While Beauty Sleeps
by Ripley Proserpina
“She shall prick her finger on a spinning wheel, and fall to sleep...”
There once was a girl who was born to be cursed. By no fault of her own, she was doomed to remind her kingdom of everything ugly. No matter how many good deeds she did or how kind she was, it was her destiny to die, and take her kingdom with her. Her mother and father wept when they saw her, and the witch who cursed her celebrated gleefully as each year passed.
Except there was hope. Her sisters, older and wiser, and with no small amount of magic of their own, countered the witch's curse. If Kumiko could be loved, truly loved, the curse would be broken, and everyone would see what the witch had hidden.
But all her life, Kumiko had been let down—by the parents who hid her away and by an ill-fated curse.
Until they arrived.
Four princes, full of smug confidence and pride, were determined to break the princess's curse before her twenty-first birthday.
All they had to do was fall in love.
There once was a girl who was born to be cursed. By no fault of her own, she was doomed to remind her kingdom of everything ugly. No matter how many good deeds she did or how kind she was, it was her destiny to die, and take her kingdom with her. Her mother and father wept when they saw her, and the witch who cursed her celebrated gleefully as each year passed.
Except there was hope. Her sisters, older and wiser, and with no small amount of magic of their own, countered the witch's curse. If Kumiko could be loved, truly loved, the curse would be broken, and everyone would see what the witch had hidden.
But all her life, Kumiko had been let down—by the parents who hid her away and by an ill-fated curse.
Until they arrived.
Four princes, full of smug confidence and pride, were determined to break the princess's curse before her twenty-first birthday.
All they had to do was fall in love.