Kingdom of Thorns and Dreams Read online

  “I’m not crying!” I insisted. It was true, but not for much longer. I could feel the tears pricking my eyes. Damn. I hated when Auryn was right, and she was always right.

  She walked around Lily and I slowly, casting her eyes around the bodies on the floor. “I can see one way around this, but it’s going to take all three of us to pull it off. You’ve used a hell of a lot of magic today, but I’m going to need you to use some more.”

  Hope rose in my chest. I felt physically exhausted with the exertion of the last magic spell, but if we could reverse this, I’d dig deep to find more.

  “You can fix this?” Liliana squealed. She ran up and hugged Auryn who shrugged her off.

  “What?” I said quickly, fearing she’d change her mind if I waited more than a split second too long. “What is it that we can do?”

  She bent down and felt Rory’s forehead, before running her hands down his cheek with the back of her fingers. A flicker of jealousy ran through me before I pushed it down.

  “They have not been dead long. Their brains have not had time to decay. We may be able to bring them back to life but...”

  “But?”

  “But,” continued Auryn “They will have to recover. Being dead is a nasty business to recover from.”

  “I’ll bet it is,” I replied trying to keep the snark from my voice. “I can stay here until they recover. How long? A couple of hours? A day.”

  “We are not talking about a common cold,” admonished Auryn. “These people are dead. If, and it’s a big if, if we manage to bring them back to life, they will sleep for a very long time.”

  “Just how long are we talking about here, Auryn?” I asked impatiently. If they were going to take time to recover, surely we should be getting on with it.

  “At a rough guess? I wouldn’t want to wake them before a hundred years is up.”

  I gazed at Auryn, trying to take in what she had said.

  “A hundred years?”

  “At least,” she said, holding her hand out to me. “Now come here. If we are going to do this, we are going to have to link and intensify our magical power.”

  “A hundred years?” I repeated. “Don’t you think that’s a bit long? People will notice if the royal family are asleep for a hundred years.”

  Auryn put her hands on her hips impatiently. “Do you want us to bring them back to life or not because we don’t have time for your dillydallying.”

  I rubbed my temples as Liliana ran to Auryn. A hundred years. It had no meaning. A hundred years was a short amount of time to a fae, but a whole lifetime and more to a human. When these people woke up, everyone they’d ever known outside of the palace would already be dead. Was saving them the right thing to do or was I merely postponing a whole world of sadness for them when they woke up?

  “Are you in or out?” Auryn stamped her foot impatiently.

  I thought of Rory and his kind heart. The world would be a much colder place without him.

  “I’m in!”

  Auryn rubbed her hands together. Always the efficient one, she set about locking the front door.

  “What are you doing?” I asked. “I thought we’d need to do this quickly before their brains die completely.”

  Auryn tutted, completely ignoring me. After locking the huge main doors and pulling back the large iron bolt, she finally turned to me.

  I stepped over to my sisters and took a hand from each of them until we formed a small circle. . .

  “Will this work?” I asked. Despite being born to magic, it wasn’t my forte. I’d never learned to control it. Somehow, after everything I’d already done that day, magnifying my magic with the help of my sisters seemed irresponsible, to say the least.

  “Of course, it will work,” snapped Auryn. “Just concentrate and for goodness sake, shut up.”

  I wondered what exactly I was supposed to concentrate on, but I didn’t like to ask. Auryn was already in the zone, eyes closed, look of deep concentration on her face. She was chanting something under her breath. . .

  I closed my own eyes and thought about Rory coming back to life.

  I felt my magic building up within me. I also felt something else. A rush of pure happiness was flowing through me in little flutters like butterflies flapping their wings. It was awful. It was also pure Liliana. Following it was a feeling of power: Auryn’s magic. Like water and oil, the two didn’t mix, and it took my own particular brand of incompetent magic to unify them. The strangest feeling flew through me as our powers combined. It was bigger than myself, and though I hated to admit it, it felt good. I felt as though I could do absolutely anything I put my mind to. I needed to take these two to my poker matches. Between us, we’d clean up.

  “Stop thinking about gambling!” Auryn hissed.

  I cleared my mind quickly, firmly admonished, and set it back to the task at hand.

  The feeling intensified, and I could no longer tell where my magic ended and Liliana’s and Auryn’s began. For a brief second, we were one entity, and then in a huge flash of purple light and a loud bang, it was all over. I fell to the floor exhausted, my head landing squarely on Rory’s chest.

  Rory’s chest that was moving. Up and down, breathing in air and expelling it.

  We’d done it. He was alive! I wanted to whoop and holler. I even wanted to kiss Auryn which was certainly an unusual feeling, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t move. My bones felt heavy, my eyelids felt heavy. I couldn’t stay awake. I closed my eyes and fell into a blissful slumber. . .

  Chapter 5

  “Wake up!” I felt a toe digging into my side.

  “What is it?” I mumbled.

  “It’s time you got off your ass and sorted this mess out.”

  Auryn!

  I opened my eyes to find my elder sister peering down at me.

  “We’ve been unconscious for three days. Father is going to flip out, and as usual, I’m going to have to be the one that comes up with a good reason.”

  I pulled myself up into a sitting position. My head pounded with the effort of it. Looking around, the bodies of the royal family were still on the floor as we’d left them. Liliana was snoring quietly beside the queen.

  “It worked,” said Auryn, pulling on her gloves. “They are all alive. It’s up to you as to what you plan to do with them now.” She headed over to Liliana and nudged her in much the same way she’d done with me.

  “Don’t tell me you are going to leave me with all this,” I moaned, indicating the numerous bodies.

  “I’m going home. Father will be wondering where we are. Liliana, will you get up.” She nudged Liliana again, this time more forcefully. Liliana opened her eyes and sat up quickly.

  I jumped up and blocked the main door. “You can’t tell father what I’ve done.” There was only one man I was afraid of in the whole world, and my father was it.

  “Don’t be silly. Of course, I’m not going to tell him. What do you take me for, but he’s going to find out if you don’t sort this out quickly.”

  I closed my eyes in despair. Humans and fae did not mix. Centuries of mistrust had led them to living completely separate existences. Fae very rarely ventured out into the human world and humans never came into our forest. Of course like any rule, there were exceptions, and in this case, I was it. I liked the human world. I liked the fact that I could use humans to my own advantage. I liked winning money from them. What I didn’t like was having to deal with messes. Especially a mess that involved the three highest-ranking humans in the kingdom.

  “Will he...” I looked down at Rory. He looked so peaceful. They all did.

  “He’ll be fine,” Auryn sighed. “He’ll wake up in a hundred years and won’t remember a thing.”

  “Great!” I replied sarcastically.

  “You should be thanking me,” she sniffed.

  “It could be the thousand sleeping people I have to hide for a hundred years that’s putting me in an unthankful mood,” I retorted tetchily.

  “There is a way you might be able to wake them sooner,” Auryn replied, ignoring my rudeness. “You have to find someone to kiss the prince, but it has to be someone who truly loves him,; otherwise, it won’t work. Liliana, will you get a move on!”

  Liliana gave me a shy smile as she headed to Auryn. Auryn pulled the bolt back on the huge door, and the pair of them walked out leaving me to clean up the mess I’d made for myself.

  Crap!

  Auryn had been right. Only I could get myself caught up in something as stupid as this. I ran to the oak door and pushed the bolt back into place. I had no idea what I was going to do, but the last thing I needed was to have some human busybody turning up before I’d had a chance to figure out how to sort it all out.

  Turning back to Rory, I studied his face. He was a good-looking guy. I’d certainly had flutters in the stomach when I first saw him. He was a nice guy too. In the short time we’d spent together, I’d seen a side to him that I’d not seen on the media.

  “I wonder,” I said aloud.

  Kneeling down by his side, I leaned forward until our faces were just inches apart. Slowly, I lowered my body until our lips touched. I’d kissed plenty of guys in my time, but they’d always been awake. Nothing prepared me for the feeling I got when I kissed Rory. His lips were soft and cold, and yet, they warmed to my touch. Beneath his eyelids, I saw his irises flickering as though he was dreaming. His eyelashes fluttered slightly, but he didn’t wake.

  “Wake up, damn it!” I yelled, shaking him when it didn’t work. “I’m a good kisser! You don’t want to sleep through it.”

  Apparently, he did because his eyes remained steadfastly closed.

  “Ok, I’m not in love with you, but I think you are hot. Surely, that counts for something?”

  Rory didn’t move.

  “Strong silent type, huh?” I stood up and paced up and down.

  Taking a deep breath, I tried to figure out how to deal with this. I couldn’t leave the royal family lying on the floor like dogs. They deserved better. I started with the queen. She looked the lightest of the three. With all the energy I could muster, I picked her up and carried her upstairs. It took me a while, but eventually, I found a bedchamber that looked like it might be hers. It was certainly grand enough to belong to a king and queen. High ceilings with intricate moldings covered a stunning room filled with frescos by famous artists. A four poster bed took up one side of the room while a beautifully carved table and matching chairs sat on a thick rug on the other side.

  I placed the queen on her bed. As an afterthought, I pulled a blanket over her.

  Getting the king upstairs was a much more difficult endeavor. He was a tall, well-built man and, as such, was both too heavy and cumbersome to carry up the stairs. I had to resort to my depleted magic stores to carry him. I put him in beside the queen and headed back to Rory.

  Carrying his father had exhausted me, both physically and magically, so instead of carrying Rory up, I brought a blanket back down with me. Lying next to him, I covered the pair of us up and almost without thinking about it, I lay my head on his chest and snaked my hand up to feel the beat of his heart beneath his shirt. I snuggled close to him and closed my eyes, letting darkness overcome me. . . .

  Waking up next to Rory felt so natural. I’d felt so comfortable sleeping next to him. His presence soothed me and helped me sleep better than I had in a long time.

  I looked over at him again, wondering if this was what it was like waking up next to a new lover. The feeling of excitement, the not wanting to get out of bed, or in this case, off the floor.

  I reached over and stroked his face. His chin was rough with stubble, his eyes closed. His chest moved rhythmically up and down, and with an unsure hand, I felt beneath his shirt for the beat of his heart. His skin was warm to the touch, his chest smooth with a peppering of hair and deep below his skin, the be-dum, be-dum of his heartbeat sounded.

  If he opened his eyes now, I’d kiss him, but his eyelashes remained still, resting on the soft skin below his eyes.

  Like a bolt of lightning, the realization hit me that I did want to kiss him. Not to wake him up, not to break some spell, I just wanted to kiss him for kissing’s sake. I’d kissed guys before usually in some drunken stupor, but this was different. I desperately wanted to know what it was like to kiss him. The feel of his lips, the taste of him.

  Yeah, I’d already kissed him. I’d tried waking him up just the night before, but this was different. This time, it felt like it meant something.

  I closed my own eyes and lowered myself to kiss him, knowing that things had changed. My lips touched his softly. He smelled lightly of expensive cologne, but beneath that, I could smell him. A warm, welcoming smell that drew me in.

  My eyes remained closed as I breathed him in, but when I pulled back and opened them. His remained closed.

  “Damn it!” I cried out when he didn’t stir. hands

  Why didn’t he wake? I had the flutters. I felt something in my cold dark heart. Urgh!

  I stood up and stomped around, rubbing my arms, trying to bring some blood back to my legs and arms.

  A knock on the door made me jump. It was inevitable that someone would come to the palace, but I was hoping it wouldn’t happen for a long time. I guess my time was up. I had a choice, either ignore the knocking or answer it. If I answered it, I’d have to explain who I was and where the royal family was. Deciding on option one, I picked Rory up and started to carry him up the grand stairs. I could have used magic, but carrying the king with it had exhausted me, and I needed my wits about me if I was going to survive the day. . . .

  Instead of ceasing, the knocking became more insistent. Whoever it was wasn’t going to go away. Laying Rory back down carefully on the floor, I headed to the door. Taking a deep breath, I pulled back the bolt. Even as I opened the door, I didn’t know what I was going to say. If anyone saw a Fae in the royal palace, there would be all kinds of trouble, and that would be before anyone found out what I’d done to the royal family. With my wings carefully folded and out of sight, I pulled open the door just a crack and peered out. On the threshold was a young couple. The girl was wearing a smart suit in red with her long hair curled fashionably at the ends. The man, stood behind her wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Despite looking strange together, they both shared the same cheesy grin.

  “Hello,” I ventured, hoping they’d think I was one of the staff members, a maid or something. . . .

  “The king and queen have not been seen for a couple of days,” began the woman, brusquely. “People are beginning to get suspicious, and rumors are abounding that something is seriously wrong.” She pushed the door open wider, taking me by surprise. It was nothing to the surprise they got when they caught sight of Rory’s recumbent body, lying exactly where I’d left him at the foot of the stairs.

  The woman’s face contorted to show an expression of shock, whereas the man’s grin became wider. Before I was given a chance to react, he pulled a camera out and began snapping photos, both of me and of Rory.

  “Jane Daly, Eshen Valley Tribune,” the woman said, flashing me a badge. Then, ignoring me completely she skipped around me and ran over to Rory.

  “What happened here?” she asked, feeling for his pulse. All the while, the man snapped photos.

  All I could think of as I watched them was what my parents would think when they read tomorrow’s paper. I’d spent the best part of the last two years trying to make amends for what I’d done to them. Seeing me on the front page with the body of the Royal Prince of Eshen was hardly going to endear me to them.

  Usually, nothing scared me, but the image of my father’s face tomorrow morning spurred me into action.

  “Oy!” I shouted, prompting both the newspaper workers to tear their eyes from the prince for a second and look at me.

  “Leave him alone. He’s sleeping.”

  The woman arched a brow. “At the foot of the stairs? I don’t think so. He’s been put under a spell. Are those wings behind your back?”

  The photographer turned his camera towards me and began to snap more photos. I could feel the anger rising within me, but if I lost control like I had last night, I’d only have to call Auryn again, and this time I doubt she’d be as accommodating.

  “Get out!” I yelled, spreading my wings as widely as I could in an attempt to look bigger than I actually was. I pulled my magic together inside me and this time concentrated it. I didn’t want to hurt the two reporters, but I could hardly let them leave with my photo. . . .

  With a loud pop and a flash of light, the camera exploded in the man’s hands. He let out a yelp and dropped the now burning camera to the floor, before running to the open door. I screamed again, trying to make myself as menacing as possible. The woman stood up and with precise movements, walked straight to me. I guess she didn’t scare as easily as her simpering workmate.

  “I might not have any photographic evidence, but I know who you are. You are the fae king’s middle daughter, Cassiopeia. . . You’re the one who lost the fae crown jewels in a poker match, bringing the entire fae royal family into disrepute.”

  She smirked, her face mere inches from mine. “I don’t know what you did to the prince or the rest of the royal household, but I’ll make sure I find out. In the meantime, I’d buy the Tribune if I were you. I’m going to make you famous...or should that be infamous?”

  She laughed. She actually laughed right in my face.

  “You’d better get my name right then, bitch,” I punched her square in the face, knocking her clean out. “It’s Carabosse!”

  Chapter 6

  I’d really gone and done it now! I looked down at the reporter. Blood dripped from her lip where I’d hit it. At least, she was still breathing which was more than I could say for everyone the last time I got mad.

  “Everyone’s breathing now,” I whispered to myself, trying to keep the panic at bay. I had a thousand sleeping householders, a royal family under a spell and now an unconscious reporter. Bodies littered the floor everywhere. I didn’t know which one to deal with first. Calling Auryn again wasn’t an option. I had to deal with this myself. Keeping the reporter here wasn’t going to keep this mess out of the papers. The photographer had already escaped. If she didn’t tell the story, he would. I decided the best course of action would be to first get rid of the woman. Picking her up, I headed out into the palace grounds. My plan was to walk her down the long carriageway and leave her by the gate without anyone seeing, but the closer I got to the gate, the more I realized that wasn’t going to happen. Hundreds of people were standing outside, peering through the metal fence.