The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 60
“NO!” My queen. My queen. I watched her tumble down to the ground from the royal balcony. I watched Nimue drop her like she was a piece of garbage and not the rightful ruler of Urgu.
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.
“NO!”
My queen. My queen. I watched her tumble down to the ground from the royal balcony. I watched Nimue drop her like she was a piece of garbage and not the rightful ruler of Urgu.
I pushed myself through the crowd to the spot where Ozma had fallen, but I was too late. Her essence was floating into the air; nothing but a small pile of gray dust remained on the ground to commemorate my queen.
“Hey!” A hand grabbed my shoulder. I turned, ready to kill whoever was touching me. It was Balor. “We can’t kill the Wicked Witch from here. We have to get up there to do it, and only you know the way.”
He was right. He was always right. I wanted to linger and mourn for my beloved queen, but there was too much to do. We pushed back into the crowd and caught up with Chelle.
“This way.”
The Wicked Witch thought the crowd would be stunned into silence, and eventually submission, after witnessing the execution of their queen, but the people of the Emerald City were not docile. They were as furious as I was, and their voices rose against the castle walls with hate and disdain for Nimue.
The crowd rushed the Wicked Witch’s guards like waves crashing upon the sand and pushed through into the courtyard. The guards were too distracted by the crowd to notice us slip past them into the garden.
In the back of the garden rested a large bird feeder with the image of a peacock on it. It was Hypnos’s peace offering to Hera, given after the first war between them when Urgu was first founded. He had placed the statue prominently in his favorite garden. It was a symbol of peace, but underneath rested a secret passage which led into a hallway next to the throne room.
“Hurry,” I said. “This statue blocks the only tunnel into the castle. Push this.”
Balor and I tried with all our might, but it wouldn’t budge. The stone was heavy, but a century ago we moved it with little problem.
“You can’t move it. The statue is magically enchanted,” Chelle said. “I can smell it from here.”
“Enchanted?” I roared. “Can you open it?”
Chelle looked up at the castle. “She’s way more powerful than me. This is powerful and old magic. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“Try,” I said. “Just try.”
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.