill me,” she explained, yanking the legs of her trousers up above her knees to show him the scars crisscrossing her legs and the bits of flesh that had been torn out, never to fully heal.
    He whimpered and reached to trace a long, jagged scar that ran the length of her calf.
    “I didn’t know,” he sobbed. “I am so sorry.”
    “For nine years I’ve carried these scars and fearhas plagued my every step, and all because of you,” she spat.
    He buried his head in his hands, and the cries that came from him sounded like those of an animal. Ruth sat there staring at him, hatred, anger, love, and pity running through her all at once. Everything but fear.
    For once the fear was gone.
    She didn’t know how long they sat that way She couldn’t even begin to sort out