Married. Wait! What?

by Virginia Nelson

  Now the dragons are descending and the only way for Seraphine to save her kingdom, and those she loves, is to find the truth hidden in her own heart.

  Will a love forged in dreams be strong enough to survive the awakening?

  1

  I’m the sleeping princess you’ve probably heard of. But my name isn’t Aurora, and I’ve never touched a spindle in my entire life. This is not the fairy tale you’ve been told; this is the truth, what actually happened between a royal family and a Dragon Queen.

  The Dragon Queen ruled Tassaros, the kingdom neighboring ours, with her husband, King Malcolm, and their son, Prince Saunder. Prince Saunder asked for my hand in marriage. I am the only child of my parents, King Bertram and Queen Lisande. I may have been spoiled, but I don’t think I was a bad daughter. My parents loved me dearly, and they wanted the best for me. Prince Saunder didn’t meet their standards. Probably because he was a raging lunatic. Oh, and he was also a dragon-shifter.

  Queen Meara didn’t take kindly to her son’s suit being rebuffed by my father, however gently it had been done. Instead of launching an attack on my kingdom, which was stronger than hers even with her dragon family, she decided to get revenge through more underhanded means. Magical means, in fact.

  She hired an enchantress.

  Oh, you thought Meara was a fairy or some crap like that? No, she was a dragon-shifter and a queen, which was more than enough. She had to outsource her spells. But being queen has its perks, and Meara had several spellcasters she could call on. The witch she hired crept into my chambers and put me into a sort of magical stasis. It wasn’t just sleeping, though I did dream; it was a hold on my life. I didn’t age and that was the true punishment. Not to me, but to my family. See, another thing the tale of Sleeping Beauty got wrong is the whole sleeping castle thing. My court didn’t go into stasis with me. They, along with my parents, were left awake to watch me remain frozen in time while they aged. We lost years with each other.

  Thankfully, it wasn’t a hundred years and there were no thorny rose bushes growing around the castle to stop my prince from coming to save me. The one good thing about my parents being unaffected by the curse was that they could look for a cure. They consulted oracles, wise women, sages, and witches. And eventually, the solution presented itself. Or himself, rather.

  It wasn’t a kiss. Damn, if only it had been so simple. It was love—true love—that was needed to break the spell, but how in the world could a man fall in love with me after only one kiss? Or even before the kiss? That’s just ridiculous. No, it was so much more complicated than a kiss. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I want to tell my story in the truest form possible, and to do that, I must tell it from the way I experienced it. You see, this story is not about the sleeping; it’s about the awakening.

  I, Princess Seraphine, woke from my stasis slumber, never realizing I had been cursed. I had simply gone to bed one night and woken up twenty years later—still an eighteen-year-old girl—to find my parents wrinkled and gray… and a wedding band upon my finger.

  2

  My head felt fuzzy, as if it were stuffed with wool. I often felt this way when I’d slept too long. I reached out, sighing and stretching awake, then heard someone gasp. My eyes shot open, but it took me a few minutes to process what I saw.

  I was lying in my bed, exactly where I’d gone to sleep the previous night. My bedchambers were as they always were… except they were full of people. An older couple stood beside me, the man holding a sobbing woman. Near the couple, ranging down one side of my bed, were more people: courtiers, judging by their appearance. They hung back but stared openly at me. All very strange things to awaken to, indeed. But the strangest of all was the man beside me.

  He stood alone on the opposite side of my bed, and he was gorgeous. The kind of man women followed in the street because they just couldn’t help themselves. I’d seen his kind before, and my usual reaction was to ignore them. His type wasn’t worth the trouble. I was a princess. I needed to be the one who was fawned over. I could hardly be seen fawning over someone else. That simply wasn’t appropriate.

  So I gave his striking features only a cursory glance, stopping infinitesimally longer on his eyes. I couldn’t help myself; they were green, like moss in the deepest part of the woods, and they nearly shimmered. My gaze skittered away from his, then headed downward: across the width of his chest, the muscles in his shoulders, and his corded forearms. He was beautiful and built like a warrior. That just wasn’t fair.

  “Seraphine.”

  I heard my mother’s voice and turned to look for her, but she was nowhere to be seen.

  “Seraphine, it’s me,” the older woman said.

  I peered closer, beyond the wrinkles and gray hair to the pale blue eyes, the pert nose, and the freckle on her cheek.

  “Mother!” I sat up and shrieked.

  Everyone in the room drew back……... except for my parents and that beautiful man. My parents! Yes, that old man was my father.

  “What? How?” I shook my head. A memory tried to surface, more an echo of a thought. “Did something happen to me?”

  “Oh, my beautiful girl.” My mother crumpled over me and hugged me to her as my father sobbed openly.

  “Mother?” I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t sad, but I was beginning to get scared. “Tell me what’s happened. You’re frightening me.”

  “You were asleep,” the beautiful man said. “Do you remember anything? Anything at all: thoughts, images, feelings?”

  “I went to sleep, and…” I frowned. “I think there was someone in my room.”

  “There was,” the man confirmed. “A witch. We don’t know who cast the spell on you, Princess, but it was strong. It put you into a sort of holding state. You were asleep, but you didn’t age.”

  My mother cried brokenly, covering her lined face with her hands.

  “Seraphine.” My father stroked my hair away from my face. “It’s so good to look into your eyes again.”

  “Father, who did this to me? Why?”

  “We think it was Queen Meara who sent the witch,” my father growled, “because we wouldn’t give you to her son in marriage.”

  “So she put me to sleep?” I couldn’t understand why she would choose that, of all the horrible things she could have done. “Why not just kill me?”

  “Because she wanted your parents to suffer,” the stranger said.

  “I’m sorry, have we met?” I asked him. “You look a little familiar.”

  “We have met”—he smiled softly—“in a dream.”

  “In a dream?” I said with confusion. Something tickled at the back of my mind.

  “Your dream, to be exact.” He took my hand, and my parents eased back.

  I frowned from them to him, then caught the glimmer of gold on my hand: the hand he lifted to his lips to kiss. I was still trying to figure out where the ring had come from when his lips touched my skin. The contact sent something zinging through me, some kind of awareness. I inhaled sharply and looked up into his face. His eyes were glowing softly, focused intently on me. His lips still hovered above my hand, and he looked pointedly down to the gold band.

  “You mean it literally, don’t you?” I whispered. “You were in my dreams.”

  “It was the only way to reach you and free you from the spell,” he said softly.

  “You were the one who broke the spell?” I asked him with surprise.

  “We did it together, Seraphine,” he corrected me gently. “There was only one way to break the curse—true love. You called to me, and I journeyed here. Your parents told me of the curse, and I vowed to save you. I worked on a cure for months before I found a way to enter your dreams. But in the end, it took the both of us to break the spell.”

  “The both of us?” I blinked. “True love? What are you talking about?”

  “We fell in love in your dreams, Seraphine.” He said with a soft look. “And we were married. My name is Rune Bromley, and I’m your husband.” />
  3

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It was all so ridiculous.

  My world was a magical place. Yes, I could have believed that I’d been enchanted. But he had taken it too far. This Rune… and what kind of a name was Rune anyway? A witch’s name, I supposed. That’s what he was really claiming to be: a witch who came to my rescue and married me. Cursed by one and freed by another.

  “Seraphine!” My father scowled at me.

  “Are you having a laugh at my expense?” I asked him. “This is a rather elaborate ruse. Did this witch enchant your faces?” I waved a hand to indicate Rune. “The aging is quite believable.”

  Rune’s expression went a little sad. “I see that you have no memory of me at all. It’s not too surprising. Dreams can become elusive upon waking. But I have confidence that our dreams will return to you. If they don’t, I shall help them along.”

  “I don’t think so.” I pushed back the covers, and all the non-family members in the room turned to leave. All except for Rune. “If you don’t mind, sir”—I gave Rune a pointed look—“I’d like to get dressed.”

  “Go right ahead, Seraphine.” Rune smirked. “I’ve seen it all before.”

  “Father, this has gone too far!” I turned to glare at my father. “Tell this man to leave. The charade is discovered. You cannot allow him to speak to me in this manner!”

  “It is no charade, child.” My father sighed. “He speaks the truth. The only way to break the curse was through love. Rune undertook a dangerous spell to be able to merge his mind with yours. The two of you courted and eventually married, all inside your dreams. Then he returned to his body, and we held a ceremony out here in the physical world. It was the last step to breaking the curse, a bond between your mind and your body, which your heart forged. That was mere minutes ago, sweetheart.”

  “So, now you’re saying that I was married just before I woke?” I huffed.

  “It was why we had all those witnesses here.” My mother nodded. “Seraphine, we would never deceive you in such a manner. You must know that.”

  I stared from my mother’s somber face to my father’s. An unease started to build in the pit of my stomach. But I’d always had a rebellious streak, and I intended to unearth the truth. There was one way to test my parents, one boundary they wouldn’t allow to be crossed.

  “All right.” I narrowed my eyes on my parents. “If I am truly wedded, then I should be bedded, correct?”

  My mother’s eyes widened as my father scowled. I heard Rune chuckle behind me. I thought I had them then, but my mother stood on shaky legs and nodded to my father. He began to escort her from the room.

  “You’re going to continue this farce?” I asked them. “Truly?”

  “It is no farce, Seraphine.” My father’s jaw clenched. “You are married, and you’re right; you must now be bedded. We had intended to have your marriage feast first, but I see that this is the only way to prove the truth to you.”

  “Fine.” I climbed from the bed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Go on to the feast without me.”

  I would play this game until they finally admitted their deception. No one tricked me. My parents walked out the door, shutting it firmly behind them. Then I was alone in the room with Rune. I stood there, waiting for them to come back in and stop this madness, but they didn’t return.

  “Seraphine,” Rune said softly. “This is not a jest. We are married. I love you, and you love me.”

  I turned to face him slowly, horror shooting through my body. Even if this was the truth, I didn’t know this man. I had no memory of falling in love with him, in my mind or otherwise. He was a complete stranger to me.

  “There, you’re finally accepting it.” He nodded. “Can we have a real conversation now?”

  “As opposed to what?”

  “This play you’ve been putting on.” He smirked and headed to a sitting area near the window. “Come here. I only want to talk. I promise you that I expect no intimacies from you until after you remember us.”

  Relief flooded my body. It wasn’t like this hadn’t been the plan for my life anyway. I was a princess after all. I would have been married to a stranger eventually. I’d have been lucky if I were given a small amount of courting first. Princesses didn’t usually have the luxury of falling in love before marriage. Though it seemed as though I might have.

  How ironic that I didn’t get to remember it. Still, the fact that Rune would allow me more than any other husband would have—a chance to get to know him before we slept together—made a difference. Enough of a difference that I willingly went to sit with him.

  “All right.” I faced him steadily. “Let’s talk.”

  “The first time I saw you was actually inside my own dream.” He eased back in his chair, giving me some space. “I thought you were simply a beautiful construct of my own mind. But there was something about you. I remembered you vividly when I woke. And all day, I had this horrible feeling. When I went to sleep that night, I saw you again, but this time, you seemed to be asleep.”

  He swallowed roughly and looked out the window. Rune seemed to contemplate the rolling fields, golden with ripening wheat, before he turned his attention back to me.

  “You weren’t really asleep, though,” he said. “I tried to wake you, and you didn’t respond. That’s when I knew there was something wrong; I had to find you.”

  “You saw some ‘sleeping beauty’ in a dream and decided you had to find her?” I lifted a skeptical brow.

  “I felt a connection to you.” He smiled. “I’ve always had a touch of the sight, though it’s not my main talent. I knew enough to follow my instincts.”

  “And those instincts brought you here?”

  “Indeed.” Rune cocked his head and considered me. “You warned me that this would happen. That if you failed to remember our time together, and I tried to tell you of it, you would scorn me.”

  “Really?” I grimaced. “And did I tell you how to get around my scorn?”

  “Yes, you did.” His gaze softened as he leaned forward. “You said to tell you where Brandywine was buried.”

  I gasped, my mouth falling open as tears rose in my eyes. They always did at the mention of my favorite pet. He had died just two years past, and I mourned him still. My Brandywine. He was a little lion with fur as golden as the drink. I was lucky to have had the cat as long as I had.

  Brand had made it to the ripe old age of sixteen, nearly as old as I was, before he died in his sleep. I had buried him by myself beneath his favorite tree—the one he climbed as a young tom, and the same one he had lazed beneath in his later years. It was a wide spreading oak within my private gardens.

  “Where?” I swiped at my wet eyes. “Tell me then.”

  “Beneath the oak that he loved.” Rune’s face had gone sad as he witnessed my sorrow, and he reached a hand tentatively for me.

  When I pulled back, a tear slipped out of his eye. He looked away quickly, but I caught it. That single tear resounded through my soul like a rung bell.

  I had rarely seen a man cry. That one would do so, not for his pain but for mine, was astonishing. That kind of response—the sort which a man would not want a woman to see—couldn’t be faked. His tear, that single drop of sympathy, had convinced me even more than the mention of my beloved Brandywine.

  “I believe you,” I whispered.

  Rune turned back to me with a sigh, not at all surprised by my announcement. In fact, he set his vibrant stare on me confidently.

  “So, what shall we do now, my angel?” Rune’s voice slid into a deep purr. “Where shall we go from here?”

  “Tell me about yourself.” I settled back into my seat. “Remind me of what I’ve forgotten, Rune.”

  4

  Rune and I had spent quite a bit of time together in my dreams, where time was actually relative. What seemed like months had only been hours in the waking world. He told me how we had walked through fantastical dreamscapes of misty gardens full of monstrous
blooms, vast palaces in the sky, and sparkling caves of precious jewels. When Rune spoke, his eyes would soften and he would look at me wistfully. I wanted to feel whatever it was he was feeling. But I didn’t.

  We left my chambers after a few hours of his reminiscing and went down to the great hall to join my parents. They looked relieved to see me at ease with Rune, but I wasn’t finished with them yet. I asked to speak privately with them in our family library.

  My mother hugged me again as my father shut the library door. “I missed you, Seraphine.”

  “I would have missed you too,” I said gently, “had I known we were separated.”

  “Did you—” My father cleared his throat and tried again. “Have you settled things with Rune?”

  “We talked,” I said. “He has convinced me of the truth.”

  “Oh.” My father shared a look with my mother. “So you haven’t consummated the marriage?”

  “Rune is giving me some time to remember him first.”

  “He’s a good man.” My mother smiled. “In a way, I’m pleased with how this has ended.”

  “It’s hardly ended,” my father muttered.

  “What do you mean?” I asked him.

  “Meara did this to you,” my father growled. “I may be an old man now, Seraphine, but I am still a king. And I still control one of the most powerful armies in the world.”

  “We held back because we weren’t sure what would happen to you if we hurt Meara,” my mother said. “But now that you are awake…”

  “You want to go to war with Tassaros?” I was shocked.

  “I want those dragons dead.” My father’s jaw clenched. “All of them.”

  “Aren’t you angry that she has stolen these years from you?” my mother asked. “From us?”