Forbidden Fairytales- The Complete Series

by Caroline Peckham

  The crowd cheered with excitement and I grinned at the confirmation that I was their favourite. Of course I was. Who would want to see the Princess lumbered with that disgusting oaf for a husband? The most beautiful woman in all of Osaria deserved the most handsome husband. And there was no question that that was me.

  I lunged at Kahn, diving on top of him and throwing my fists into his face again and again. Blood flew, teeth cracked, my own fists rang with the impact of my blows. Marik was counting. The crowd were cheering, urging me on and I grinned at the sound of my name on the lips of so many nobles. They wanted me to win. They wanted me to be their Emperor. This boy born in the dirt was going to rise above them all and they would love me for it.

  Beneath me, Kahn’s chest started trembling and a rumbling sound left his lips. It took me a moment to realise he was laughing and a sliver of dread raced down my spine.

  He slammed his palms into my chest so hard that I was thrown off of him and sent crashing to the sand. The breath was driven from my lungs but I ignored the small hurts, rolling upright before he could come at me again.

  I shook my hands as blood slid from my knuckles. His. Mine. Hitting is face was like punching a goddamn boulder and I began to wonder if his Shaitan blood made him tougher than a normal man. He had skin like leather and bones like rocks.

  Kahn didn’t give me a moment to recover as he ran at me again.

  I tried to duck aside but he hooked an arm around my waist, hurling me to the ground so hard that a deep groove was carved into the sand beneath me.

  He dove on top of me and I jerked my head aside as his sledgehammer fist slammed into the ground where my face had been a second ago.

  Marik started counting and I swore.

  I brought my knee up between Kahn’s legs because, screw it, I wasn’t going to let him pummel me to shit.

  A deep laugh came in response and I repeated the move, meaning it even more than the first time.

  He barely flinched, driving his fists at me again and cracking me in the jaw so hard that it almost dislocated.

  Why the face??

  “Three-four-”

  I kicked and bucked, desperate to free myself before time was called on our match, refusing to believe that I could have lost.

  Kahn rolled aside suddenly, allowing me to rise just as Marik opened his mouth to shout ‘five’.

  I backed up, spitting a wad of blood from my mouth as I glared at the mountainous man before me.

  He’d let get me up. He wanted to toy with me before this was over. But he wanted me to know he’d had me beaten too.

  I internally recoiled against the idea of such a thing happening even though it was the goddamn truth. But I refused to let him play me for a fool. So he’d let me up? Fine. But he was about to regret making such a stupid decision.

  I rolled my shoulders back, wondering if my plan was moronic or genius. It was always a thin line to cross.

  But if we kept on this way I wasn’t sure I could win. And though it cut me in two to admit that to myself, I knew it was the truth and I had to own it.

  Calm Kahn was rational. He could plan, strategise, face me in a way I’d have trouble to beat. But psycho Kahn might just be a different story. The way he’d attacked Gurvine yesterday had been brutal, savage and though I hated to admit it – terrifying. But it had also been entirely lacking in discipline. He’d been lost to blind rage. Attacking head on with no thought or need for defence. But I was smarter than Gurvine and faster too. And maybe, just maybe, I could beat Kahn if he lost the plot.

  “Did your mother drop you on your face as a baby?” I called as I began circling to the left, leading Kahn in a pretty dance. “And did you fall on a cactus before hitting the ground?”

  “What?” Kahn grunted.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse your pea-sized brain. I was just wondering how you came to be so damn ugly? Because if that’s just the way you were born then you’re the unluckiest bastard I’ve ever had the misfortune of looking at.”

  Kahn yelled out in anger, charging at me and I dove out of his way before twisting back and slamming my foot into the back of his thigh. His leg buckled beneath him and he almost fell.

  I backed away quickly before he could come at me again.

  “If you had any decency, you’d forfeit this fight now anyway,” I jeered, my heart racing at the dangerous game I was playing. “The poor Princess shouldn’t be subjected to the horror of sharing her marriage bed with your disgusting face and monstrous body. It would be a crime if the most beautiful creature in all the land was cursed to marry the ugliest. Wouldn’t it?” I called to the crowd and to my delight they all yelled their agreement.

  Kahn stared up at them in shock, his neck colouring with embarrassment. His right eye started twitching. Then his shoulder began dancing to a strange, jerking rhythm.

  “Let Nazari win!” a man bellowed.

  “Do the decent thing, monster!” a woman cried in agreement.

  I started smiling. They wanted this. Wanted me. And I sure as shit wasn’t going to disappoint them.

  “What’s it to be then, you walking, talking potato?” I mocked. “Will you let the better man win? For the good of the Princess? For the good of the kingdom?”

  Kahn’s gaze slid to the stage on our left where Rapunzel sat watching the brawl with her hands balled in her lap and a desperate glint in her eye. For a moment I thought she might beg Kahn to quit too but of course she wouldn’t do such a thing, though her desire for his demise was clear in her eyes.

  Kahn seemed to realise it too and his jaw locked with a mixture of rage and humiliation. I waited for half a heartbeat before the former emotion won out, his pupils dilating into two black discs which filled his eyeballs before he launched himself at me.

  This was what I’d wanted. To face a beast instead of a man. But I suddenly wondered if I’d made a huge mistake.

  I tried to evade his attack but Kahn caught me by the back of my shirt and hurled me across the arena with all his strength. I hit the ground hard, rolling and rolling as the crowd hissed their disapproval.

  I scrunched my eyes closed against the sand which battered me and drove my knee into the ground to stop my roll so that I could push myself onto my hands and knees.

  Before I could rise, Kahn’s foot connected with my ribs and I was knocked over again. The heat of the coals ringing the fight warmed my face from a few inches away.

  This wasn’t how this was supposed to go down. He was supposed to be slower not faster. Angrier not more ruthless.

  I swung my legs around, trying to trip him but it was like trying to fell a tree; he didn’t move an inch despite the power of my blow.

  He snarled at me before slamming his foot down on my ankle, driving all of his weight onto it with all the force of his unnatural muscles and then some.

  I couldn’t help but roar as pain drove through me in a torrent. The Princess cried out and Marik shouted “Foul!” But Kahn was beyond hearing him.

  Shit, shit, SHIT!

  I’d placed my bets on this working but I’d been wrong, so damn wrong.

  I scrambled back on my elbows, unsure if my ankle could even hold my weight anymore. I knew I needed to get up, knew if I stayed down here I was done for but I couldn’t see a way to fight back effectively.

  Kahn stalked after me, a wide smile on his face. He reached down, catching my bad ankle and yanking on it as he tried to heave me off of the ground. Agony flared, hot and blinding but I pushed it away with every inch of resolve I had, gritting my teeth in defiance of releasing so much as a whimper of discomfort again.

  I smashed my other foot straight into his pig-ugly face, yelling my own rage right back at him.

  The blow was enough to force him to release me and I shoved myself to my feet as I turned away, searching the crowd for Kyra.

  I needed to wish for bones made of steel, fists of iron, and the inability to feel this all consuming, mind numbing, disorienting pain.

  I spotted
her on the far side of the ring, her stunning eyes wide with fright. Cassian was by her side, his hand on the hilt of his sword as the two of them rose from their seats but my eyes stayed on Kyra. I needed her more than I’d ever needed her and not just for her magic. I gritted my teeth as I forced myself to move towards her. I stepped on my bad ankle and agony flooded through me unlike anything I’d ever felt before.

  Broken, definitely goddamn broken.

  Before I could take another step, Kahn’s fist connected with my temple and I was thrown to the ground again. I’d become little more than a chew toy to this oversized bulldog and without Kyra I could see no way to turn the tables back on him.

  Kahn dove on top of me and the force of his blows knocked the air from my lungs and sent so much pain crashing through my body that I couldn’t even distinguish one strike from the next.

  I tried to fight him off but my attempts were ignored as he batted my arms aside like they were no more of an irritation to him than flies.

  His massive fists battered my face and I could hear the most horrible sound of breaking bone mixed with the screams of the Princess and Kyra, the boos of the crowd, Cassian demanding they call an end to the bout and worse than all of it, Marik counting.

  “Three - four - five! Prince Kahn is the winner!”

  The crowd booed their disapproval and the sound was so loud it drowned out everything else. They didn’t want this. No one wanted this. But there was no changing it.

  Reality crashed into me as harshly as the fists which continued to shatter my body. He’d won but he wasn’t stopping. He wasn’t going to stop until I was dead.

  The chain around my neck shifted, the amulet which was really a lamp burning hot against my skin, right above my heart. It felt as though Kyra herself was pressing her hand against my flesh, her magic caressing me as she sensed that I was about to leave her.

  Why had I come here? Why had I been so selfish? I had a genie who could grant me anything and everything I’d ever dreamed of and yet that hadn’t been enough for me. I’d wanted more. I always wanted more. But in reality, she was more than I ever could have asked for. More than I ever could have needed. But I hadn’t seen it. I was caught up in a pretty dream of me sitting on top of the world and for what? So that I could die in the dirt like I’d always known I would.

  The battering ceased and for a moment I thought it was because I’d died and simply couldn’t feel it anymore.

  A shuddering breath found its way into my lungs and I realised that wasn’t it as I parted my eyelids a fraction. Cassian had leapt on Kahn’s back and eight more guards had helped him pull Kahn off of me. More still were running forward to help keep him restrained.

  “My doctor will help him!” Gothel cried and I ached with the desperate need to say no to the offer of that foul monster, but I couldn’t summon the word.

  Someone dropped down beside me, gentle fingers fluttering against my face, my arms, my chest. Coming and going as if they were afraid to touch me at all.

  “Aladdin?” Rapunzel breathed. “Please say you’re alive?”

  I tried to reply but all that left my lips was a groan.

  “Oh thank the heavens,” she breathed. “I’ll find Kyra-”

  She was gone before I could attempt to speak again and I was lost to my agony for a moment.

  Yes, Kyra, that was who I needed. Who I always needed...

  Darkness came for me and I felt it pulling me away. I was floating and alone, the pain a distant memory, it was nice here, peaceful, I wanted to stay a while...

  “You have to wish it!” Kyra screamed, yanking me back to reality with a wave of pain that took my breath away.

  It was in every inch of me, a writhing beast of fire and agony, hoping to consume me whole.

  I was laying on a stretcher, being carried away by four men in the uniforms of the royal household.

  “His guard can escort us,” Gothel said, her voice smug. “But the maid should stay here with the Princess; her hysterics won’t help anyone.”

  “Wait!” Kyra called and I opened my eyes just enough to see several guards pushing her back as I was carried away.

  Cassian hesitated then hurried after me, seeming to judge that leaving me alone with the Queen wasn’t the best option, though I could hear him arguing against the decision to make Kyra stay behind.

  “Do you wish to be healed?” Kyra screamed desperately as I was carried further from her.

  The darkness was rushing in again, promising the comfort of oblivion but before it could take me, I forced a single word from my lips. It was no more than a whisper on a breath. I couldn’t see any way that she would be able to hear it but I couldn’t manage any more than that.

  “Yes,” I breathed and the darkness claimed me again.

  No no no no no no no!

  I stared after Aladdin as he was carried away, the blood-soaked ground seeming to drown the whole world.

  Kyra was clinging to my arm, screaming and sobbing. I felt all of her pain so keenly it was like she was channeling the voice of my heart.

  Cassian glanced back at us as he moved at the side of his friend on the stretcher, his expression etched with an apology. I shook my head as silent tears tracked down my cheeks.

  What do you have to be sorry for? You all did everything you could. But that's it. It's over.

  Kahn was pounding his fists in the air, drinking in the boos from the audience as if they were cheers.

  A group of guards still ringed him, glancing anxiously between me and my father as if they expected him to flip out at any second. The Emperor rose from the throne, a red rosette clamped in his grip. He staggered down the steps and waved off the guards who tried to help him.

  The crowd fell eerily quiet as he made an unsteady trail toward Kahn. When he reached him, his eyes turned sour as if for a moment Gothel's vile power had no hold on him. As Kahn reached for the rosette, my father dropped it in the sand at his feet and pride bloomed in my chest.

  Father's mouth skewed into a grimace and he raised a finger to point at Kahn's chest. “She is the most precious thing to me in the world. Her mother wanted her to marry for love.” He staggered forward and I pulled away from Kyra, running toward him as I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand.

  I steadied him and Father looked to me with a pained expression. Kahn surveyed us as blood dripped steadily from a wound on his brow, his eyes roaming between us with nothing but excitement.

  “It's okay,” I whispered to my father, wrapping him in my arms. His comforting scent enveloped me and he sighed against my neck.

  “Sweet daughter...” he mumbled then blinked heavily as I leant back, his true self drifting away from me as I stared into his eyes. His mouth twisted up into an eerie smile. “How happy you must be.” He took my hand, holding it out to Kahn. Giving me to him.

  Kahn took it and I shuddered as his giant palm encased mine, claiming, owning. He raised it up to press his lips to the back of it and a tremor of fear stole away my ability to breathe.

  “Mine,” he purred, a triumphant gleam in his gaze. “I told you you'd be mine.”

  The crowd started clapping, but with nothing of the enthusiasm they'd had toward Aladdin.

  I didn't want my people to see me weak. Even if the throne was never to be my own, I at least needed them to know I loved them. Kahn wouldn't release my hand as I turned to address the ladies and gentleman of Osaria.

  “My people,” I called. “I have been won but my heart is always yours. My kingdom's. Osaria's.”

  The crowd rose from their seats, their applause growing to a deafening drone. Kahn tugged me under his arm, encasing me like it was the wing of a beast. His mouth lowered to my ear and a shudder seized me.

  “A kiss,” he demanded. “Your first with the only man you'll ever kiss again.”

  I shook my head in a fierce refusal, but he was too strong, pulling me to him until my feet barely touched the ground. His mouth found mine and all I tasted was blood and the loss
of everything I'd ever dreamed of. My throne was stolen by this kiss. My choices, my hopes. How could a kiss be so deadly?

  From this moment forward, no man would ever make my heart race or my stomach flutter. No mouth would light a fire in my soul and make me believe that things really could be better.

  When he released me, the world became a haze of noise and movement. The crowd were departing. The show was over. It didn't matter what anyone thought of it. These were the rules. And everyone but me got to go back to their bed, safe in the knowledge that tomorrow the sun would rise and the day would be theirs to own.

  I pulled away from Kahn as several medics ran forward to tend to his wounds.

  Father was being escorted from the arena by his guards and I stared at his empty throne which would one day belong to Kahn. And with Father so ill, who knew how soon that would be?

  A soft hand curled around the crook of my elbow and I turned to find Kyra there, her eyes glittering with a strange kind of light. The magic in her was so obvious now I knew it existed. How had I missed it before?

  “I wished Aladdin better,” she breathed. “He'll be okay.”

  My heart dissolved and the tension ran out of my shoulders. “That's one thing at least.”

  “I wish I could give you a wish,” she whispered, her expression so wide and open and loving. “I would wish Kahn away if I wasn't bound by the restrictions of the lamp.”

  I pulled her into a hug, squeezing my eyes shut. “Thank you, Kyra.”

  “Don't give up,” she breathed and a tiny flame of hope ignited inside me, so small it would need to be kindled with everything I had left.

  Jacinda and Zira hovered at the edge of the ring. Jacinda was sobbing, her face red as Zira rested an arm around her shoulders. My life long friend stared over at me as she comforted my other attendant, her face twisted with grief.

  As I took Kyra's hand and led her toward them, I felt sure of one thing. I had friends. I was surrounded by them, though perhaps it had taken me too long to realise it. I wasn't alone here, no matter how deeply I'd felt that way before. And it was time I started treating them better. One of them in particular.