The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 27
“Break it down!” I shouted at the pixies as they struggled to move the hefty debris blocking our way to the laboratory.
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.
“Break it down!” I shouted at the pixies as they struggled to move the hefty debris blocking our way to the laboratory.
The gorgon wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. Nobody was supposed to be able to use magic in Urgu. Nobody except for me and the pixies. I only had power because I had given myself, mind and soul, to the great god Hera. In return, she bestowed upon me the divine right to use magic.
It was the reason monsters didn’t have much respect for me. They had all the magic they wanted, but we humans were just supposed to live in the dirt and worship them. I didn’t think so.
“Out of my way!” I screamed. “Repair!”
The rocks moved out of the way, and back to their original location. Most magic casters thought the original Latin was important to the spell, but the spell worked just as well in any language. It was the aptitude of the caster and her conviction in the words that mattered.
“Get them!” the queen shouted.
The guards flew forward in a hesitant, nervous rush, and they had every reason to be scared. Pixies who disappointed Aine were subject to her wrath, and that was bad enough when I wasn’t in the castle. When I was here, everybody was uneasy, even the queen. They didn’t much like me, but they could not deny the power of Hera. Aine had no interest in disappointing Hera and bringing Hera’s wrath down on them. After all, her vengeance was legendary.
I followed behind the pixies, slowly. There was no reason for a queen to interfere with a battle. My job was more political and diplomatic. I wasn’t here for hacking somebody to pieces or frying them alive. There were certainly moments for that, and they were not without their satisfaction. I quite enjoyed the sizzle of a freshly fried dissident.
I reached the end of the hallway just as a large brown shoe exploded through the door. The pixies flew past me, and I didn’t need to stay to find out what had happened.
“Away!” I shouted, and I vanished in a puff of smoke.
I reappeared outside the castle, which was little more than a smoking heap, as two figures rushed off into the woods.
“Enlarge!” I screamed, and I returned my normal height. I didn’t need potions or tricks to change my size and shape, but that’s because I was the most powerful magician in Urgu. Even a spell-casting gorgon could not rival that power.
I needed to learn more about the magic-wielder who had just destroyed Queen Aine’s castle. I looked down at the pink ruin, crumbling to bits, and it was hard not to smile. For appearance’s sake, I would make sure to denounce the escapees as criminals, but it was hard not to believe that Aine got what she deserved for underestimating humanity.
Of course, I hoped she would continue to do so until I was rid of her forever.
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.