A Ruin of Roses (Deliciously Dark Fairytales Book 1)

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You created this elixir?” I couldn’t tell whether he was incredulous, but I could definitely tell he was sneering. I’d heard that creature before. I’d actually even seen it as I was panic-sprinting home one time. Its goal was to lure do-gooders. People came to help, and it killed them.

What caught me, though, wasn’t his muscle or obvious power. It wasn’t even the aura of danger that twisted my gut and made my legs tremble. It was his scarred appearance. They’d be home soon. The setting sun was curfew for children, no exceptions. Even if a creature didn’t wander out of the Forbidden Wood, there were still the demons that lurked in the village after dark. Since the curse, the night was too dangerous for children. The air cooled as I crossed the threshold. I stilled and took a deep breath. Panic would get me dead. I needed to keep a level head.Breathing heavily, I stopped in front of the birch and looked up. It took that as a cue to shake like a dancing girl, waving its branches and rattling it leaves. She was just fourteen, the age I’d been when I narrowly survived the beast only to lose Nana anyway.

My parents didn’t even know I’d come. Nana had fallen ill, the effects of the curse that had damned our kingdom. Everyone said there was no cure. But I’d found a way. I could slow the effects, at least. I needed the everlass plant, though, and we hardly had any. I was still learning how to properly grow it. No one else in the village could do much with it at all. Something about it spoke to me, though. I would figure it out eventually, I knew I could—but right now, I was out of time. We have to do a better job of watching him,” I said, mostly talking to myself. “He’s going to get the spanking of his life. I don’t care how old he is. I will put the fear of the Divine Goddess in him so that he never does that again.”

The everlass field had been less than half its current size when I first found it. It had grown over the years, not that it really mattered. I could only use what I could steal, and I didn’t dare do that often.