The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 46
I scratched Albie’s head tenderly as we walked toward Oz. He had whimpered the whole way through the forest with Balor, until we reached the church and Red gave him a tincture to stop the pain.
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 scratched Albie’s head tenderly as we walked toward Oz. He had whimpered the whole way through the forest with Balor, until we reached the church and Red gave him a tincture to stop the pain.
“How is he?” Rose asked.
I rubbed his mouth where his tooth used to be. “He’ll be okay, I think. He’s missing a tooth, but he’s a tough snake.”
“He’s as tough as his mother,” Rose said, reaching out to pet Albie with me.
“We don’t have to go with them,” I said to Rose as we walked through the brush behind Red and Balor. I kept her far enough behind that we could have a private conversation, but close enough to prevent arousing suspicion.
“We promised,” Rose replied. “Besides, we wouldn’t be together right now if it wasn’t for them.”
“We wouldn’t have been separated if it wasn’t for them.”
“You can leave if you want,” Red said, turning back to me. “However, you’ll never make it to the Obsidian Spindle without us.”
“Is that a threat?” I asked, clenching my fists.
Red spun around, her cloak fluttering behind her. “It’s not a threat. It’s a statement of fact. You will never get across the Cursed Sea without us, and you’ll never get into the Wicked Witch’s throne room without our help, either.
Since those are the only two ways to reach the Obsidian Spindle, you’re out of options.”
“Besides,” Rose said, placing her hand in mine. “They helped us. They are helpful. What kind of people would we be if we didn’t return the favor?”
“Alive people, Rose.”
“Well, there’s no guarantee of that,” Red said, moving forward down a steep embankment. “None of us are really alive or dead. Urgu is a weird middle ground.”
“Rose is alive right now,” I replied, joining her in sliding down the hill. “But I don’t know for how long.”
The brush cleared at the bottom of the hill, and we found ourselves in a massive valley. We had been walking uphill most of the evening, so the flat surface was a welcome relief. In the distance, rising out of the plains, was a sparkling city jutting into the sky like a bouquet of green, glass stalagmites. Hundreds of jeweled shards, hundreds of feet high, pointed into the air.
“That’s Oz,” Balor said. “Worst place you’ll ever want to go. Beautiful, though. I’ll give it that.”
“What makes it so bad?” Rose asked.
“The queen,” Red replied. “She has tainted every good thing about that place. She and Hera have expelled or executed everybody who doesn’t agree with them, leaving nothing but sycophants and psychopaths left in their court. It is evil wrapped in beauty. Those who remain desire power above all else and are willing to sell their soul to get it, quite literally.”
“They are all in service to Hera,” Rose said.
“That’s right. They have exchanged what remained of their will for the promise of eternal glory at Hera’s side. Now come. There’s a long way to go.”
“I don’t like this,” I said.
“You’re a baby,” Rose said, falling back in step with me. “What could go wrong?”
“Everything. Literally everything.”
“Then at least we’ll have each other.”
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.