A Ruin of Roses (Deliciously Dark Fairytales Book 1)

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With the window broken, I could now hear the beast. Its puffs of breath in the quiet night. The simmering growl deep in its chest. I narrowed my eyes at him. “We would be, since there is no way I will agree to marry that assclown.” Its progress had been utterly silent. Not one puff of breath or massive footstep had alerted me to its presence. But it had followed me all the same. The everlass field had been less than half its current size when I first found it. It had grown over the years, not that it really mattered. I could only use what I could steal, and I didn’t dare do that often.

Hadriel: “It’s not funny. Do you have any idea how much I drank last night? That mead is not good for one’s stomach, and then I had a greasy breakfast. I only did those things because I thought I would be inside all day today with nothing but a puzzle to do. Now I have to venture out into a high-stress situation away from the privy and a washbasin. I’m not able for this, my darling. These are my professional pants. I don’t want to ruin them. I need you to do this for me.”Without a word, he moved toward the kitchen. After years of nursing our parents, he didn’t need to be told what a person needed.

Rumor was he’d forsaken our kingdom before the king’s deal with the demons. The queen had died not long after, though I couldn’t remember the cause, if I’d ever known.

Up ahead, around a large pine scantily clad with needles, I spotted it—a birch that didn’t seem to fit in with its peers. Just behind it was my destination. That done, I sprinkled in the other herbs, which were much easier to come by—a sprig of rosemary, one leaf of dill, a splash of cinnamon. And, finally, the ingredient that was almost as important as the everlass—the full, healthy petal of one red rose. Hands shaking, fighting to remain calm, I crushed the leaves with the pestle. A pungent aroma, like ripe cheese mixed with garlic, blasted my senses. They might be small leaves, but they were full of healing magic.

Summoning my courage, I pushed up to a crouch in the darkness, looking out at the starless night. Trees rose all around, and the ground was a tangle of weeds and brambles. Nothing moved. Could the beast have moved on? My hands started to shake, and I stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. Lying to Hannon was one thing—he was a trusting soul and wanted to believe me—but I wasn’t foolish enough to believe my own lies. Just because I hadn’t seen the beast in any visits since the first, that did not mean he’d given up hunting trespassers. Our village was at the edge of the kingdom, and I was sneaky. I took great pains to ensure I wasn’t seen. I heard the roars, though. He was out there, waiting. Watching. The ultimate predator.Or that was how it clearly thought its ruse would go. Except all knew that in the Forbidden Wood, it was everyone for themselves. There were no do-gooders here. That thing could go on screaming for all I cared. That would at least prevent it from sneaking up on me. As Finley spends time in the castle, she learns that the curse that ruined their kingdom–and was really the effect of a deal brokered by the Mad King and the Demon King–had caused for everyone outside of the castle to age, while those inside the castle did not age at all. Still, neither those in the castle nor those in the villages could access their animals, losing all ability to shapeshift. The only person who was capable of that was Nyfain, and he did it at a huge personal cost to his animal–a dragon. He forced the shift, refusing to lose his dragon, at the onset of the curse; however, for that he lost the beautiful colors of his scales and the wings that would’ve let him fly. Over the 16 years that they had stayed the same, he continued to battle demons and tried to protect the villages around them from the demons’ creations, resulting in a lot of scars on his body.

My father’s lined face was ashen within the candlelight. His eyelids trembled as though he were trapped in a nightmare. A high-pitched squeal of agony accompanied the wet, gloppy sounds of teeth tearing through flesh. Fire raged through my body, but thankfully, the desire was long gone. Fantastic, he was playing the guilt angle. How low was that? If I said no, I’d be the bad guy. That would make for a very pleasant rest of my life… We were trapped in this lost and forsaken place, shifters unable to shift. Unable to even feel the animals inside of us. Magic mostly kept beyond our fingertips. Do I need to make my execution difficult? Yeah, kinda. It’s not something I am looking forward to.”Kelly wrote: "BB2022 was so much fun! I'm glad I got to meet you and get my autographs for me and my friend who made the special bookmark! Hope to see Kelly wrote: "BB2022 was so much fun! I'm glad I got to meet you and get my autographs for me and my friend who made the special bookmark! Hope to see you next year too!"