Withering Rose (Once Upon A Curse #2) - Preview!

Chapter One

"Omorose," my father cried, clutching me to his chest.

I glanced over his shoulder, trying to understand what had happened. The snow-covered fields were a mess of dirt and ice, shaken apart by godly hands. The mountains in the distance were haloed in rings of flurries and dust. The carriage was by our side, broken into pieces. One of the guards was covered in blood, lying still against the ground. Two more were looking beyond me, behind me, with an expression quivering between awe and alarm.

"Pa..."

I trailed off as I spun, my father still holding me tight.

I gasped, unable to breathe as a fear I had never known washed over me.

Gone was the dirt road.

Gone was the snow-kissed field.

Gone was everything I had ever known.

A city in chaos rested a few feet away from my frozen body. I didn't know what anything was at the time, everything was foreign and loud and unfamiliar. The only thing I recognized were the sounds of human screams and the sight of human tears. But everything else—impossible. I know now that what I saw were cars and cell phones and office buildings. I know now that the clothing I was startled by were jeans and sweatshirts and down jackets. I know now that the sounds blaring in my ears were car alarms and fire trucks. But at the time, I was overcome by panic and confusion, overcome by the otherworldliness of it all.

And then the very thing I feared most in my life happened.

I felt a tingle in my heart.

A warm, powerful tingle.

And it moved across my chest, down my arms, over my stomach, around my legs, spreading heat and strength across my entire body.

"Papa!" I cried.

No.

I didn't want it.

Not yet.

He met my eyes and instantly he knew that the shriek in my voice wasn't because of the unknown scene before us. It was the panic of my inheritance coming all too soon.

Pain flashed over his umber eyes.

Pain and hurt and a longing I will never forget.

But before I could say anything, before I could apologize for taking any ounce of hope he had left, the trickling heat exploded in my chest as the magic washed over me.

My mother's magic.

And the fact that it was now becoming mine could only mean one thing.

She was dead.

I tried to cry, to scream, to do anything to express the despair breaking my tiny heart apart. But I was lost in the burn of the magic as it funneled into me from some invisible place, pushing and pulling against my body, burying itself deep inside.

I distantly remember hearing a low voice shout foreign words. Through eyes that felt not my own, I remember seeing two blurry figures in blue pointing weapons at us, yelling at the two royal guards behind us, forcing them to drop their swords. They ordered my father the king around in a way no one dared before, shouting, using hand gestures when he didn't understand. My father listened, standing when they told him to, holding my limp body in his arms, refusing to let go. He walked and walked and walked, holding me silently. He only said three words the entire time the foreign men led us deeper into their unknown world.

"Don't use it."

And I knew what he meant.

Don't use the magic. Don't show them what we are. But more than that. Something deeper. Something only the members of my family knew, a secret we held close to our hearts. Because that moment, still as death in my father's arms as my mother's magic raged through me, that was the exact moment I started to die.

I felt it as the torment of heat and strength and power finished devouring my seven-year-old body. The fire ebbed. Delightful coolness sprung to my toes, covering my body in a blanket of much-needed ice as the magic settled into its new home. The last place the warmth lingered was down in the center of my chest.

One moment, I was a happy, healthy child.

And the next, I was slowly beginning my descent toward death.

Because my magic came with a price. A curse my family had kept secret for generations. We had the power to give nature life, but only at the cost of our own. And as the heat finally disappeared, I felt the bloom blossom in the very core of my soul, a rose just like my name—a ticking clock hidden behind a façade of beauty.

From that moment on, mylife would become a countdown, and all I could do was wait and watch as thepetals of time slowly started to fall.    

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this preview of my book! WITHERING ROSE is now available to pre-order wherever eBooks are sold, I hope you buy a copy and enjoy :)

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