Throne of Night

  Throne of Night

  Kingdom of Fairytales Red Riding Hood 3

  B. Kristin McMichael

  J. A. Armitage

  Contents

  1. 11th March

  2. 12th March

  3. 13th March

  4. 14th March

  5. 15th March

  6. 16th March

  7. 17th March

  Terms used

  After the Happily Ever After…

  A NEW FAIRYTALE ANTHOLOGY

  Join us

  A note from the author

  About B. Kristin McMichael

  About J.A. Armitage

  The Kingdom of Fairytales Team

  Copyright © 2019 by J A Armitage

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Edited By Rose Lipscomb

  Cover by Enchanted Quill Press

  Created with Vellum

  Kingdom of Fairytales

  You all know the fairytales, the stories that always have the happy ending. But what happens after all those storybook characters get what they wanted? Is it really a happily ever after?

  In this prequel, you will find out what happens next, be transported back to those lands you fell in love with and be prepared to meet some new characters along the way.

  Kingdom of Fairytales is a new way of reading with one chapter a day and one book a week throughout the year beginning January 1st

  Lighting-fast reads you won’t be able to put down

  Read in real time as each chapter follows a day in the life of a character throughout the entire year, with each bite-sized episode representing a week in the life of our hero.

  Each character’s story wrapped up at the end of every season with a brand new character and story featured in each season.

  Fantasy has never been so epic!

  11th March

  Grace was cursed.

  I never once imagined saying those words, let alone, thinking them. She’d already decided to spend her life as a wolf. We had run away. We had given her a perfect last day. She couldn’t be cursed. She was going to beat it. But it was too late. Now, she didn’t have an option.

  We had put so much hope into Grace turning into a wolf to live out her life uncursed that we never imagined the horrible reality of Elder would take Grace. She was way too sweet and kind to be turned into a rabid monster with no control and an insatiable hunger. It was the complete opposite of her in real life. It just wasn’t fair. The curse alone was bad enough, but this wasn’t something Grace should have ever had to deal with.

  While Sera reassured me that the curse took time, and it would be days before Grace turned back into an uncontrollable monster, it didn’t matter. There was no cure. There was nothing I could do for her.

  Grace fainted from the shock right after we all realized the truth. We took her unconscious state as a sign we needed to head back, and Sera and I managed to make a cot to carry her. It took us the rest of the day and into the night to make it to my place. Thankfully, Grace had been out the entire time.

  The tree people of Elder had spent many seasons afraid of the wolves and the curse. While the wolf people always had the ability to shift into wolves, they had previously had control over when they shifted to their animal form. The curse, on the other hand, made them unable to control the monster they became.

  None of the wolves wanted to be cursed, even wolves like my best friend Nikkan, who was currently not speaking to me. He preferred his wolf form, but he never wanted to be cursed. They wanted to be part of Elder like everyone else. To most of them, their wolf was just another side of them, like hair color. It wasn’t a bad thing until you got the curse that took away your control. No one wanted to lose control when they could easily kill any human they came across.

  My mother had told us that wolves that shifted before being cursed could live out their lives as wolves. Grace was prepared to give up any hope of living her life as a human to do just that. She was ready, but it was too late. She was now infected with the same thing that had turned countless wolves into monsters of the night. Actually, they were the reason the people of Elder fled to the trees to live in the first place. Now, Elder would be divided again. The tree people in their treetop homes and the wolves roaming the ground below, trying to eat anything they could find.

  I honestly don’t know what I would have done without Sera. I expected her to turn on Grace once we figured out Grace was cursed or maybe say, I told you so, but none of that happened. Sera was actually level-headed and helpful the whole time we worked together to get Grace home. I had a feeling that Grace had won her over, and even though Sera was raised a tree person, she was now seeing the wolves differently than she had been taught. Grace had shown her that light.

  After making it back to my cottage situated right between the land the wolves currently lived on and the land the tree people lived on, we put Grace to bed. She hadn’t woken the whole trip and was still out. Sera explained that the curse would be draining, but it was harder to watch than I could imagine. Grace already looked sick and exhausted to the point she was sleeping through the day.

  I needed to rest before deciding what to do next and lay down to sleep as soon as we had Grace situated. Sera refused to leave me with Grace and kept guard all night. By the time the sun rose, Sera looked exhausted and almost as bad as Grace. Either it was the knowledge of being cursed or the sickness taking over as Grace’s skin had paled a bit since the day before.

  With me now awake, Sera finally lay down to get some rest herself. I tried my best to be quiet for both their sakes as I started to prepare breakfast and got lost in my own thoughts.

  My mother, Red, was the leader of the people of Elder. While I had gone to her for help breaking the curse, she said she didn’t have the answer. Part of me wanted to yell at her. She was the Red, and she had broken the curse before, but one thing I always knew about Red. She didn’t lie. If she didn’t know how to break the curse, then she didn’t. I was left having to think about it on my own.

  It would have been nice to have my friend Nikkan to help me come up with ideas, but he was still not talking to me due to a misunderstanding with Grace. She was my friend, but he thought there was more going on between me and his long unrequited love. If he only could open his eyes for a moment, he would see that Grace was as crazy for him as he was for her.

  “Castiel,” Grace said weakly to me from the couch as I was getting breakfast made.

  I turned to her and found she was struggling to sit up. Sera was asleep on the floor as I made my way past her.

  “Save your energy,” I replied to Grace quietly as I kneeled down by her. I tucked her back into the couch comfortably. “I’ll have breakfast done in a few. Just rest.”

  “Castiel,” she called my name again as I moved to stand. “You should have left me in the woods. The farmers would have taken care of me for everyone. I don’t deserve to live.”

  Sinking back down to the ground beside her, I grabbed her hand and stared into her eyes.

  “You deserve to live.” I put every ounce of truth I had behind that statement.

  Grace bit her lip as it began to tremble.

  “But all the blood. I’m dangerous. I killed someone.”

  Tears began trickling down her face.

  “It was animal blood,” I told her, but that didn’t seem to stop the tears that were now running rivers down her face. “You didn’t hurt anyone but an animal. Just a normal meal, right?” I gave her a smile and a wink to try to
lighten the mood.

  “This time,” Grace whispered as she finally wore out her energy from trying to sit up and let herself slip back down to lying on the couch.

  “Sera, and I won’t let you harm anyone. You don’t have to worry.”

  She closed her eyes but didn’t seem convinced by my words. Her breathing slowed as she drifted off to sleep again. I placed her hands on her chest as her breaths became shallow.

  Within moments she was back asleep. I stared at her for a few moments before standing and going back to my kitchen.

  How in the world was I going to break the news to Nikkan? He already hated me because he thought I was dating Grace. Would it matter that I wasn’t after she got sick? He was never going to forgive me for not protecting her.

  I heated up the skillet and got ready to fry the eggs my mother had given us on our way through town. Once it was all done, I’d wake Grace to eat, but it seemed she wasn’t going to spend much time awake.

  As I went through the motions of cooking, I couldn’t help my mind from wandering again.

  Where did the curse come from? Red had explained to me as a kid that it had been around for hundreds of winters. Everyone in the villages, wolf or tree-human, knew that. But no one spoke of why or where it came from. Maybe defeating it had to do with that. Or perhaps it could be beaten by the same witches that gave the Red their power. Someone had to know something; it was just going to take some searching to find and talk to the right person.

  First, I was going to have to talk to Red again and try to get some more answers out of her once I figured out what to do with Grace. Red had knowledge that other people didn’t have, and even if she didn’t know how she broke the curse winters ago, she still did it. It might just be stuck in her head, and if it wasn’t, Red was an excellent place to start. And there were books in the village. There had to be more knowledge. But I wasn’t leaving until I figured out what to do with Grace. She was weak right now, but I didn’t trust she’d be okay if I took a run back to Red for the day.

  Grace's crazy talk of wanting to be killed was just that: absurd. Being cursed didn’t mean she was dying. It meant she was sick. I could see it as it hit her hard in the last day, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t help her. While Sera didn’t especially like wolves, I could tell she was on my side about this one. We needed to save Grace. She was too sweet and innocent to be taken by the curse.

  Watching my friend sleep and suffer from something she had no control over made my mind wander to Nikkan. Yes, I was mad that he was acting like an idiot, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care. In fact, with all that was going on, I cared more than ever. I wanted him to stay safe and this stupid curse to stay as far away from him. The last time the curse came, they didn’t know how it was spread amongst the wolves, so I had no idea how to go about keeping Nikkan safe. If he were with me now, I’d beg him to stay in his wolf form, but he wasn’t with me, and now with Grace, I was sure he would spend more time as a human to help her.

  I didn’t have Nikkan to think of answers with, and Grace needed something soon. It was less than one day, and she was already withering away. The only thing I could think of to help her was Red. Even if my mother sent Sera to be my babysitter and forbade me from seeing the wolves, she was still the best answer to all of this. I needed to see her as soon as I could.

  It didn’t take long to fry the eggs and slather the fresh bread with strawberry jam. Quick breakfasts were my specialty. Nikkan was the one that liked to make elaborate breakfasts with pancakes, eggs, three types of meats along with bread and jam, and anything else he could take as he ran around the forest in his wolf form. The scent of food woke Sera, who was soon kneeling by Grace and checking her over just as I had done when I awoke.

  “I doubt that was enough sleep to keep you energized,” I commented. She had been up most of the night and barely had shut her eyes before she was up again.

  “I’m fine. Technically, I don’t need as much sleep now,” Sera replied, still looking at Grace. “She isn’t fine.”

  That much was obvious. Grace had a pale complexion during most winters, but her skin was tinged a slight green while she slept more than normal. Healthy people didn’t sleep days. Her breathing was shallow, and if you didn’t notice her weird skin coloring, you’d think she was peacefully sleeping.

  “No, she isn’t,” I replied as I placed eggs and toast on a plate for Sera.

  Sera and I stood side by side, looking down at Grace. I didn’t have answers, and it seemed like neither did Sera, but we both wanted to help her, the sooner, the better.

  “She’s not dead yet,” Sera commented.

  Leave it to Sera to go there. I wasn’t thinking about the wolves dying. I was more concerned she was going to wolf out and hurt people. That would kill Grace on the inside even if her body stayed alive.

  “So, what do we do?” Sera finally asked as she stood and took the cold plate of eggs and bread from me before heading over to my two-seat table.

  I joined her.

  “I have no idea. I talked to Red, and she said there’s no way to break the curse.”

  Sera shook her head. “But she broke it eighteen winters ago.”

  I nodded. My thoughts exactly.

  “Once I’m sure Grace is doing okay, and I can drop her off with the wolves, I plan to give Red a visit,” I explained to Sera.

  “I’m not going back there,” Grace said in a raspy voice.

  Sera and I both hurried over to her.

  “Grace, the wolves can take care of you. Protect you and keep you and everyone safe until I find an answer,” I explained to her like she was a child, not someone my same age.

  Her sleep-lined eyes stared back at me as the corners of her mouth pulled into a frown.

  “I’m not going back to the wolves. It would be better for everyone if you just let the tree people kill me. That way, I can’t spread the curse, and I can’t hurt someone. If I’m not around, that is one less wolf for everyone to worry about.”

  I shook my head no as Sera looked at her in horror.

  “You won’t hurt someone. You had a chance last night to hurt Castiel or me, but you didn’t. You may be cursed, Grace, but you aren’t a killer. The curse can’t force you to do something you wouldn’t want to do.”

  Grace looked up at me. I bit my lip to keep from telling the truth that I knew Sera knew also. Sera was trying to sugar coat it. The curse would make Grace into a monster, and yes, she’d have no problem killing Nikkan or me if she was in the change. But Grace didn’t need to hear that. Not right now.

  “Castiel and I are going to talk to Red and find out how to beat the curse,” Sera continued confidently. I had no idea how she did it. No matter what was thrown at Sera, she was always sure. She thought she could do anything, even if she couldn’t.

  I looked at Grace, but I couldn’t turn my eyes to Sera. She wasn’t telling Grace the full truth on any of it. I understood why she was doing that, but it wasn’t something I could do. I couldn’t lie to Grace. The curse would turn Grace into a monster, and there wasn’t a cure. Those two things weren’t going to change any time soon. I didn’t plan to give up, but I was realistic.

  Elder had always looked to itself as self-sufficient. They never looked outside the border for help, but I had a feeling this time, we needed more than we could get from Red. She’d already admitted that she didn’t know how to fix it. I wasn’t sure what the other kingdoms would do, once the wolves spread over the borders, but it might be necessary this time to preemptively seek help if Red could do that.

  Red was a political leader, but always private. She treated her kingdom just like her life when she was out in the rest of the world. She listened and analyzed everything, but never showed her cards. I wasn’t sure it was time to be leading like that if she genuinely couldn’t help the wolves, but her leadership was exactly like her personality. Heck, I grew up with Red as my mother and yet couldn’t tell you very many personal details about her. I honestly didn’t know
if she’d ever been in love or wanted to get married to someone because she kept that all to herself. But in reality, she kept everything to herself. I was pretty sure that if the wolf problem got too bad, there would be no keeping it to ourselves this time.

  “We’ll take you back to the wolves as soon as you are rested,” Sera explained as she continued to talk to Grace.

  I nodded my agreement before going back to the food to make a plate for Grace. I brought it back to her as Sera sat on the ground beside her and patted her hand. Grace was still on the verge of crying, but she accepted the food and the support from Sera. She, at least, had calmed from Sera’s words, and maybe that’s why the future Red lied to her. She could see that Grace needed hope, even if we didn’t truly have it to offer.

  Sera and Grace continued to whisper as I cleaned up the dishes from breakfast. I lost myself in thoughts rather than listen in. Sera was talking to Grace and planning their fun times after the curse was broken, and Grace wouldn’t have to live as a wolf. I couldn’t think that far ahead.

  I was sure where I stood with the wolves. It was only a day ago that they had shown up at my house, demanding to have Grace back. I know they were acting out of fear and Nikkan’s irrational feelings, but it was the first time, ever, I had felt like the wolves didn’t want me around.

  No matter how much the woods of Elder felt like home to me, I’d never felt like I belonged with the people of Elder. The tree people didn’t accept me because of my weird-colored eyes, and the wolves didn’t accept me entirely because I couldn’t transform into a wolf. But, at least, the wolves never shunned me. They looked at me like an oddity, but I always felt welcome. I wasn’t sure that was the case now.