Snow White and the Seven Dwarf Planets: A Space Age Fairy Tale (Star-Crossed Tales)

by J. M. Page

  Snow White and the Seven Dwarf Planets

  Star Crossed Tales

  By J. M. Page

  Copyright 2017 J. M. Page

  Copyright J. M. Page

  Cover design by Lara at Coverlüv

  This book is a work of fiction. All the characters in this book are fictitious and any similarity to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidence.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Dedication:

  For all my wonderful readers who waited way too long for this book. I hope it was worth the wait!

  Join J. M.’s mailing list to get exclusive access to more sneak peeks, cover reveals, giveaways and so much more!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Snow

  Fire blazed in the distance, lighting the forest and the mountains beyond with a hellish glow. Snow stood rooted in place, watching it spread, her face carefully neutral as flames engulfed her childhood home.

  Was this the right thing to do? Should she run back and quench the blaze she’d started?

  No. She let it burn.

  This was about more than memories in old walls or symbols of a happier time. This was a message.

  I’m taking back what’s mine, the inferno said. Bring your worst.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  Snow whipped around at the strange voice interrupting her private moment. The dense woods were dark, trees huddled close together as if to shelter each other from the brewing storm. But the glow of the fire lit the stranger in silhouette, his muscular frame highlighted by the pyre.

  “I’m sorry?” she said, her voice tight. Who was this man, and why was he in her wood commenting on her fire?

  He smiled, his teeth stark white through the shadows cast by the canopy. “The fire, it’s gorgeous.”

  Snow looked away. The man seemed unhinged.

  “That’s the Summer Palace burning,” she said matter-of-factly, her lips pursed against a fresh wave of guilt.

  He shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets as he stepped up next to her, their shoulders only inches apart. Snow took a shuffling step sideways, rustling damp leaves beneath her feet, replacing the distance.

  “Makes a pretty fire,” he said, seemingly unconcerned with one of the Empire’s landmarks being reduced to kindling.

  Her frown turned to a scowl. “It doesn’t bother you?”

  “Why should it?” he asked with a soft laugh. “The Queen deserves all the headaches she gets.”

  Snow looked over her shoulders, peering through the trees, hunting for shadows.

  “You shouldn’t say things like that so near to Her Majesty,” she said, the last words leaving bitterness on her tongue.

  “She doesn’t scare me,” he said.

  Snow scoffed, shaking her head. “Then you’re either an idiot or have a death wish,” she said. Or a spy, she added in her head, her hand drifting to the weapon holstered at her hip. She wouldn’t hesitate to blast him to bits if that turned out to be the case.

  The man turned to her with an easy smile. “Maybe a little of both,” he said, extending a hand toward her. “I’m Hunter.”

  Snow glanced down at his hand, noting the rough callouses on his palm. Maybe not a spy, but still not someone she trusted. She turned away from his offered hand, looking straight ahead at the red-orange glow of her home burning to the ground. How could a blaze so hot leave her feeling so cold inside?

  The bite of smoke in the air brought forth memories of the night she'd had to flee the palace. The night that there was no turning back from. She swallowed the lump in her throat, trying not to think of Plick.

  "Right," Hunter said, letting his hand fall. She felt his eyes on her, trying to peel away the protective layers she'd built up around herself. Good luck.

  "Is the forest not big enough for you?" she said, still not looking away from the fire. Sparks lifted from the flames, dancing in the sky before being swallowed by the plumes of thick black smoke. Even from this distance, Snow saw guardsmen trying to quench the blaze and the tiny ant-like figures of nearby townsfolk gathering to watch the destruction. They all huddled together, not lending a hand with the extinguishing effort. Despite the violence of the blaze, they were cheering. Taunting the guards.

  Snow didn't know whether to feel pride in their solidarity or sadness for what they'd lost. What they'd all lost.

  "It's plenty big, I just like this spot," Hunter said, leaning his back against a tree, seemingly oblivious to how much she did not want him there.

  The tiny figures trying to put out the fire scattered as an explosion shook the ground. Snow wobbled at the sudden tremor. Hunter's hand shot out offering support, gripping her arm with the calloused hand she’d ignored. She shook him off, glaring at the spot he'd touched.

  How long had it been since she'd been touched by another person? The sensation felt foreign and wrong somehow and now she felt the need to bathe.

  Hunter whistled lowly, shaking his head. "Guess it's really gone, huh?"

  She squared her shoulders and swallowed, ignoring the prickling in the corners of her eyes. "I suppose it is," she answered stiffly.

  Debris still flew from the remnants of the Summer Palace, hunks of rock and twisted metal became projectiles in the wake of smaller explosions. It was kind of beautiful in an oddly macabre way, she decided, but she wasn't going to say it aloud.

  One piece of debris hurtled toward their vantage point, just a speck of black among the blinding glow beyond, but where it should have lost acceleration and fallen to the ground, it only continued on its path, headed right for them.

  Snow squinted into the light, trying to make out the dark shape sailing toward her. It was whirring. Rocks didn’t whir. "What is that?" she muttered to herself — definitely not to Hunter, who still stood casually beside her, not caring that he was unwelcome.

  Hunter stiffened and straightened, following her line of sight.

  "That..." He shook his head and even in the darkness Snow could see the wrinkle in his brow. "That's trouble for whoever did that," he said, inclining his head toward the smoldering ruins of her long-abandoned home.

  She whipped her head around, not even bothering to hide her confusion. "What do you mean?"

  Hunter shrugged, leaning back against his tree, stripping away a hunk of bark and br
eaking it into pieces that crumbled to his feet. "It's a scout, sent out to find the perpetrator. She's been using those things for years... Who did you say you were?"

  "I didn't," Snow said, backing away from him. "I can't be here," she added, working her way backwards through the dark forest with one eye trained on the humming scout hovering ever closer.

  "Wait!" he called after her, crashing through underbrush, rustling fallen leaves without concern for being quiet. "You don't have to worry. It's just looking for the person responsible."

  Snow hesitated only long enough to send a withering, meaningful look at him. It told him more than she should, but she needed him to leave her alone. To stop drawing so much attention towards her with all his careless noise-making.

  Hunter's jaw dropped a fraction before snapping shut again, his eyebrows arching upwards. Anything he was going to say died on his tongue as a flickering beam of red light swept through the forest. It traveled the length of one tree, then died. The scout hummed to its next tree and scanned again. It moved too fast for Snow to track and she only just managed to dodge the wide spread of red light as it flickered over the tree nearest to her.

  Hunter didn't move from the scout's laser field and it scanned him completely before moving on. She just hoped it wouldn't come back for her.

  "That's just the first line of defense, you know," he said as the drone continued its sweep of their surroundings.

  "What are you—" she started to say, but then there were voices. Other voices, coming in fast.

  "Guards," he said.

  Snow cursed under her breath. She needed to hide. She'd never intended to stick around after committing her arson. She was supposed to have fled far away by now. But she just couldn't pull herself away from the fire. From the sight of the Summer Palace — her Summer Palace — being reduced to ash. It had been captivating and horrific all at once and impossible to drag her eyes away from.

  And now she was going to pay dearly for it.

  She ran. As fast as she could away from the sound of the guards, away from the flickering red light of the scout drone, and away from Hunter. Or, she tried to run away from him, but his heavy footfalls thudding against the damp earth behind her were unmistakable. Someone was following her and making an unbelievable racket; she could only hope it was Hunter.

  As much as she didn't want him around, he'd had chance enough to kill her if he was a spy and he hadn't. Those guards wouldn't show the same restraint.

  "Will you slow down?" he panted, doubled over with his hands on his knees.

  Snow skidded, wet leaves slipping underfoot as she tried to stop, whirling on him. "Why are you following me?"

  The guards' voices gained. Their bootsteps sounded like a whole army marching through the woods in the still of the night.

  "Is that..." he paused to take in another gulp of air before trying again. "Is that really the question you want to be asking right now?"

  Snow narrowed her eyes and heard Plick's voice in her head. Open your eyes, Princess.

  "No," she said, reaching for the blaster at her hip. In one fluid motion, she pulled it free from its holster and leveled the sight at Hunter's chest. "How did you get here?"

  His hands flew up and he staggered backwards, tripping over a tree root and landing on the ground on his backside. "Hey now, just... Put that away. No one needs to get hurt."

  Snow gnashed her teeth together but never moved her aim away from his heart. "Answer the question! How did you get here?"

  "A ship," he said. "I have a ship."

  She nearly sagged with relief. If he'd told her he just walked into the woods, she didn't know what she'd have done. His answer still brought forth more questions, but they could wait. "Take me to it."

  Hunter laughed as he pulled himself to his feet. "Yeah, okay," he said, rolling his eyes.

  Snow re-positioned her aim and fired just above his shoulder. The shot hit the tree behind him with an eruption of bark and splinters. The distinct smell of burnt hair followed the metallic tang of the blaster's electric pulse, met with the almost pleasant aroma of charred wood. "I won't miss next time. Take me to your ship," she said, forcing her hand to stay steady as she took aim at his chest again.

  "You know you just gave away your position with that little stunt, right?"

  Her hand tightened on the grip of the weapon. He was right; Plick would have scolded her for such a careless mistake, but she couldn't show any doubt or it was all for naught.

  She jerked her head to the side without a word, and Hunter obliged, muttering to himself as he kicked up leaves.

  "Stop making so much noise," she hissed. "Haven't you ever heard of discretion?"

  From her position behind him, Snow couldn't see his facial expressions, but his shoulders shook with what appeared to be laughter and she tightened her grip on the gun even more. How did he find any of this funny?

  "There," he said, pointing to a small ship only big enough for a crew of three or four at the most. Easily managed by a single person. It looked different than the ship Plick had whisked her away in over a decade ago, but it was familiar enough to send a pang of remorse through her chest.

  The door to the ship still sat open, its stairs resting on the forest floor like Hunter had only planned on being gone for a minute. Why was he there? Another shout from the guards reminded her that she didn’t have the time to wonder about it. The red light of the scout still flickered through the trees. There was no time to waste.

  "Thanks," she said, not a hint of sincerity in her voice as she climbed the stairs and entered the ship.

  His footsteps followed her and she ground her teeth together. The smells of the forest were lost with the resounding thud of the door closing, shifting the air pressure in the tiny cabin of the ship. "You're not really going to steal my ship from me," he said dubiously.

  Snow whirled on him, the blaster pointed at his chest again. "Are you going to stop me?" She heard the faintest quiver in her voice and hoped that he didn't hear it too.

  Hunter crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the side. "You're not going to shoot me," he said.

  "What makes you so sure?" she asked, her finger twitching over the trigger. She didn't want to kill anyone other than the Queen, but if he stood in her way, she'd do what was necessary.

  He nodded his head out the front of the ship's windscreen. "Because those guards are going to be here any second and shooting me cuts into valuable getting-away time."

  She swallowed, the lump in her throat made the action painful, and turned her head slowly, trying to keep an eye on Hunter while she looked behind her. It could be a trick. He could just be trying to get her to lose focus.

  But that was wishful thinking; the guards were in sight and seemed to be gathering around the ship, knowing somehow — or at least assuming — this was her getaway.

  She cursed again. "Get off the ship!" She waved the blaster at him while the guards closed in.

  Hunter laughed, shaking his head. "Sweetheart, this is my ship. You can't tell me to get off."

  "I can and I am," she spat back, unable to mask the note of hysteria in her voice.

  "Better hurry and fly off or they're going to get you," he said, not seeming to take any of this very seriously.

  Snow looked from Hunter, to the guards, to the controls and back again, her palms slick, her grip on the blaster faltering.

  Hunter took two steps closer to her. "Go on. Do it," he whispered a challenge, standing so close to her now that his breath stirred her hair.

  She turned and the buttons and levers all blurred together as she reached for what she hoped was the ignition.

  “Next one over,” Hunter said.

  The whole ship rattled as the echoing boom of someone's fist colliding with the door rang out. "Open up, by order of the Queen!"

  "You're wasting time," Hunter said, that challenge in his eyes even clearer in the operating lights of the ship.

  She pressed the ignition button and the sh
ip shuddered to life.

  “Now the shields,” he prompted, a wry grin twisting the corners of his lips.

  He arched a brow as her finger hovered over one button, then another. She watched him carefully, waiting for him to indicate the right choice, her hands sweaty and shaking.

  “You’re going to get us killed,” he said, brushing past her, ignoring the blaster between them while the guards pounded on the door and threatened to shoot their way in.

  Moving his fingers across the interface so quickly they blurred, he brought up the shields amid more protests from the guards outside.

  Snow still futilely held the blaster, but it was no longer aimed at Hunter. How was this going so wrong? Why did she think she could do this?

  "Hold on," he muttered and then the force of take-off slammed her into the ground.

  Snow scrabbled across the floor, trying to pull herself to rights as the ship hurtled toward the stars. No matter how hard she tried, she just kept sliding towards the back of the ship, unable to fight the force of gravity and the angle of the ship.

  Finally, they broke through the atmosphere on Zomer and gravity released its hold on her.

  She floated up off the floor, hovering a few feet before Hunter flipped a switch and she fell to the floor again with a painful thud.

  He didn't seem concerned about it when he swiveled in his Captain's chair, smirking, that brow still arched dangerously. "So, now that I'm harboring a fugitive of the Queen, mind telling me what's going on? Or who you are?"

  "No," she spat, pulling herself up and flexing her joints, making sure the gravity shifts hadn't injured her. She'd be a little bruised, but she could live with that. "You should have just let me go."

  Hunter shrugged, that infuriating smile going all the way to his eyes — a golden brown she could see now in the light — twinkling with amusement she didn't understand. "What can I say? I can't resist a damsel in distress."

  She pursed her lips, trying with all her might to glare at him hard enough that he caught on fire like the Summer Palace had. He remained regretfully unsinged. "I am not a damsel, and I wasn't in distress," she said, crossing her arms.