Member-only story
The Queen of Thorns and Roses
It’s a time for change.
The kiss was supposed to be a beginning.
The labyrinth of roses and thorns should have receded, every tangle of vine retreating like denizens back into the shadows where they belonged. A new dawn should have broken through the haze of the eternal night sky that had hung over the castle and its grounds for many years.
But Queen Sabrina opened her eyes and watched as the young man — her soon-to-be king — began to wither right before her very eyes. His skin shriveled, the color draining from his face, as the flesh on his fingers began to melt away and reveal the bones that had been concealed only seconds before.
Those skeletal hands reached for her, and his mouth opened in a soundless plea.
Instead, she turned her head away and sighed.
“You made it all the way here,” she said, “and you got my hopes up for nothing.”
What more was there to say?
The queen walked away from the man who had given his life to try and break her curse.
But he had been just another disappointment.
“Do you have any idea what I go through to lure them here?” the enchanted mirror on the wall asked.
