The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 59
Commander Balsim’s men dragged Ozma into my throne room and threw her at my feet.
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.
Commander Balsim’s men dragged Ozma into my throne room and threw her at my feet. A lot had changed since the days when she sat upon the throne. For one thing, I had turned her precious golden throne into one made of obsidian and onyx. I replaced her desire for perfection with my own twisted design honoring the chaos that reigns in us all.
“Welcome,” I said to her with a smirk. “You are mighty hard to catch.”
Ozma didn’t look at me when she spoke. “I have long wondered what horrors you brought to the Great Hall.”
I gestured to the room with a smirk. “Do you like it?”
Ozma demanded symmetry and order from everything, even her subjects, and that permeated the throne room. Everything under her reign was in its place, but I knew the only truth was entropy. I allowed vines to grow along the walls, and I welcomed the chaos that came with life.
“It suits you. As twisted and gnarled as your black soul.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “The Great Ozma, brave to the last. Do you not remember that I knew you as a child, as the frightened child named Iris who shook in her boots?”
“I remember you were a friend to my family and my kind, before you sold your soul to your cruel goddess.”
“She is only cruel to those who deny her. For those that worship her, she is kind.”
Ozma snapped her head in my direction and looked at me in the eyes. “Hera has never been kind to anyone. She has only been polite to anyone who carried out her will.”
Ozma was no longer the frightened child I had known, or the naïve one that took the throne. She had grown into a formidable force behind her still child-like appearance.
“Come, Ozma,” I said, raising my arm into the air. “We have an adoring public to meet.”
Slowly, Ozma rose into the air with the will of my magic. I strolled across the black velvet carpet that connected my throne to the terrace outside of the throne room, as she trailed in the air behind me.
I had demanded my loyal nobles summon Oz’s denizens to the Green Keep for a demonstration of my power. I would kill Ozma in front of them, and then all who denied my right to rule would know that I am the true queen of the Dream Realm. I peered down from the balcony and saw the courtyard filled with thousands of my subjects, gathered in a mass like the sea.
“My people,” I said with a smile. “I have brought you here to witness a historic moment in our great city.” I pushed my hand outward, and Ozma floated into the air above the crowd. There was a collective gasp. Some pleaded with me to spare their queen, but most fell silent, as if they finally conceded the failure of their rebellion. “Many call Ozma the rightful heir, but I call her my prisoner. You say she is all powerful, but look at her now, dangling in the wind, a helpless nothing.”
“Please,” Ozma said. “Don’t.”
“Finally, a little respect from you,” I shouted. “Too little too late.” I raised both hands high into the air. “See the penalty for treason!”
I brought both my hands in front of me and clapped them together. Ozma kicked for a moment in mid-air and met my eyes. There was an innocence in her face, a pleading that was delicious to behold. Then, she plummeted to the ground and crashed upon the cement in my courtyard, bursting into a cloud of dust.
“I am the only power in Oz now. Fall behind my rule or join Ozma in oblivion.”
The crowd watched me silently as I spun on my heel and walked back into the castle. The large wooden doors closed behind me, and I could barely contain my excitement. Finally, the brat was dead, and I could focus on leaving this accursed continent for good.
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.