Ravishing Rapunzel (Passion-Filled Fairy Tales, #6)(19)

“Well, stop wondering,” she said. “You must take me to her. Take me to the one who will make me a FaeRisen.”

“I can’t,” Gothel said. “She must come to you when you are ready to commit to a life of chastity and a life filled with avenging those wronged.”

Chastity. Rapunzel bristled. She’d read the books from Giselle, and she’d had a stirring of emotions with Bradyn. Chastity. She hadn’t expected that.

“What’s wrong, child?” Gothel asked. “All the color drained from your face.”

Rapunzel thought quickly. “I just hadn’t realized you couldn’t call to her, that’s all. I want to see the world, mother. The one you speak so much about.”

“Commit, my love,” Gothel said. “Commit, and she will come and imbue you with the power you need. And you and I shall be happy together traveling and avenging.”





Chapter 10 – Bare Apples


Her mother left her yet again, and Rapunzel had much to think about. She wanted to leave the confines of this tower. She wanted to live in the world — but did she want to remain chaste? Did she want to spend her life chasing the wicked and grinding some type of justice upon them? She wasn’t sure. Mother Gothel had said she’d kept her away from the wicked world to keep her pure. But being away from the world, reading about it only in Giselle’s books, had made her think that perhaps it wasn’t as wicked as her mother thought.

As she looked out the window, watching her mother shrink into the distance, she leaned her head out as far as she could and inhaled. The air felt so sweet and fresh. It never made her sick to breathe it. She wondered if her mother was mistaken about her illness. Perhaps it had cured on its own.

She wanted to see the world, more of it, before deciding her life.

She turned and went upstairs to her room, crossing immediately to the window and opening the curtains. It would be safe for Bradyn to come. She smiled. She’d missed him. Was that crazy, to miss someone you barely knew? Only, she felt like she’d known him a lifetime. He was easy to talk to and easy to look at. So handsome and kind. Probably brave, too.

She grabbed her embroidery and headed back down the stairs to the lower level of the tower, deciding she’d while away the time before he spotted her signal and came back. But she’d barely threaded the needle when she heard his voice call from below, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.”

With that, she set aside her needlework, and cast down her hair so that he could climb up. When he arrived at the top, she abandoned all decorum and threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad you came back,” she said into his ear.

“I’m tempted to climb back down and up again, if this is the way that I’ll be greeted,” he teased.

She pulled away from him and shook her head “You think you’re quite humorous, don’t you?”

He grinned, exposing his dimple and perfect white teeth. “I know I am,” he retorted. “But my humor does not compare to your beauty and kindness.”

Rapunzel blushed. She led him over to the sofa in the middle of the tower room, and they sat together. “So, would you like some tea or a muffin?” she asked, realizing he might be tired and hungry from his journey. Though, she wasn’t even sure where he’d journey from. “Did it take you long to get here?”

“I would not like tea or a muffin, right now,” he said, and she laughed, realizing she’d asked him two very different questions, without giving him time to answer. “And it didn’t take that long to get here. It’s about a two-hour walk from town. If I’d been on horse, it wouldn’t have taken nearly as long.”

Rapunzel frowned. “That does seem terribly far,” she said. “Though it probably explains why no one ever passes by.”

“You’re far from all the traveled paths, in the middle of a thick forest here. Had I not followed the old ha--” he paused and cleared his throat. “Had I not followed your mother, I wouldn’t have found it at all.”

Hmm. Mother Gothel didn’t seem to engender warm feelings in others. He’d at least refrained from calling her a hag, mostly. Rapunzel had never seen her mother interact with others, but she’d heard Giselle chastise her once or twice that she should stop being so scary. Auntie had even told her a story about before she was born, saying that her mother had practically terrorized a neighbor and his wife and that when Giselle had tried to be friendly, he’d looked scared to death, but been too afraid of mother to be unkind. Though, if other people had feared her mother, perhaps they knew what she was. Perhaps Giselle knew, too, but never spoke of it.

“Bradyn,” she said, her voice soft. “May I ask you something?”

“Anything,” he said.

“Have you ever heard of a FaeRisen?”

He shivered and stared uncertainly at her, like he hardly knew her. Then he said. “I thought you only lived in this tower. How would you hear of such an odd little country tale?”

“I have lived in this tower for many years,” she agreed. However, she decided it best not to explain the real reason she was asking, as he seemed hesitant to talk about it. While her mother often railed about liars, it seemed best of offer this tiny fib. “Before, when we lived nearer to people, I once overheard someone say something about them and I didn’t understand. It was a long time ago. Someone said something about being cursed by a FaeRisen. I couldn’t ask mother because I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping on people out and about. But I thought about it the other day, and since you go out, I thought you might know about them.”