Forbidden Fairytales- The Complete Series

by Caroline Peckham

  The maid in front of me had her palms pressed to the wall of the curving staircase as she hurried to descend in the darkness despite the fact that she couldn’t see.

  Aladdin seemed comfortable enough navigating the stairs at my side, obviously used to using the dark to hide him.

  We made it to the lower floor where the smell of baking bread reached us through the walls and I inhaled deeply as saliva filled my mouth.

  You can't seriously be considering a snack?

  I shrugged one shoulder. A little energy food wouldn’t have been the worst idea what with all the running we’d been doing. Even if I didn’t technically need to eat at all.

  Rapunzel slipped past Cassian, her hands sliding across the wall with well practiced movements. Even in the dark she knew this place like the face of a beloved friend.

  Her fingers made it to a wooden lever and she took a steadying breath before tugging on it.

  A soft groan of turning cogs sounded like a klaxon to my straining ears and my heart almost leapt right out of my chest.

  I don’t know why you’re so afraid, you can’t die, remember?

  But I wasn’t afraid for myself. I was afraid for my friends. For Rapunzel who was brave and fierce and determined not to see her kingdom fall into chaos at the rule of a monster. For Cassian who was strong and loyal and self sacrificing in the name of all that was good and true. And for Aladdin who-

  Was super dreamy with that dark hair and those deep eyes and those dimples that just make you go all mushy inside. Not to mention his body which you really want to spend a bit more time just-

  A hidden door swung open and Rapunzel stepped through. We made a move to follow her just as she cried out in alarm.

  My heart slammed into my ribs, my stomach dropped into my shoes and my magic warred against the confines of my skin, aching to be let loose. I wished I could wish for myself. Then I’d burn my way through anyone who tried to hurt us.

  Zira and Jacinda screamed, tripping backwards in their panic and getting tangled in their skirts, blocking Aladdin and me in the stairwell.

  Cassian bellowed a challenge as he leapt after the Princess to help her.

  “Shit,” Aladdin cursed as he shoved his way past the maids and I hurried after him into the kitchen.

  Rapunzel screamed out in determination as she fought alongside Cassian against two guards with bugs in their brains.

  We ran forward to help but before we made it there, the Princess managed to plunge her blade into the chest of her opponent with a cry of triumph.

  He fell back to the ground just as Cassian defeated the guard he was battling too.

  “The bugs!” I yelled in warning and the two beetles began to move, working to reanimate the dead men with their dark power.

  “Hammer please, Kyra!” Aladdin demanded and I conjured a golden mallet for him.

  He snatched it out of the air and ran forward to finish the bugs.

  The sound of many pounding footsteps reached me and I whirled around to see a whole platoon of guards running our way.

  “Shit!” Cassian growled, racing forward to throw the door shut between us and them. He grabbed a heavy table and started shoving it over to barricade the door. I leapt forward to help, pulling magic to my muscles to make me extra strong.

  I giggled as we wedged the table against the door and Cassian looked at me like I was insane.

  You are insane.

  I shrugged and ran back to Aladdin as he discarded the mallet. If it wasn’t for all the we-could-die stuff, then this would be pretty damn fun.

  “Now what?” Rapunzel demanded, whirling around.

  Zira and Jacinda stumbled out of the hidden corridor, their eyes wild but determined.

  “This way,” Aladdin urged, sprinting across the kitchen towards the servants’ exit.

  He slammed to a halt in the doorway and we almost collided with him.

  Servants were scrambling to get away, running in every direction as guards spilled across the grounds towards the palace.

  “Time for you ladies to go,” Aladdin said, grabbing Zira’s arm and shoving her ahead of him as he backed up into the room.

  “But-” the serving girl began but Aladdin cut her off.

  “There are servants everywhere out there, the two of you can get away from here easily. The rest of us not so much and it’s a lot easier for four of us to remain hidden than six,” he said firmly.

  The maids both turned terrified eyes on Rapunzel and her eyes swam with emotion for a moment as she nodded her agreement.

  “He’s right. This is your chance to escape,” she breathed.

  The door behind us shuddered as the guards in the corridor reached it and started trying to batter their way past the barricade we’d made with the heavy table. We didn’t have long.

  The maids still hesitated but Rapunzel didn’t give them the chance to refuse. She threw her arms around the two of them briefly then shoved them towards the servants’ exit. “I love you. Now go! That's an order!”

  The maids stumbled away, their eyes wide with fright as we raced back towards the hidden staircase.

  Cassian caught Rapunzel around the waist and propelled her through the doorway which had been left open in the stone wall.

  The maids finally fled into the night and I leapt into the stairwell behind the others with Aladdin bringing up the rear. He yanked on the lever Rapunzel had used to open the doorway and the sound of grinding stone came faintly as the narrow exit closed behind us.

  A moment after it fell shut, a huge bang sounded as the table was finally knocked aside in the kitchen and the guards made it through. We knew the passage above us had been discovered so that only left us with one option.

  Cassian led the way down and the icy chill of the earth surrounded us as we delved beneath the ground into the roots of the palace.

  Pounding feet sounded on the stairs above us and we sacrificed all attempts at stealth in favour of speed as we raced down the curving stairs to the very bottom.

  Cassian burst through a hidden door which was thick with cobwebs at the base of the stairs and we stumbled out into a long passageway.

  “Seal that shut, Kyra,” Aladdin panted and I quickly did as he asked so that no one could follow us.

  We ran on and I cast an orb of silvery light to guide us. Everything was stone, cold, black and damp down here.

  We didn’t stop going, weaving our way through a maze of empty corridors.

  A scuttling noise drew my attention to the space behind us and I turned to find one of Gothel’s beetles racing towards us across the floor, its pincers raised with intent to burrow beneath our flesh.

  I jumped towards it, slamming my foot down on its back and spraying green ichor across the flagstones.

  “What the hell was that doing down here?” Rapunzel panted.

  Cassian opened his mouth to respond but a horrible click, click, clicking sounded and we whirled around as we tried to locate it.

  “There!” Aladdin hissed, pointing up at the wall behind us where another beetle had appeared.

  “And there,” Rapunzel squealed in panic, pointing out two more of the foul creations crawling across the bricks.

  We started backing up as more and more of them appeared.

  Aladdin cursed loudly, an inch of fear colouring his voice. “I wish we were bug-proof.”

  “Do you agree?” I asked Rapunzel and Cassian before I could unleash my magic.

  “Yes!” they both shouted in unison as more of the beetles scurried out of the shadows, racing towards us across the stone walls and ceiling as well as the floor.

  I wiggled my fingers as I quickly made their skin impervious to the magical insects and Aladdin let out a breath of relief.

  “Come on,” he demanded, turning and running before more of the beetles could appear.

  “Why are they down here?” Rapunzel demanded as we ran on.

  We rounded a corner before anyone could reply and found ourselves at a wide, stone archway
carved with effigies and words about peace and eternal slumber.

  “These are the royal catacombs,” Rapunzel breathed as we ran inside. “There’s another secret passageway at the far end of them.”

  We found ourselves in a large cavern lined with stone tombs and coffins. Names were carved into the stonework, long dead members of the royal household laid to rest all around us.

  “Oh shit,” Aladdin breathed. “I think I just realised what the bugs are doing down here.”

  “Wakey, wakey, sleepy heads,” I muttered to the corpses who lay at rest around us.

  Rapunzel’s eyes widened with a dawning comprehension as she looked over her shoulder to the swarming bugs which were still chasing after us. The click click click of their tiny feet sent shivers of fear and disgust through me like I could feel them crawling up and down my spine.

  “Run!” Cassian bellowed as the first coffin lid began to shift, its long-dead occupant rising after years in the dark.

  Aladdin snatched my hand and we sprinted through the maze of tombs as rotting hands grabbed at us and eyeless skulls turned our way.

  We raced on but the bugs were faster, scurrying to wake the dead ahead of us and raising them from their years in the catacombs.

  Aladdin and Cassian drew together at the front of our small group, charging forward, shoulder to shoulder with their weapons raised as the dead rose to their feet ahead of us.

  They yelled out battle cries as they fell into combat with the rotting corpses. Some of them were little more than skeletons, others still weirdly fleshy after being embalmed before they were entombed.

  Limbs were severed, the dead thrown back and we raced on and on.

  A swarm of corpses clamoured towards us up ahead and Aladdin stumbled as he slowed, driving us into a narrow entrance on our right.

  He was fighting shoulder to shoulder with Cassian and his elbow caught me as one of the undead monsters knocked him back.

  I’d been so distracted by the terror around me that I didn’t manage to turn myself to smoke before I fell to my knees in front of a huge tomb.

  The others were standing in the entrance to the cavern, fighting against the tide of dead things as they tried to hold them back at the narrowest point.

  The sound of grating stone filled the air and I looked up, a deep fear gripping me as the sense of something truly wrong tugged at my memory.

  No, no, no, no, no! Run, run away from here! He’s found you again, he’s come to finish you!

  My lips parted in horror as I looked up at the huge, stone sarcophagus before me. The lid was forced aside and a figure was rising from the depths of it. This was no normal tomb. This was the resting place of an Emperor. And not just any Emperor.

  My heart stopped beating, my limbs stopped working and ice as cold as the depths of winter fled along my veins. I knew the man who rose before me. I was the one who’d put him in this place. It had been hundreds of years but it might as well have been yesterday. I knew him and I had the horrible feeling that he knew me too.

  The dead Emperor stared at me for a long moment, seemingly filled with recognition even after all this time. I was the one who’d killed him. He was the one who’d killed my sister. He was the reason for my curse.

  He’d been embalmed and his face was grotesquely familiar. The pits of his eyes endlessly black and hauntingly aware.

  I froze, fear paralysing me in my position on the ground before him. I’d always known he’d come for me, I’d always known he’d want revenge.

  The Emperor climbed out of the sarcophagus, his gaze set on me and the glint of something drew my attention to his hand.

  He held the blade. My blade. The one I’d used to kill him. I might have forgotten most of my life but I’d know that blade anywhere. I’d recognise it by touch alone. And we needed that blade. We needed a blade which had killed an Emperor to kill a Shaitan!

  The Emperor advanced on me and I managed to reclaim the use of my limbs at last. I scrambled upright just as he swung at me, the dagger carving through the place where my throat had just been.

  Inside my head the other me was screaming, shrieking, begging me to flee but I ignored her. We needed that blade. And I’d already defeated this monster once.

  He came at me again but I was smoke once more, his hand sweeping through me like a breeze amongst the grass.

  I laughed. Dancing to and fro as he chased me. My body was my own. Aladdin gave it back to me. This monster couldn’t have it. He couldn’t have me then and he wouldn’t have me now.

  I leapt high, leading him after me as I made it up onto the sarcophagus. Inside were treasures and riches, gems, coins and weapons.

  I snatched a huge broadsword into my hands as he came at me once more.

  The Emperor stabbed at me and I grinned like a savage as I jumped from the sarcophagus to meet him.

  The broadsword slammed into his chest, his brittle bones snapping like firewood.

  I twisted aside and swung at him once more. “This time-” I severed his arm with a ferocious blow and the hand with the dagger fell to the floor. “Stay dead!” With a cry of pure hate-filled rage, I propelled the heavy sword into his skull, destroying the beetle and almost carving him in two as I threw all of my magic into the strike.

  I staggered as the moment of his second death triggered something in me. Facing this beast again had propelled me to the past and memories, moments and faces all sprung to life in my mind.

  I inhaled sharply, frozen in position for a never ending moment as so much of myself folded back. I remembered my mother, father, my sister, her husband and her children. I remembered swimming in the sunshine and laughing in the meadow behind our manor. It was all there. Like a curtain had been lifted and every hidden part of me was revealed once more.

  Tears sprang to my eyes as the weight of it hit me. Everyone I’d loved. Everyone I’d lost. I’d been so alone for so long but I was finally close to whole again.

  My gaze fell on Aladdin and the others fighting desperately beside me and I forced myself back to the present. I’d regained myself but there was more to be done here and I needed to save my memories for later.

  I dropped the broad sword with a surge of satisfaction and snatched the dagger I’d used to kill the Emperor the first time into my grasp.

  Aladdin cried out from the entranceway as one of the dead things sunk its teeth into his arm and a deep anger filled me. I had the weapon we needed to destroy Gothel and I wasn’t going to stand back while my friends were destroyed.

  My back collided with a stone tomb as one of the dead leapt on me, slashing and biting. I roared through my teeth, shoving them back as my heart rate ratcheted up several notches. The body was hardly any more than bones, but the vile thing was strong as hell. I brought up my scimitar, my muscles primed for the blow I was about to land when a dagger burst through its skull from behind, pausing an inch from my face.

  I released a heavy breath as the skeleton crumbled at my feet and Rapunzel was revealed beyond it, her eyes alight with the battle. She gave me a sideways smile before diving on another of the undead.

  Holy shit is she enjoying this?

  A hand shot out of the nearest tomb, punching a hole through the wall. I twisted around with a pang of horror, bringing my sword up and slicing through bone so the withered hand fell limp to the floor unmoving.

  Hands seized my back and I cried out as several of them yanked me backwards into a huge sarcophagus. My legs hit the edge and I tumbled, falling into the hole where bony fingers wrapped around me and rancid yellow teeth tried to sink into my flesh.

  My whole body shuddered as I fought desperately to get up, stabbing and stabbing, but for every hand I severed another took its place.

  Aladdin leaned over the edge of the sarcophagus, thrusting his arm in for me to take. I dragged my way out of the tangle of limbs, the stench of decay making me want to retch. I caught Aladdin's wrist and he yanked me up with all his might. I kicked and thrashed, letting Aladdin haul me to the ed
ge before scrambling over it onto the dusty floor. I was caked in a thin film of something vile but for once I didn't have the time to be wholly disgusted by it.

  “How many times have I saved you now?” Aladdin smirked.

  I went to answer but one of the undead caught him by the waist, the cretin’s hands locking around Aladdin's throat and wrenching so hard I was sure it was about to decapitate him. I stabbed the beastly creature straight in the eye socket and it fell into a heap behind him.

  “I'm making up for it.” I grinned, shouldering past Aladdin as he steadied himself, checking himself over for injuries.

  Kyra was dancing and weaving between the monsters, turning to smoke if any got their hands on her. The moment she evaded them, she twisted in a graceful movement and rammed her dagger into their heads. The blade looked old, it was silver and highly decorated and I wondered if she'd conjured it or stolen it from one of the tombs.

  I spotted Rapunzel tearing through a body with her sword and panic filled my chest as three more of the dead came at her at once. I dove forward to join her, slashing through two of the monsters in one fierce strike. Bones rattled as they hit the ground and dust plumed into the air. I covered my nose with a grimace, desperate not to breathe in the crumbled residue of hundred year old bodies.

  The dead were clambering to get to us and for a moment we'd bought ourselves a few seconds to run. We sped deeper into the crypt, the rasping and groaning of the wakening dead echoing around us.

  I kept my Princess in my sights in case she stumbled but she never did. She was sure-footed and more powerful than I'd ever realised.

  The rushing of water sounded from up ahead and I bit out a curse as we met a dead end. The crypt met with a sheer drop, falling down straight into the underground river.

  We backed up, searching for a way out.

  “We missed a turning!” Rapunzel gasped. “What now?”

  Before anyone could answer, the dead closed the gap behind us.

  I turned into the fray, bringing up my sword and swinging until a thousand bones lay shattered at my feet. Rapunzel pressed against my shoulder, never faltering as she cut down our enemies at my side.