Member-only story
Slumber
Fantasy
Aria thought Aurora was a myth — the stuff of cobwebs and dusty tomes, of minstrels’ songs and vanishing fairy circles. The edge of the Wildwood stood shrouded in fog, vanishing in parts dependent on the day and time, and Aria knew better than to venture into it. She never left the castle grounds if she could help it. But there were whispers of the fairy queen, Briar Rose, who had cursed a young girl because of a human slight.
Of course, now Aria knew the reason the Wildwood existed was because of her parents — and how they had done a disservice to the Fair Folk by denying their liege an attendance to the blessing of Aurora, daughter of Irina and Stefan.
What had Irina thought, having another daughter after Aurora had been sequestered away to the outskirts of the Wood? What had Stefan thought, leaving his heir to an uncertain fate because of human prejudices against the very creatures that were said to have created the land the humans had poached and colonized?
Aria would have asked them, but everyone was stuck in their hundred-year sleep — except for her. She had been the exception to the rule.
And the fairies wanted nothing to do with her.
“She stinks of iron,” Mayflower said, her nose scrunched like a cat smelling spoiled milk. “Aurora always smelled of flowers and sweet things.”
