Read Online Dream Trysts: A Sleeping Beauty Story (Passion-Filled FairyTales Book 4) by Rosetta Bloom - Free Book Online Page B

They’d grown up together. They’d been friends, companions. They could have been more. He stepped near her and put a hand on her shoulder, heat radiating from the spot where he touched her. They could be more. 
    Only, she couldn’t do that. Blissa had left her in a horrible position. She would look like a hypocrite if she were to be with Eldred. He was a Halfling, and though his powers were great, he still had the blood of men running through him.
    “I remember,” Eldred said. “When you and Blissa were little, when the two of you were inseparable, never one without the other.”
    Her feelings of warmth for him drained away with that statement. Blissa had even taken Eldred from her. She was the only thing Eldred ever fought Maurelle over. In all other areas, Eldred was devoted to Maurelle, but he always seemed to choose Blissa over her.
    “Do you remember?” Maurelle asked. “Do you remember when the men came? Do you remember the dead fairies, their indigo blood lining the streets? Do you remember King Errol murdering my mother and drinking her blood so he could have strength enough to defeat my uncle?”
    Errol looked down at the ground. “I remember,” he whispered.
    “And do you remember the day my uncle forbade the union of fairies and men? Do you remember how he stood in front of this very throne and said men would be empowered by fairies no more?”
    He nodded this time, as if he didn’t have voice to speak.
    She looked off into the distance, unable to meet his eyes as the painful memories seared her heart. “And do you remember how she came into my room, after her father’s death, after she was to take the throne, and announced that she would abdicate? How she announced she was giving up her kingdom to be with a human, even though humans almost destroyed us?”
    “Humans aren’t all bad,” Eldred said.  She couldn’t help but turn to see him, to see if he had really said that in all earnestness. He had repositioned himself, kneeling before her. “Humans are good and bad, just like fairies are good and bad, Maurelle. We all make mistakes, and for some people, pride keeps them from recognizing their error and correcting it.”
    “You think I make a mistake by pursuing the princess, by ensuring my gift comes to pass?”
    A pained look crossed his face, his gray eyes seeking something, but Maurelle wasn’t sure what. “I think you make a mistake by not moving past what is already done. Your mother is dead. And Blissa’s husband didn’t kill her.”
    “But his father did,” Maurelle shot back. “Edmund is son of Errol and she knew that. She knew his father was a power-hungry, wicked man, and he raised a power-hungry, wicked son. And he can have nothing but a power-hungry, wicked child.”
    “And me?” Eldred asked. “Am I nothing but the son of an evil human, who can only do evil?”
    Maurelle shook her head, instantly. He was baiting her, trying to make her change her mind based on ill comparisons. “You are not evil. You are kind and wise, and one of the best seers that ever was.”
    “But my sight fails you. You know that, Maurelle. The one thing you fear most, I can’t see. I can’t see how the actions of humans will impact our world, yet it is crucial to your future. Still, you retain me as your oracle.”
    His lack of sight into the human world wasn’t ideal, but by forbidding human-fairy unions, King Roldan had greatly reduced the likelihood of their influence on the fairy realm. “Seeing humans isn’t necessary.”
    “But it is,” Eldred said. “I have told you to let this go. But you won’t. I can tell you now that if you do this, the girl will sleep. She’s a Halfling, so I can see that much. But when she awakens, she will take your throne. I just can’t tell if she’ll awaken in a hundred years or a hundred days or any amount of time more or less than that. I only know that a human determines her fate, and I can’t see that.”
    Maurelle bristled. A descendant of