Spindle

by J. E. Taylor

  Spindle

  A Fractured Fairy Tale

  J.E. Taylor

  Spindle © 2019 J.E. Taylor

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  © 2017 Cover Art by Cora Graphics

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  SPINDLE

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  About J.E. Taylor

  SPINDLE

  Will dragon’s blood be enough to save the kingdom?

  Long, long ago, a princess was born into the Kingdom of Light. She was said to be the most beautiful baby in all the world, and her tears turned into the morning dew. The king named her Aurora after the goddess of sunrise.

  Royals came from far and wide to honor her birth, but one guest was not there to celebrate. When it was her turn to present a gift, the dragon queen offered something much darker. A curse that would claim Aurora on her twentieth birthday with the prick of a spinning wheel. Everyone in the kingdom, except King Henrick, would plummet into eternal darkness. Thus, the king would know the true meaning of loss.

  Only three fae were left to bestow their gifts to the princess Aurora, and although they could not erase the dragon queen’s curse, they could offer the kingdom a gift of hope.

  Darkness would be banished with true love’s kiss.

  King Henrick hid Aurora with the fae in the middle of the kingdom’s enchanted woodlands to keep her safe. But dragons are born of magic, too, and Aurora’s hiding place was not far from the dragon’s lair.

  A Sleeping Beauty retelling with a little bite.

  Chapter 1

  Autumn finally let me hunt without hunching over me like an overzealous mother bear. She had caught sight of a deer and went after it while I followed a bunny off our normal game trail. The scent of wet leaves itched my nose, but I tried to ignore it as I crept forward with my bow at the ready. The rabbit had to be around here somewhere. It had darted in this direction. I did my best not to make noise as I stepped through the brush, but I hadn’t been blessed with the same light-footedness as the fae.

  A twig snapped underfoot, sounding louder than normal with my attempt at near silence. And my furry prey hopped out of the brush. I aimed, tracking it while I blew out a stream of air. Then I let my arrow fly and held my breath. The arrow went straight through the rabbit’s head. A clean death, if there ever was such a thing.

  The sight of the rabbit’s death twitch overshadowed my triumph of the hunt. I crossed to my quarry and knelt, stroking its silky fur as the heat bled out of the body. A lump formed in my throat.

  “I’m sorry, little one,” I whispered.

  “Why apologize?”

  I startled, snapping my head in the direction of the voice.

  A boy.

  I blinked at him as if he were an apparition.

  His stance was confident, mature, and proud. He had to be older than me, perhaps even ten or eleven. His dark hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail that made his green eyes stand out. Flecks of gold glinted in his irises, captivating me with their beauty. His eyes seemed to shimmer, even with the canopy of trees shading us.

  He tapped his ornate sword against the trunk of the tree as if his hands had different intentions than the rest of him. The tap-tap-tap pulled my gaze away from his face. His clothing was finer than a farm boy’s, and the sword he held was ornate, as though it belonged to a knight.

  I focused back on his face, completely forgetting what he had asked. “What?”

  “Why are you apologizing to the rabbit?” He pointed his sword at the cooling carcass under my palm.

  “Because he gave his life so we could survive.” I gave him a look that should have told him what I thought of his question. I gripped the rabbit’s ears and stood, holding it close to myself in case he thought he was going to strip me of my kill. “Who are you?”

  “Rory?” a voice called in the distance, and I jerked toward Autumn’s call. When I glanced back, the boy was gone. My stomach tightened with disappointment, and I turned in a circle trying to find evidence that he had truly been standing in this little glen with me. My gaze dropped to the tree trunk. Very faint lines where he had been tapping were visible.

  He must have been some kind of fae, or maybe even a ghost, because he vanished like a puff of smoke.

  A red-haired, fair-skinned fae stepped through the trees into the small thicket. I smiled at her, but she was clearly perturbed with me. She crossed her arms and arched a brow.

  I held the rabbit up for her to see. “I got it.”

  Autumn sighed and allowed a smile. “That will make a nice rabbit stew.” She crossed to me and slowed as she sniffed the air. Her gaze became guarded and she slung her arm around my shoulders, steering me back toward her trodden hunting path.

  I glanced over my shoulder one more time before that little area was out of sight. Scanning the woods, I still couldn’t find that boy. Nothing moved.

  “You shouldn’t wander off like that, Rory,” Autumn chastised me as we walked back home. “You know better. This is the trail you should stick to on our hunts.” She pointed at the wooded path.

  I nodded and glanced at the rabbit. Veering from our normal hunting grounds had been well worth the risk. But even at seven, I knew to keep my opinion to myself.

  Something deep down in the center of my soul told me I’d see that green-eyed ghost again.

  YEAR AFTER YEAR, I found ways to sneak away from the hunting path in search of that boy. He haunted my dreams, in a good way, but with each nighttime fantasy playing on the back of my eyelids, the longing to find him grew, and the doubt that he had only been a figment of my imagination created an unnamed fear in my heart.

  Maybe today would be the day he reappeared. I stretched and stepped out the door to get away from the escalating argument inside. The fae were fighting over my lesson plans. Again.

  Marabel, the eldest of the three fae sisters, wanted me to read today. Her hands seemed to speak a language of their own as she stressed the importance of storytelling. In the thick of the argument, her glasses had gone cockeyed on her face and strands of hair had fallen out of her gray bouffant as it bobbed with her animation.

  Felicity, the dark fae with violet eyes and dark hair that nearly matched her skin, wanted me to cook. She was more regal in her mannerisms than Marabel, but her graceful animation was more fluid as she made her argument.

  Then there was Autumn, the red-haired, cream-skinned fae. My favorite by far because she was the one who let me run around in the woods, hunting or making friends with the wildlife instead of keeping me locked up in the cottag
e like both Marabel and Felicity seemed to demand.

  I silently slid my bow and quiver out of the corner. I was going exploring before any one of them was the wiser. It had been almost eight years since I saw the green-eyed ghost in the woods, and I hoped this might be the day I’d find that elusive boy.

  With the fae preoccupied, I stepped into the midst of the lush, enchanted forest. It was always bright and cheery here. Even the flowers seemed to sway when there wasn’t a stitch of a breeze. The illusion of perfection surrounded us and even as I glanced over my shoulder at the three fae bickering about what my lessons were supposed to be, I knew I was blessed.

  I took off in the direction I remembered meeting him. I caught sight of another rabbit and notched my arrow, slinking after it as I had been taught. It never even twitched his ears. I blew out a breath and let the arrow fly. I shot true and the arrow pierced the rabbit’s head, just as cleanly as all my kills.

  I knelt next to the rabbit and went through my ritual of feeling the last of the warmth bleed out of its body while I thanked it for its sacrifice. Although I loved the taste of freshly cooked meat, if I had my way, I wouldn’t kill until I absolutely had to. This game killing thing was hard on a girl’s soul. If I could, I would eat berries for the rest of my life, just to spare the animals. I stood with the rabbit in hand, and gasped.

  Narrowed green eyes stared at me down the edge of a sword aimed at my neck. He sniffed the air and then the metal dropped to his side. His hair was shorter now than it had been eight years ago, but those golden-flecked green eyes that I had dreamed of every single night since I was seven were the same. A goofy smile appeared on his face, etching dimples into his cheeks and making his eyes sparkle.

  “I did not think I would ever see you again, Rory,” he said.

  His voice had become deep, and hearing him say my name was like a cool piece of silk flowing over me. My knees started to buckle in a swoon, but I locked them and shook away the spineless sensation. His teeth flashed white from behind his soft, oh-so-kissable lips. He was even more handsome than I remembered.

  He raised an eyebrow, as if he knew my private thoughts.

  Heat filled my cheeks and I cleared my throat. “I am at a disadvantage. You know my name, but I do not know yours.”

  “Z—” His eyes widened, and his gaze jerked beyond my shoulder. “I have to go. But I will see you again, Rory.” He turned, bolting away as if a wolf were chasing him.

  One would have thought there would be some sign that he had been real, but even the leaves in the direction he ran hadn’t so much as shivered from the breeze he would have created.

  “There you are!” Autumn broke through the thicket behind me.

  I already knew the lecture that was coming, so I turned with the rabbit in my hand, giving her my best innocent grin.

  “I may have to hide your bow and arrows,” she grumbled and gripped the back of my neck to steer me back toward our little abode.

  I did not understand her fear of these woods. What could possibly be out here that would cause my favorite warrior fae to tremble? In fifteen years of hunting, I still had yet to run into anything as dangerous as the fae professed.

  Beasts or no beasts, I would wander off the hunting path again. I just didn’t know how long it would be until I could find my way back to my green-eyed ghost.

  Chapter 2

  “The birth of a queen was supposed to be an exciting event. It started off that way, but soon fell into chaos when the Dragon queen showed up and placed a curse on the child. A curse that would plummet our kingdom into eternal darkness.” Marabel recounted the story of the dragon queen’s curse for the hundredth time. Her hands moved in broadly animated fashion and her gray hair bounced with each nod of her head.

  I kept the smile plastered on my face and nodded from time to time, but my mind wasn’t on this old fairy tale that she kept telling me. My mind was preoccupied with what I had overheard the fae chattering about earlier that morning. Something about a celebration for the princess, and maybe, just maybe, I would see my green-eyed ghost at the party.

  I had never been outside the enchanted woods and was itching to go to the castle. To dress up in something stunning and dance the night away with a real man, ideally my famous woodland stranger. The forest animals didn’t make good dance partners, despite their attempts at making me smile with their antics.

  Felicity kneaded dough on the table and rolled her violet eyes at me before swiping a strand of her dark hair away from her face. I pressed my lips together at both the eye-roll and the track of flour that remained across her dark skin. She was just as tired as I was with this story.

  “Are you listening?” Marabel stopped and stared at the two of us.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I answered. “You just said the curse on the princess would plunge the entire kingdom into darkness if she were to prick her finger on a spinning wheel.”

  “Yes, yes.” She launched into a tirade about how the darkness would spread to every nook and cranny of the kingdom.

  I glanced out the window, wishing for some reprieve so I could go out in the woods, where I was most comfortable. As if she heard my silent wish, Autumn strolled into the house with a freshly plucked duck for cooking held in front of her. Her crooked smile of triumph didn’t deter Marabel from continuing to jabber.

  Autumn flipped her auburn hair away from her face and leveled a cocked eyebrow at Marabel. “Give it a rest, sister.”

  Marabel’s mouth dropped open at her sister’s brazen comment.

  Autumn handed Felicity the duck. “You’re the only one who can make this taste like a feast,” she added and wiped her hands on a cloth as she winked at me.

  “No truer words have been spoken,” Marabel said. “If I attempted to prepare it, we would get a much tastier meal by chewing on our leather shoes.” She wiped her hands on her apron and started tidying up the place as if her sister hadn’t just told her to be quiet.

  I stifled a laugh and glanced at the fae folk. They were quite the trio, and life with them had been endless fun. Each one had taught me all their secrets, enough so that I could hunt for myself and prepare a feast, while spinning an entertaining tale. I knew how to mend socks, and sew, and even how to tend to our garden. I was ready to take on the world.

  Unfortunately, none of them were ready for me to spread my wings, even after all these years.

  The more I wandered, the more agitated they seemed to get. I was turning twenty in a couple of days and I had never seen the palace. Never mind exploring beyond our small cove carved in the woods; even on the hunting trips with Autumn, we stayed within the enchanted forest. I really wanted to experience what was out there. I wanted to explore our entire kingdom and not just this small crop of land.

  As usual, they began to argue over how to prepare the duck. Even though Felicity was the only real cook, they all had to put in their ideas before the three of them could settle on a direction. I took the opportunity to quietly slip away. I grabbed my favorite bow and the quiver of arrows leaning next to the door. It was my turn to commune with nature and possibly bring in a bounty that would last us a few more days than the meal Autumn brought home.

  I smiled as their continued bickering wafted out the window, filling the small clearing with their voices. As soon as I stepped into the woods, birds singing, chipmunks chattering, and owls hoo-hooing replaced the fae’s squabbling. The familiarity calmed me as well as tickled my wanderlust, and I knew the exact direction I wanted to go.

  I paused and glanced over my shoulder, half expecting Autumn to step out from behind a tree and reprimand me for wandering from the worn hunting trail. When she didn’t, I chose to head in the direction that she always prevented me from going. She had never given me a true reason why we couldn’t go beyond the magical boundaries. It always set my exploration itch into overdrive. My entire body tingled with the need to break the barriers the faeries had laid for me.

  With none of the fae in sight, I picked up my pace, trying to
be as light on my feet as possible, but I couldn’t move silently the way Autumn did. Before I knew it, the forest thickened. I was farther beyond our normal hunting grounds, even farther than I had been when I met my green-eyed ghost. I even thought I felt a tingle of magic dance over my skin as I passed through an opening in a prickly thicket.

  The ground became spongey under my feet, leaving a slick slime on the soles of my shoes. I slowed and studied my new surroundings as I tried to find more solid ground. The deep forest-green of the woods had transitioned to bright sunny flowers and brighter greens of swamp grass braided through the blossoms. It was almost as if the color popped much more here than it ever did in the enchanted forest. Not that the fae folk didn’t have colorful surroundings, but this seemed much richer in contrast.

  The squishy ground seemed to drive me toward a solid line of bushes in my quest for a dry surface to walk on. But I couldn’t seem to break through the thick barrier. Just when I was about to give up, I spied a gap in the branches. I wiggled through and over the berm and nearly tumbled into a steaming body of water.

  I straightened and scanned the oversized flowers of yellow, red, and blue that lined the pond. Their colorful reflections danced on the surface. Fluttering wings pulled my gaze to the tree limbs reaching out over the water, and my eyes widened at the size of the birds perched on the ancient wood. They were twice the size of the duck Autumn brought home earlier.

  My heart jumped in my chest at the chance to shoot a prize that big. It would feed us for a week. I reached for an arrow, pulling it from my quiver with slow precision, and notched it in my bow. I climbed up on the rocks at the edge of a sheer drop to the water that was at least three times my height.

  I took a deep breath and tore my gaze away from the drop, focusing on the birds again. I took aim and shifted to steady my hand.

  My darn slippers still had swamp muck on them, and I lost my balance. A yelp ripped out of my mouth as I fell. I dropped the bow and grabbed for the rock, catching a small outcrop. The liquid sizzled when my bow and arrow hit the surface of the swamp. I stared in stunned silence as the wood burst into flames.