The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 63
I pressed my hand against the dank brick wall as we walked in the darkness of the passageway. The secret tunnel led under the castle and into the inner chamber nearest the throne room.
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.
I pressed my hand against the dank brick wall as we walked in the darkness of the passageway. The secret tunnel led under the castle and into the inner chamber nearest the throne room.
“Why didn’t you do this before?” Chelle asked behind me.
“Excuse me?”
“If you knew about this passage, why didn’t you use it before? You could have snuck in and taken out the Wicked Witch years ago.”
“Ozma forbade it. She said that an assassination was not the will of the people and made us no better than The Wicked Witch.”
“Even after everything she’s done to Urgu?”
“Ozma believed that the death of the queen would create civil war and chaos, and that having a monarch was better than having the realm devolve into roving bands of thugs. And, if the other five kingdoms saw us as weak, they would attack.”
Chelle scoffed. “That’s stupid.”
I couldn’t argue with the gorgon. I wanted to kill the false queen and could have on at least a dozen occasions, but that wasn’t the way Ozma wanted to regain her power. She believed only the will of the people could sweep her back into her rightful place on the throne. Now, those people were sweeping her up.
“Monarchs are weird.”
“Tell me about it.”
I finally reached the end of the passageway. Light streamed under the wall from the other side of the corridor. I knelt and listened. When I didn’t hear anything, I pushed open the door and crept into the hallway.
“Usually this hallway is crawling with guards, but they must all be distracted with the mob brewing outside.”
Chelle grinned. “Or the explosion that we caused.”
“Or the explosion.”
I pushed on the wall and it opened for me. On its other side was a painting of Hypnos, clad in black and surrounded by a black mist. When Ozma ruled Oz, the castle was full of reds, blues, and greens, cheery and happy. Now, everything from the roses that adorned the hallways to the tapestries were dark and gloomy.
“The throne room is on the other side of this wall,” I said, pointing to the wall opposite the secret passage. “Be prepared to attack immediately. The queen will take no prisoners. We only have one chance to end her.”
When we reached the entrance to the throne room, I heard the crescendo of a pair of feet running in our direction. I pushed Chelle back and watched as the Wicked Witch turned the corner and rushed down the hallway. I pulled out my daggers and leapt at her.
“Fool,” the witch spat.
She spun around and faced me, slowly closing her fist. As she did so, my throat closed as well. I choked, trying to gasp for air.
“Did you not think I knew exactly what would happen if I killed your precious Ozma? That you would come here to seek revenge?” Her eyes darted to Chelle. “Without killing the child queen, I would never have found you again, gorgon. And I desperately need you if I’m going to leave this accursed place. There’s a very good chance your spoiled girlfriend’s soul doesn’t work to destroy the veil between Earth and Urgu.”
Her eyes flicked back to me. “You, I don’t need at all.”
She flung me against the nearest wall. My head smashed against the bricks, hard. I heard a sickening crack, and I fell to the ground. The last thing I saw before I slipped into unconsciousness was the Wicked Witch moseying toward Chelle. There was nothing I could do about it.
I had failed.
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.