Sleeping Beauty (Not Quite the Fairy Tale Book 7)(9)

Getting him inside the bath took some effort but it was all worth it; the instant his limbs came in contact with the deliciously warm, fragrant thick liquid, they started to come back to life. His pain level only increased, but it was a necessary evil.

“Very well,” he said, blinking.

When his eyes opened, they finally were operational. He took in the strange room, full of metal instruments and foreign machines he couldn’t name, and the woman in front of him, stranger than just about anything else.

The white had been a coat that she wore open over an attire that seemed indecent. She had on pants that revealed the delightful curve of her lean legs up to her crotch. Her hair wasn’t curled in ringlets or held up with pretty ribbon; instead, she’d simply pulled it at the top of her head, to keep it out of her face.

She dressed like a man and damn if it didn’t suit her.

As his balls tightened, he was delighted to learn that they hadn’t shriveled up like he’d first thought. No, everything was working just fine down there.

He was responding to the woman and there was a feral, basic part of him that wanted to address the attraction right then, but he had other priorities.

King Rupert raised his eyes and gave his first order in one century.

“Talk.”





Chapter 7





A Curse





King Rupert wasn’t one to simply listen while thinking of something else at the back of his mind; no, when you had his attention, he gave every part of him to you. His eyes, his hands folded under his chin, and his whole self seemed immersed in her words. He didn’t interrupt her, not once, as she ran through the history and politics of the last hundred years. Aurora watched him when she delivered the news that his wife had been lost but he didn’t betray any emotion. Not even a twitch.

Aurora wasn’t used to being so closely scrutinized. People didn’t care about what she said enough to look at her like that while she talked. She found it… unnerving. Yes, that was the right term.

His attention, already keen, seemed to double, triple, when she explained her own course of action in her efforts to revive him.

Finally, she was done. Rupert remained still, his fingers brushing over his lips.

“So, you’d proven the procedure was quite safe and yet, they dismissed you, still.”

She winced. Saying it like that was nothing short of accusing the Council, her father amongst them, of treason. Of not wanting their rightful king back. But that was quite exactly what they’d done.

She tried to be fair. “They made a sound point, made more obvious by the fact that, in my arrogance, I could very well have killed you today.”

It had been a close call. Everything had worked as planned, until he’d been revived, then his body had seemed to give in, as if…

Spelled.

“You didn’t,” he reminded her, not unkindly. “What of my daughter?”

Aurora smiled. “She’s still frozen. I wish to run through additional tests, now, before we even think of attempting to…”

“No.” He hadn’t raised his voice, yet, although she’d lived her entire life around politicians and nobles, she’d never heard anyone who sounded quite so firm and dominant. He said no, so, Aurora wouldn’t. No questions asked. She didn’t recognize herself, as she generally balked at any attempt to control her.

Thankfully, Rupert was no tyrant; he explained himself.

“No tests. No science. You know as much as you need to know of your process, I’m sure.”

The vote of confidence made her blush like an ingénue.

“Perhaps, but if the same thing happens with Little Aurora,” she’d taken to calling the princess that, as they bore the same name.

“The same thing will occur,” the King stated simply. “You’ve managed to thwart fate this once but it may not work with Aurora. We’ll need help. Pray tell, is there news of Maleficent?”

Aurora’s eyes bulged.

Maleficent. The creature that dwelled in the nearing forest, beyond walls of thorns. They said so many dreadful things of her, Aurora shivered every time her lands came into view. And the King was asking about her?

“Maleficent,” she repeated.

“My late wife, myself, and Aurora slept under the same spell. I’ll have the aid of the one who cast it to ensure it may be lifted safely.”

Spells. So, she’d been right. She frowned, confused, wondering what she could have done to bypass the Fay’s magic.

“But how did I awaken you, in that case?”

The King smiled, then. A slow smile that started at the corner of his mouth and ended with his eyes.

“A gentleman never tells, Aurora.”



Having a Fay for his closest friend had made him quite the scholar when it came to all manner of magic things. With a keen understanding of elemental spells, plenty of powers, and the help of potions readily available, Aurora may have saved him, with luck. None of that had been at her disposal, however. Nothing but herself, her wits, and her pretty lips.

She loved him, and she’d kissed him; it was just that simple. His experience had made him so wary of women, he might not have believed it, but his breathing was absolute and irrefutable proof.

Maleficent had had enough of Marina. They all had. She, who didn’t have anyone to answer to, moved to bespell her, underestimating the Queen’s wickedness. Marina was quite dumb, but she hadn’t provoked one of the most powerful Fays alive without a contingency plan.