The Stepsister's Lament
Page 20
I’ll just send these to grandfather. He can look over them himself, he thought to himself as he tucked all the papers into a special bag and sent it through his mirror. He had better things to do. Reese smiled and headed out the door. Time to go find his precious gem! She still had no idea how much power she had over him.
Almost everyone believed that all it took was finding their true name to give one control over a Brenlew royal. Few realized that although knowing that name was helpful, it was nowhere near as powerful as the name given to him by the one who holds his heart. His grandmother was the first to start that trend and it had continued to Reese’s generation with increasing success. When Joy had named him, his powers began to unlock. She was his soul mate and he would do everything possible to regain the trust he had lost. Joy had nearly absolute power over him and she had no idea…
Reese smiled as he found the woman he was thinking of waiting in the entryway.
“Finally decided to join us?” she asked tartly.
He loved when she was sassy with him. It showed just how comfortable she was in her own skin and in his presence. “Just wanted to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. Are you ready?”
Joy snorted. “For a trip I had plenty of time to pack for? One where I actually know the final destination, am not being chased by an evil witch and her zombie werewolf, and where I won’t have to walk most of the way? Not to mention I still have that coat Mallie gave me.”
“Right. Silly question. Let’s go then! I can’t wait for you to meet mother!” Reese declared as he grabbed her hand and dragged her outside.
“Wait, what?!”
“Don’t worry, Joy!” Reese said, grinning as she tried to escape. “I’ll be with you the whole time.” You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried!
~
King Tierntanal, Eavan Oran and King of the Fey,
I am sorry for the sudden contact, but this really couldn’t wait. My grandson was traveling recently and came across some information that you may find interesting. I know that you have struggled for years to find the origin of your curse. It appears that a woman by the name of Charlotte Rancune was the one to supply it. She has, unfortunately, vanished for the moment. Be assured that I have every one of my informants looking for her, on both the northern and southern continents. We will find her and when we do, you will be alerted.
In the meantime, my grandson went to her home just after she disappeared and found the commission. There was no counter spell listed, but he was able to find a few other things you may find of interest.
There may be a way to break your curse. There is a merchant’s daughter who goes by the name of Belle…
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Afterword
Thank you all for joining me for book 2 of my Refurbished Fairy Tales! Hopefully you liked it just as much or more than the first one.
This was actually going to be the first in the series, with The Salamander Prince either happening later in the series as a prequel or taking the form of a short story. And then it grew into a full sized novel. So, yeah, this particular book has been around for quite some time.
A warning to all those aspiring authors out there: Not every idea you have will seem as awesome when you actually sit down and try and make it a reality. Case in point, someone who can only speak in poetry. It sucked to write! Why did I do it? Because of my inspiration, of course!
If you have never seen Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella”, do yourself a favor and watch it. Both the stage production and the movie versions are fantastic and give the stepsisters a pretty awesome song where they are complaining about why they can’t get men, and it all seems to boil down to Cinderella being prettier, at least in a classical sense. I particularly liked when Joy described herself as “solid”. That is someone with an interesting perspective on life.
Moving on… I want to thank everyone who helped me with the process of writing this story.
God, thank you for the inspiration and the people who supported me.
Mom and Dad, thanks for putting up with my crazy plotting at strange times and for pushing me to keep writing.
Megan, Kylee, Aunt Jane, Ashley, and Tiffany, you guys were awesome about looking over the various drafts and helping me edit.
Macaroni Grill, I thought up the idea for this book (and several others) while working as a hostess/opera singer there, so thank you for being my brainstorming place!
And my readers! I hope that you will continue to follow me in all my writing adventures! Have a great day!
About the Author
S.R. Nulton, also known as Sarah Rose, is a true California native. She was born in southern California, raised in northern California, and went to college on the central coast. She has written off and on since junior high, but truly got into it again when she was working at school over summer in college. She was too broke to buy a new story to read so she started writing her own to stay entertained. The rest is history. Or it will be in about two decades.