Cinderella Dreams of Fire (Fairy Tales Forever #1) (9 page)

T
he prince summoned
up every tactic and memory he had of his years practicing with the sword. Fighting with Cinderella was one thing, but he knew he needed to be flawless to defeat some giant demon from most people's worst nightmare.

He tightened his grip around the hilt. “What's this all about, demon? Got tired of playing around in the sewers with the other grotesque trash of the town?"

If the creature understood that Braedon was trying to insult it, it didn't let on. The beast let go of its bleeding arm and crouched down into a defensive stance. Its breaths were loud, heavy, and terrifying.

The prince's heart had never beat this fast. “I'm not looking forward to killing you. Your head would make a terrible trophy on my wall."

He wasn't sure if the beast understood, but it let out a primal scream that shook every inch of the house.

The prince was glad he used the toilet earlier. His voice was less convincing this time. “Fine, no trophy. Cremation, then.” As the creature lunged forward, the prince made his move to strike. His first swing was easily pushed aside by the beast's claws. Two more thrusts were likewise parried by the gray, hulking demon before him. He kicked off its midsection and retreated backward for another attack.

"Not planning to go down easy, I see."

He looked back at the direction Cinderella had gone. He listened for her voice or the sounds of the little girl. There was nothing but the crackling of the wood that would soon collapse around them.

"There'd better be a fifth date."

He turned his attention back to the demon and ran toward it again. This time, the demon grabbed at his sword hand and pulled him in close. The foul breath of the creature shot out against his face as he struggled to avoid its teeth. The razor-sharp fangs were far too close for comfort.

As the prince struggled to get his hand free, he looked into the creature's eyes. Its very human eyes.

He stammered. “Your– you– look familiar."

Braedon stopped struggling for one moment too long, and the creature sank its teeth into his shoulder. The pain was deep and immediate, and he felt the top layer of flesh tear away from his body. He screamed in agony and used his feet to press away from the beast. He broke free when he relinquished his sword to the creature.

Braedon staggered back as far as possible and clutched at his wound. While he was bloody and suffering, the creature's teeth hadn't gone too deep into his shoulder itself.

"It could have ripped my arm off. He or she could have ripped my arm off."

The beast tossed the sword to the opposite end of the room and licked its bloody claws. It looked hungry for more.

The prince racked his brain to think of anything that would get him out of the situation. Before a single thought could form, the beast charged at him, and only a quick forward tumble got him out of the creature's grasp. He dashed across the room and stood by his sword. That's when a memory began to form.

The Godmother's voice played in his head. “As fast as you think you are, you can be 10 times faster. Just keep pushing past your limits."

The prince nodded and left his sword on the ground. “I can be faster. I can definitely be faster than this thing.”

The creature charged again, but this time the prince was ready. He easily dodged a swipe of its claws and gave two swift kicks to its front leg. As it swung its clawed hand again, Braedon rolled underneath and got in three more kicks in rapid succession. The beast screamed and reached for the prince with both sets of claws. This threw it off balance, leaving a wide-open opportunity for Braedon to strike.

With all his might, the prince's foot connected with the creature's knee. Braedon began to smile as the creature staggered on a wobbly leg and favored the injuries the prince had dealt it.

"That crazy old woman was right. I can be faster!"

He crouched down and let loose a barrage of kicks and punches that were so swift, he wondered if the beast even saw them coming. Within moments, the creature went down to one knee, coming down to the prince's height. With an incredibly fast running shoulder, Braedon clocked the beast in the face. He could feel the impact of its skull all the way down his right arm, but this was no time for pain. It was time for victory.

The creature lost consciousness and fell chest-first onto the hardwood floor. Braedon pumped his fist in the air and screamed out his own war cry. Once again aware of his surroundings, the prince realized that the room had grown hotter. He looked toward the door Cinderella had used. Smoke was pouring in at double the previous rate.

"Damn."

When he looked back toward the beast he just defeated, the creature had completely disappeared. Nothing but the droplets of its very red blood remained as evidence of the battle that had just occurred. Braedon caught his breath and dashed outside toward the blacksmith's workspace. The heat was overwhelming, but a healthy dose of fear numbed him to the sensation. He reached the edge of the workroom, and his heart dropped. The entire front wall was covered in flames.

"Cinderella!"

There was no sound. There was no way in. There was nothing he could do.

C
inderella could see
her young arms and young hands before her face as clearly as if she were trapped in the past. Much like her current predicament, she was surrounded by unforgiving fire on every side. Her mother lay there before her, crumpled on the ground and breathless. She moved toward her lifeless mother and crouched beside the body she planned to join in death. With tears streaming down her face, a child's face, she took her mother's hand. Somehow amidst all the warmth that surrounded her, her mother's hand seemed almost frozen. She tightened her grip on the fingers and attempted to coax life back into them. It was no use. She tried to see her mother's face one more time before death, but hair covered her cheek and mouth and everything that would allow Cinderella to steal one more glance.

T
he squeeze of a small
, childlike hand brought her back into the burning reality.

"Elle, are we going to die?"

Cinderella wasn't holding her mother's hand. She wasn't back in the building behind her stepmother's house that had burned to the ground so many years ago. She was in a new nightmare.

The thief looked deep into Hannah's eyes. “I don't know.” She tightened her grip. “But I promise I won't leave you."

The blacksmith's daughter nodded and pressed her face into Cinderella's body.

The thief peered through the smoke and attempted to find another exit. Her heart continued to beat at a rapid pace, as if trying to get in as many thumps as possible before the inevitable struck. The heat could send them both to unconsciousness before the flames began to lick their bodies.

As she took a breath, she knew there was a good chance it could be one of the last ones.

The little girl gasped and pointed into the corner of the room. “Look!"

Cinderella's eyes shot open. Amid the floating embers and crumbling walls of the workroom, she spied a glimmering golden bird. She leaned toward the creature she'd seen the other day. Toward the creature who had been a part of her dreams.

But this was no dream. Her eyes darted as the bird zipped across the room and circled overtop an area she hadn't noticed before. Aside from where she and Tristan's daughter stood, it was the only space in the room that had yet to be touched by the flames. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed it before.

Standing out among all the flames was a shining red light.

"The weapon!"

The thief pulled Tristan's daughter closer and crouched low as she stepped toward the beacon of hope. She sidestepped one fallen support beam, and then another. The little girl shrieked each time they got too close to the fire, but Cinderella knew she couldn't stop. She knew this was their only hope of survival.

The fire grew hotter the closer she got to the red jewel. It was embedded in the hilt of the last weapon the blacksmith had finished before the demon had taken the life from his eyes. Cinderella felt so much heat through her cloak, she wondered if it would catch fire and burn her body to a crisp.

"Not today. It's not happening again.” Her words weren't convincing. Not even to herself. But she continued to move.

The thief reached the shining red weapon with a flying halo of gold over the top of it. Even though the flames completely surrounded them, Cinderella felt as if the temperature died down when she came within range of the weapon. Was it actually repelling the fire that threatened to end their lives? She set the girl down, seeing that her eyes were just as focused on the red jewel as the thief's were.

Cinderella took a deep breath and grabbed hold of Hannah's hand. With the other hand, she reached forward and took the sword.

A burst of air shot past the thief and flew in every direction. It was cool and refreshing and it sent energy through every part of Cinderella's body. The gust extinguished every flame it came into contact with, and within moments of her touching the weapon, all the fire in the room had been completely extinguished.

T
he prince's
eyes widened as the flames from the outside of the workroom evaporated in an instant. He stood there in silence for a few moments as he tried to understand the sight before him. He reached for the handle on the door with trepidation, but he soon realized it had returned to its normal temperature. He threw the door open and took everything in. The walls on either side were charred beyond recognition. Smokey beams from the roof piled up to his chest, giving him a small window into the scene that took place in the middle of the room. A girl he had to assume was the blacksmith's daughter had her head in Cinderella's lap. The thief brushed the girl's hair with the fingers of one hand while the other hand wrapped tightly around the hilt of a glowing, red weapon. The prince crouched down and slammed his healthy shoulder into a pile that blocked his entry. It took three tries, but he was able to knock down the impediment and walk into the room.

A weight lifted off his chest. “You're okay. I can't believe you're okay."

"You doubted me for even a second?” Even though the barb was expected, it didn't seem as though her heart was in it. She wasn't even looking at him; she was looking at something in the corner of the room.

Prince Braedon didn't care. He walked right up to her and stopped just short of giving the embrace his heart told him to initiate.

He rolled his bloody shoulder. “I knew you'd make it. I just thought I'd have another opportunity to save a girl in distress."

Her eyes moved to his. “You've come to the wrong place for damsels.” She spied the blood on his neck. “The creature is gone?"

The prince nodded. “You should've seen me out there. The Godmother would've been proud."

She smiled and laid the now-sleeping Hannah onto the ground. She stood up and brushed a bit of ash from her shoulder. “I'm sure she would have given you a medal.” She sighed. “Whatever that thing was, it sucked the life out of Tristan."

Braedon nodded in assent. “We need to get the whole army in here. They can scour the city and knock on every door, and–"

"Get their heads ripped off? You and I barely survived against that thing, and the soldiers who are left can't hold a candle to us. We need to trust a higher power."

The prince wrinkled his forehead. “Are you getting religious on me?"

Cinderella pointed back to the corner she'd been looking at when he first arrived. He was surprised he hadn't noticed it before. A glittering gold bird flapped its wings, as if to get attention. It was unlike anything Braedon had ever seen before.

"What is that?"

Cinderella stowed her weapon in her scabbard. “I'm not sure, but it's the only thing that saved me in here. I think I'm supposed to follow it."

The prince put his hands on his hips and turned away. “You're saying this bird is our only chance of stopping some ten-foot-tall demon?"

"Don't exaggerate. It was nine feet tall at most."

Braedon turned back. “Look, we figured out what was doing this. It's great that the magical bird or whatever helped you in here, but we need to get the army."

Cinderella pursed her lips and stepped right up to his chest. He could smell the smoke on her clothes.

"If you bring the army in here, it's going to be a bloodbath."

"If you follow some magical bird around, this creature is going to kill a dozen more people by the end of the night."

Cinderella grunted and poked Braedon with her finger. “We're not dealing with some common murderer. It's magical, so we need to focus on a magical way of defeating it. This sword may be the key."

The prince spun away and threw his hands up in the air. “Superpowered swords and birds that glitter with gold. You sound like a crazy person right now."

Cinderella's eyes narrowed.

Braedon could feel his temperature rising. Didn't she understand he just wanted her to be safe?

She picked up the blacksmith's daughter and put her over her shoulder. “I don't expect you to have faith in much of anything, Your Royal Highness. Unless it's at the bottom of a mug of ale."

The thief attempted to walk past him, but Braedon stuck out his arm to block her. “We've tracked this thing. Now we need help."

Cinderella glared at him with more fire than he'd seen on the walls of the workroom. “You're not involved in this anymore. Go to the tavern and drink yourself to death, for all I care. I need to explain to this girl that she's basically an orphan now, and then I need to figure out what the heck is going on. Don't show your face around this village and don't bring in innocent soldiers to die.” She brought her face right up to his. “Am I understood?"

The prince didn't know how to feel. Part of him wanted to challenge the thief to another rooftop duel. The other part couldn't take his eyes off her lips.

"You are understood."

"Good.” She stepped toward the path the prince had made with his shoulder. She paused when she got to the door and turned back to him. “Enjoy the ball, my Liege."

Braedon fumed as Cinderella walked out the door.

He stood there in silence for at least several minutes, hoping she would come to her senses and return. But no such thing happened. His chest felt like it was about to explode with rage, and he kicked at one of the broken beams.

"Dammit!” He took out several more raging blows of anger on the charred wood. “That girl is going to get herself killed!"

It was just then that the prince noticed the golden bird in the corner was staring at him. He screamed at it and waved his arms. The bird continued to perch there. With its tiny, golden eyes it appeared to comprehend exactly what was going on. The prince refused to believe his own eyes.

"There's no such thing as magic."

The bird appeared to smile, nod its head twice, and extend its wings before it flew out after Cinderella.