Rain
A Beyond Fairytales story
By
Taryn Kincaid
A dystopian
retelling of Sleeping Beauty
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Blurb:
Sleeping
Beauty in a post-apocalyptic land…
In
a world gone mad, where little remains but a vast wasteland of sand, the leader
of a troop of roving warriors welcomes a brave young woman into his midst.
Much
as he burns for her, Major Clay Worthington swears to keep his distance from
the mysterious woman, so sensitive even the stinging rain can wound her.
Rosina Brierly is besotted with the
formidable soldier and will gladly trade her life for one torrid night of
blissful passion in his arms.
But when sleep overcomes them, will true
love prevail?
Excerpt:
Does the major ever feel lust? Does
he covet a woman’s touch? He
never gave any sign he did. Too aloof and austere, too remote from the simple
emotions of mere mortal men.
He shook her again. “Wake up,
princess. The rain will come soon.”
The men looked forward to the rain.
They hated the relentless sun blasting down upon them, as if they thought it would
incinerate what was left of the earth beneath their boots, baking the soft sand
into badlands as hard as concrete. They’d strip off their T-shirts and boots,
their combat fatigues, and sometimes even their camouflage boxer shorts, and
dance and play, naked or nearly so, in the slanting gray soup, laughing,
tossing round balls or throwing saucer-shaped plastic discs to each other.
For her, the showers had the
opposite effect. The stinging rain sliced into her sensitive skin like acid,
raising blisters and sores, sometimes bloodying her.
She did not know why the major
called her princess. Perhaps he
didn’t know either. Whatever royalty once walked the earth had long gone, fled
underground or died in battle or simply disappeared. The war engulfed every
human on the planet, every inch of land, and had waged so long she doubted
anyone remembered anymore. Well, maybe Nicodemus. At least he sometimes hinted
he did in the stories he told. And she had seen him whisper into the major’s
ear, unknown things that made the major pale beneath his weathered tan.
Major Worthington did not treat her
like a princess, though, except when she slumbered, when he knelt before her in
her fantasy world, his head bowed, his fist over his heart, laying his sword at
her feet and claiming the role of knight. Her hero. Her champion. When she
awoke, he remained one of the elite warrior breed roaming the planet, bristling
with weapons like the soldiers he led. He treated her as the translator she was
to him, sometimes barking orders to her as if she were one of his men, only
occasionally seeking her counsel.
She came fully awake as he jerked
her up from the ground and yanked her toward him. The glare of the setting sun
broadsided her, hurting her eyes. Why was he so insistent about the impending
rain? No clouds yet darkened the sky, although the hour sped toward evening
dusk now. But no hint of shadow yet blotted the horizon.
“I can smell it,” he muttered.
Coming June 2 from Decadent
Publishing
