The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 19
The Enchanted Forest was dark and filled with secrets. You could walk behind a bush and end up a hundred miles away if you weren’t careful.
Fairy tales are real.
Rose Briar is a diabetic college student without insurance. She’s been scraping by through a combination of maxing out credit cards and relying upon the kindness of strangers.
Unfortunately, she’s spent every dollar at her disposal. There’s no money left to buy her life-saving insulin.
Without her medication, Rose falls into a diabetic coma. She tumbles into a deep slumber and wakes up in a fantastical place called the Dream Realm, where fairy tales and legends of old are still very much alive.
She has one chance to wake up.
She must trek across the world, visit the most powerful object in the land, the Obsidian Spindle, and entreat with the fates; the only beings powerful enough to send her soul back to Earth.
But evil forces don’t want her to leave. They will stop at nothing to capture her and make sure she never goes home again.
Now, with the help of her half-gorgon girlfriend and a mysterious red rider, Rose must race across the land fighting dragons, monsters, and the forces of the Wicked Witch, Nimue, in order to reach the Obsidian Spindle before her body dies on Earth and she’s trapped in the Dream Realm forever.
Will she be able to wake up? Can she survive? Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.
The Enchanted Forest was dark and filled with secrets. You could walk behind a bush and end up a hundred miles away if you weren’t careful. I doubted neither the dreamer nor her companion were careful, given the circumstances. Even those who lived here for centuries had troubles navigating the verve. There were countless tales of people and monster alike vanishing into the woods, never to be seen again.
Usually, it had to do with Unseelie trickery. The Unseelie overthrew the Seelie queen, locking their pixie cousins in their dungeons and feasting on them one by one. Now, there were no Seelie left, so it made spotting the fakes easy. It was all trickery.
“Halt, rider!” a high-pitched voice squealed through the brush.
“I have no quarrel with you, pixie. I come for the girl and her gorgon compatriot. Give them to me and we will have no trouble here.”
“Please,” the voice said, and in a flash, a pink fairy appeared, holding a bow staff. “I know all about you and your mission for the false queen.”
My fists tightened. “Ozma is the rightful ruler of Urgu, pixie, and I will not have you besmirch her name.”
The pixie put her hands on her hips. “She lost her claim to the crown with the vanishing of Hypnos. Hera is the most powerful god that remains here and the only one who has claim to this land.”
“The most powerful perhaps, but not the only. One day, we will unite the outer gods and take back the gold throne from her.”
Golden glitter fell from her petulant face and landed on the ground. “Even with the other gods, you stand no chance against the throne. The Wicked Witch is too powerful, and Hera is behind her. We will unlock the Obsidian Spindle before long, and then return to the Universe more powerful than ever.”
I moved toward the pixie, my eyes narrowing. “Is that what you were promised? That you could return to Earth if you sold your soul to the dark queen?”
“It is what we were all promised. Urgu is stale and boring. Humans no longer come here and tricking them is our only joy. On Earth, there are millions, even billions to torture.”
“And what of the two that came through here? Did you trick them, too?”
“It wasn’t much of a trick. They were desperate for help, and we were more than happy to lend false aid.”
“Where are they?”
“At the castle now, I suppose. They’ll be prisoners by nightfall. The Wicked Witch has already been called to deal with the dreamer. She and her men will be here before long.”
“Then I have little time.”
I pushed back my red cape and dug my hand into the pouch by my daggers. Inside was a mix of ground boxwood and iron shavings. On their own, both repel pixies, but together, they form a powerful barrier.
I balled up my fist and swung my arm forward, dispersing the boxwood and iron. As I did, the pixie nearest to me began to cough and the other pixie guards scattered to the winds. I reached behind my back and pulled out a glass bottle imbued with flecks of iron, perfect for catching a pixie. I swung my arm through the air, and one of the pixies fell inside, trapped.
“Let me out!” the pixie shouted at me from inside the bottle.
I peered into the bottle. “Take me to them, and you will be set free. Otherwise, you will spend your life in this jar.”
“Fine,” it said with a huff. “I hate you, though.”
“I don’t care.”
Fairy tales are real.
Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.