Read Dream Trysts: A Sleeping Beauty Story (Passion-Filled FairyTales Book 4) for Free Online Page B

his attack.”
    It seemed a harsh ruling for one woman’s betrayal. “So that’s why mother had to give up her powers,” Rose said, more statement than question.
    Dwennon waggled his aged shoulders. “Well, she was to be queen, and she could have, as the queen, rescinded the law, but there is something that doesn’t sit well when a monarch rescinds a law simply because they wish to violate it. She thought that by giving up her powers and marrying your father, it would demonstrate to the citizenry that humans could be good. So good that a young princess had given all to marry one. She also hoped that her cousin would eventually cool and get to know Edmund. As that happened, Blissa thought Maurelle would perhaps, on her own, rescind the decree.”
    “And of course, rescinding that decree would have aided Maurelle, too,” Hilly piped in.
    Dwennon gave Hilly a sharp look, and she stopped speaking. Hilly smiled and patted Rose’s hand. “Dear, don’t fret over all this. We’ve gotten off track. We just wanted to let you know that your fairy roots are showing through, and that means we are able to give you a very special birthday gift, one we couldn’t give a girl who was wholly human.”
    “Well,” Dwennon said with a slight snort of his honking nose, “we could give it to her, but it wouldn’t work.”
    Hilly gave an exasperated sigh and patted Dwennon’s knee. “Your uncle thinks he is so funny,” she said. Hilly lifted the box and handed it to Rose. “Open it.”
    Rose took the box and delicately unwrapped it, not wanting to damage the pretty paper. She loved to hang the wrappings in her room and look at them later. Such beautiful paper shouldn’t be easily tossed aside.
    With the gift unwrapped, she found a small wooden box with a hinge. She opened it, and inside were three small smooth rocks of different colors. She’d seen them before, at the Crystal Pond. Hilly had said they were magical. “Fairy stones?” Rose asked.
    Hilly grinned and nodded.
    “But what do I do with them?”
    Hilly smacked her palm to her head. “We got so sidetracked on the story that we forgot to tell you the most important part.”
    “Yes, yes,” Dwennon added. “Each fairy has different powers. My power is as a seer, Hilaria has a special affinity for healing, and your mother had the power of emotion. But most fairies have the ability, with the use of fairy stones, to travel. You place it in in the palm of your hand, close your fingers round it and whisper to it where you want to go. It will take you there, immediately.”
    Rose’s eyes widened. She could go somewhere. Somewhere other than here. She could see other people, other places.
    “Now don’t get too excited,” Dwennon said. “There is a caveat.”
    Rose looked at him intently. A caveat. Whatever the caveat was, she didn’t care.
    “You can’t go home yet,” Dwennon said. “I’ve searched the waves of the future for that path, and all of them seem to lead to the curse coming to fruition. But if you simply go on a jaunt, a lovely trip to someplace that interests you, someplace not within your father’s kingdom, and not within the fairy realm, then you shall be fine.”
    Not home. Well, it should have occurred to her to go home, but that hadn’t even crossed her mind. Was she an awful daughter for that? No, the only place that had crossed her mind … well, truthfully, it wasn’t even a place. It was a person. She wanted to go to James, wherever it was that he lived, that’s where she wanted to go. But how would she even know where that was? She frowned.
    “What’s wrong, darling?” Hilly asked, her voice full of worry.
    Rose shook her head. “Um,” she started, took a breath. “I was just wondering how to use the stone. I mean, I don’t know any place but here, so how would I know enough about where to go so I could use the stone?”
    Hilly smiled big. “Well, dear, that’s the magic of fairy stones. You don’t have to have been to the