The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 31
“Obice glacies praesidium!” A flood of ice poured out of my hand as I jetted toward the carriage.
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.
“Obice glacies praesidium!”
A flood of ice poured out of my hand as I jetted toward the carriage. The fighters were huddled, ready to fight, ready to die. The dragon blew firey breath at them, but my ice reached its target and created a barrier between them and the dragon.
“Run!” I shouted.
The fire was hot, and it melted the ice quickly. I kept pouring new ice into the barrier as the fighters ran backwards away from the blast. I was as strong as I had ever been, but Bastonel was made of fire and kept burning through all but the thinnest vale of my ice barrier.
I was tiring out quickly. It took quite a bit of willpower to cast an ice shield, especially one so big. With my gorgon lineage, I was able to draw from a deeper well than most humans, but even I couldn’t keep the barrier up forever.
“Go!” I shouted to the last few fighters remaining.
“We can’t leave the dreams!” one of them shouted back. “They’re desperately needed to buy food and clothing.”
“Then hurry up and get it! You’re about to be charred and then none of that will matter.”
Bastonel was right on top of my barrier now. He reared up on his hind legs and crashed his front claws down upon it. The pressure dropped me to the ground. My hands began to shake, and I gritted my teeth, biting down on my cheek to keep conscious.
The dragon was too much.
I collapsed to the ground and with me, the ice barrier fell. Bastonel landed with either claw next to my head. I felt the heat of his breath even though there was no fire to go with it. Even just a simple inhale felt like being stuck into a bonfire, face first.
He reared back a second time, ready to char me alive, and while he was in the air I rolled under his belly.
“Moles glaciei in spica!”
A huge geyser of water came from my hands and froze, forming a five-foot-tall spike, which I pushed deep into the dragon’s stomach. Bastonel screamed out in pain as his blood melted the ice and dripped down onto my face. The fire lizard writhed in agony and collapsed next to me on the ground. Dead.
“You did it!” It was the red-haired woman who led the charge.
“I did,” I said, stumbling toward the forest, back to where I’d left Rose.
“You can’t go off now,” the woman said, watching me. “Look at you. You’re—”
That was the last word I heard before collapsing into her arms, completely spent. I had never used that much magic before, and never so quickly. As I felt the consciousness fade from me, I wondered if it would hurt when I evaporated into thin air.
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.