Awakening Beauty (18 page)

The abrupt click of a door, the rising hubbub of noise from the drawing room, broke through her wild pleasure but couldn’t halt it. Joel’s head turned with hers toward the drawing room door. The dark figure of Valborga stood there, curiously small and insubstantial when seen through the haze of orgasm.

Aurora clutched Joel, as if to warn him of what he had to already know, but again Joel surprised her, giving one last, extra thrust inside her to prolong the bliss. His long, low groan was both blatant and graphic.

Only then did he slide out of her, smoothing down her dress before tucking his cock discreetly back into his pants. While Aurora, still tingling and bemused, leaned back into the wall to gather herself, he turned, still buttoning his pants, to face Valborga.

“A little loving,” he observed unnecessarily, “never hurt anyone.”

“Except you,” Aurora said hoarsely. She cleared her throat. Her voice might be weak and breathless from the furious encounter, but inside, she suddenly felt as strong as a lion.

Valborga said coldly, “You found each other. How sweet. Do come back to the party.”

“You might prefer to discuss things in private,” Joel said. Aurora had never heard him sound so grim or so cold and had a sudden vision of the hardness that had brought him success.

“On the contrary,” Valborga drawled. “I want you to see my new birthday present.”

“Your call,” Joel said grimly. “But company won’t stop me, Vee.”

Valborga cast a contemptuous glance at Aurora, still straightening her gown over her breasts. “Clearly,” she said with distaste, and in spite of herself, Aurora laughed.

Valborga sniffed as if it was hardly the reaction she’d been looking for, and turned on her heel. Joel strode after her and Aurora ran to catch at his hand. They needed to face her together with all the strength of their love if they were to overcome her power.

They entered together into a ring of murmuring, laughing people surrounding Vee’s mysterious present. The crowd fell back to let their hostess have access, and Aurora stopped in her tracks. Her lips parted; her fingers slid numbly out of Joel’s as she stared at a pure gold spinning wheel.

It was happening again, that nearly irresistible need to reach out to the device. Memory of the last occasion flooded back, and Aurora clenched her hands into fists at her sides.
So that’s what happened to the spinning wheel in the tower…
It appeared wildly out of place here in the midst of the throng of well-dressed party guests, who gazed at it with curiosity and amazement.

“Vee, what in the world…?” a woman in red sequins and satin asked. “Who sent you this contraption, and why? It’s unique, I’ll grant you, but what are you supposed to do with it?”

“Display it, of course.” Valborga answered smoothly. “Most of you don’t know this, but my great-ancestors were in the textile trade. Many hundreds of years ago, the women in my family were known for weaving the finest cloth in the land. This wheel is an homage to my past and a testament to the bright future I plan to spin with my betrothed, Joel Thorne.” She grasped his arm and pulled him beside her, inserting her body between Joel and Aurora. “We’ve chosen tonight to announce our engagement as well as his candidacy for the National Assembly.”

Aurora felt the pall of sleepiness settling over her like a heavy fog and the sounds of the guests applauding and calling out congratulations sounded distant. She knew she had to physically connect with Joel. Only together would they be powerful enough to fight off Valborga’s magic, but she felt like she was in a dream. Her heavy hands seemed disconnected from her body as she struggled to reach for him.

Then his voice rose above the others as he protested Valborga’s announcement. “I’m sorry to contradict my long time friend, Vee. At the risk of ruining her party, I must explain that while it’s true I plan to run for the Assembly, this engagement announcement is premature. Vee and I had discussed the possibility, but I’ve decided against it. As you may have noticed, I’m here with another woman.”

He pulled his arm away from Valborga and stepped back to reach for Aurora’s hand. But before he could grasp it, the evil fairy raised her arm and began to mutter. Even through her debilitating heaviness, Aurora realized with despair that Valborga was uttering another curse. But there was no time to warn Joel. A bolt of lightning conjured from the air blasted him, throwing him across the room, away from Aurora. She cried out, but had no idea if the wail of loss and terror sounded only inside her head.

Among the guests, the celebratory mood changed as fast as the lightning bolt. Several women screamed. Other people cried out and fell back from the source of the crackling electricity. Valborga stood in the center of a widening circle, revealed in her true form. Her human mask had slipped entirely to show the evil within. Not that her face was the twisted scowl of a demon. On the contrary, she was perhaps more beautiful than ever, but so hard and cold it hurt the eyes to look upon her.

She turned to Aurora, whose feet were too numb to run. Her head felt thick and so heavy she could barely hold it upright as she stared at Valborga like a mouse confronting a hypnotizing snake.

“No need for me to hide from these fools any longer. My moment is at hand, and afterward none of them will remember what they saw. Come.” The evil enchantress crooked a finger, beckoning her forward and Aurora stumbled to obey like a jerky marionette.

No! She must rouse her will. She could not give in to the inexorable pull of Valborga’s invisible strings. Aurora dug in her heels and stopped moving.

“What do you want from me?” she gasped.

Another crook of Valborga’s fingers dragged Aurora a step closer to the spinning wheel with its needle-sharp spindle. “It’s so simple one would think it would be easy to take, but no, my sisters’ spells have hemmed me in and blocked me from getting what I need.”

“What is it I have that you need so badly?” Though it was difficult to form the words, she managed to push them out.

Valborga smiled, a thin, chilling gesture. “Blood. Your power is in your blood, and it will make me invincible.”

Aurora was dumbfounded. As far as she knew, her family was not magical. “But how? Why?” she got out.

Valborga’s lips curled into a pitying sneer. “They never even told you that, did they? Your mother was the last of the royal humans to carry ancient fairy blood in her veins. I did everything to prevent her marrying the king who carried the purest of human royal blood, including seducing him myself. The fool could have known such power, such splendor with me. But he chose her, and even worse, conceived you when the planets were in perfect alignment. From the day you were born, I knew you had to die to give me your blood and your power.”

Valborga laughed. “No wonder they coddled you so. You truly were the most precious being in either the human or magical realms.”

Aurora struggled to grasp the words, staring into Valborga’s cold, perfect face as if she could somehow absorb the explanation better that way. Her parents had never given her any inkling what it was Valborga sought from her. Instead, they’d foolishly kept her away from pointed objects and the plain truth. If they’d only trusted her enough to give her some control over her own life, perhaps she could have prevented the curse from occurring.

A burst of fury at them for endangering her through their over-protectiveness jolted Aurora awake. She shook off her stupor and threw her body into Valborga, knocking her backward.

The enchantress was completely taken by surprise. Clearly she’d never anticipated a physical blow. She staggered under the weight of Aurora’s tackle and fell to the floor. Aurora landed on top of her, the long skirt of her evening gown twisting around her legs and binding them. She pulled back her arm and plowed her fist into Valborga’s face, cracking through that frozen demeanor and startling a cry from the enchantress. Rage for the loss of her family and the stolen years of her life blazed through Aurora with the heat of a forest fire. She would not lose her life again nor would she allow Valborga to take Joel from her.

“Leave. Me. Alone.” Aurora punctuated each word with a hit. Her knuckles ached. The ring Joel had placed on her finger cut Vee’s cheekbone, and blood trickled down to her ear. Another blow and Valborga’s head snapped to the side. Aurora was vaguely aware of noise around her. The party guests hadn’t left, but seemed content to keep their distance. No one tried to break up the fight.

Valborga suddenly gathered her wits and threw Aurora off her, not with physical strength, but with a surge of power that propelled her several yards away. Aurora landed on her back with a bone-cracking thud. Pain lanced through her spine and the back of her skull. Her vision darkened and she gasped for breath as she struggled to rise.

Through a haze, she saw Valborga stand. Electric current shimmered around her body, making the black gauze of her dress flutter as if in a breeze and her hair crackle around her face. She lifted her arms and began an incantation that pulled Aurora upright as if seized again by invisible strings. Her legs moved against her volition, striding across the room toward the spindle again. Against her will, her arm lifted and her trembling finger stretched toward the gleaming point.

“Touch it!” Valborga demanded. “Prick your finger, slice your wrist, I don’t care which, just do it and offer me your blood.”

Aurora stopped with her hand held just above the gleaming point and suddenly realized Valborga could push her no farther. The enchantress might mesmerize her into touching the spindle, but in order for the magical power of the blood exchange to work, Aurora must give it to her freely.

That she would never do. Perhaps once, the first time when she was young and trusting, if Valborga had been there when she pricked her finger, she would have held it out to her enemy for healing. But now she knew better. She would never allow Valborga to have such power—whatever power it was that her blood apparently contained.

The evil fairy’s eyes glittered and narrowed. She raised her hand threateningly toward Joel’s sprawled body, sparks dancing on her palm.

“Give me your blood or your lover dies.”

Joel came to with his ears ringing and his body aching as if he’d been drop-kicked by a giant. He blinked and focused hazy eyes on the scene before him. Aurora was straddling Vee and using her face as a punching bag, then suddenly she was thrown back by an invisible force and slammed against the floor.

Vee looked different now, and not just because of the trickle of blood down her cheek. It was as if some semi-transparent veil or a coating of make-up had been lifted from her face. She had never looked so cold or inhuman. And with a sickening jolt of realization, Joel remembered that she wasn’t human, that she was Valborga, the evil enchantress who threatened Aurora.

Vee—Valborga— raised her arms and spoke some foreign incantation. Aurora was jerked upright and took halting steps toward the spinning wheel. As she reached a hand toward the spindle, Valborga shouted something about blood.

Joel scarcely heard her. He launched himself to his feet and across the room. He didn’t know what Valborga wanted but he was damned if he’d let Aurora be put back to sleep for another thousand years. He practically flew to her side, grabbed her and pulled her back against him. The moment their bodies made contact, Valborga seemed to falter. She frowned and shook her arms like a person trying to jump-start dying batteries with a good jostling. In his arms, Aurora’s body struggled, caught between Valborga’s magic and her own willpower coupled with Joel’s.

“I won’t let her take you,” he whispered. “Hold on.”

Aurora turned in the circle of his arms, tilting her face to his. “Kiss me.” She slid her hands around his neck and pulled him down, covering his mouth with hers. Joel felt seared by her lips. There was a potent sizzle where their mouths merged. All of a sudden he understood what Aurora had been trying to tell him. True love was more than mere fairytale fodder. The two of them united was not simply some romantic concept, but an actual force strong enough to conquer evil.

Around them a white light began to glow. He was vaguely aware of the light, the faraway voices of the other people in the room, and of Valborga shaking her arms and cursing in several languages, but most of his consciousness was focused solely on Aurora. She filled his senses. She was the light and the joy that poured through him and swirled all around him. And he was that for her. Two beings become one.

Joel held her soft, warm body in his arms and kissed her as the light grew more intense. Rays shot out from them like sunlight. He glanced at Valborga. She was stamping her feet now like a toddler having a tantrum. Her glacial face had melted and was twisted in a scowl of pure fury.

“Touch it, you little bitch,” she screamed. “Rip open your skin and give me your blood. I’ve waited too long for this.”

In a flash, Joel realized why she’d been pulling Aurora toward the spindle step by step. She couldn’t take what she craved. Aurora’s blood had to be given to her or its potency would be lost.

The radiant beams around them shone blindingly bright, filling the room with magic and frightening the rest of the guests into fleeing the room. Valborga fell back several steps. She stopped yelling but her lips moved silently. She cupped her hands and waved her arms in a gathering motion. The few people who hadn’t fled began dropping onto the floor in boneless heaps. Joel guessed Valborga was collecting their life energy to bolster her own.

He held Aurora tighter, kissed her more passionately and loved her even more deeply. When Vee hurled a bolt of power intended to break them apart, their rays intensified and deflected her blow. A shaft of light as pure white as empty paper waiting for its story to be written arched toward the enchantress. The second before it struck her, she howled and disappeared. A huge black bird flew up from the spot where she’d been and flew across the room, heading for the open doorway.

But the doors slammed shut and a different kind of portal opened.

Joel broke off the kiss but continued to hold Aurora as they watched the very air split apart and another unnatural light flood into the room. Emerging from the unearthly glow were three misty figures that quickly solidified into human forms.