Snow: Fractured Fairy Tales, #6

By J.E. Taylor

Dark magic has a price.

While the kingdom's witches and warlocks were slaughtered to fulfill the queen's insidious plans, Maggie White, the last pureblood sorceress, escapes with the help of her best friend and seven dwarves.

Maggie enchants a forest with a blood spell to keep them hidden from the evil queen. But the queen's army of the dead are immune to the enchantment and bypass Maggie's protections.

Even though Maggie has been battle-ready since the day she went into hiding, she is not prepared for the army of the dead or their tainted blades.

If Maggie loses her fight, not only will she watch those she loves die, but her life force will be sucked from her bones, and her magic will give the queen the ultimate power to enslave the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JET-Fueled Fiction
• Release date: Apr 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781386067719

J.E. Taylor

J.E. Taylor is a USA Today bestselling author, a publisher, an editor, a manuscript formatter, a mother, a wife, a business analyst, and a Supernatural fangirl, not necessarily in that order. She first sat down to seriously write in February of 2007 after her daughter asked: “Mom, if you could do anything, what would you do?” From that moment on, she hasn’t looked back. In addition to being co-owner of Novel Concept Publishing, Ms. Taylor also moonlights as a Senior Editor of Allegory E-zine, an online venue for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and co-host of the popular YouTube talk show Spilling Ink. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and during the summer months enjoys her weekends on the shore in southern Maine. Visit her at www.jetaylor75.com to check out her other titles. Sign up for her newsletter at https://app.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y2z2x6 for early previews of her upcoming books, release announcements, and special opportunities for free swag!

Book preview

SNOW

A FRACTURED FAIRY TALE

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Dark magic has a price.

While the kingdom’s witches and warlocks were slaughtered to fulfill the queen’s insidious plans, Maggie White, the last pureblood sorceress, escapes with the help of her best friend and seven dwarves.

Maggie enchants a forest with a blood spell to keep them hidden from the evil queen. But the queen’s army of the dead are immune to the enchantment and bypass Maggie’s protections.

Even though Maggie has been battle-ready since the day she went into hiding, she is not prepared for the army of the dead or their tainted blades.

If Maggie loses her fight, not only will she watch those she loves die, but her life force will be sucked from her bones, and her magic will give the queen the ultimate power to enslave the world.

SNOW Chapter 1

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I WANDERED THROUGH THE thick woods, shooting small pulses of magic from my fingertips. The forest wrapped its pine scent around me while the chipmunks dodged my spells in our daily contest of hide and seek. Today, the rest of the animals that normally joined the game were scarce. I listened for danger.

Nothing broke the silence.

I reached the stream and dropped my buckets into the water. My reflection rippled. My red bow morphed into a morbid wave of dripping blood. I took a shaky breath and dragged the full buckets through my distorted reflection.

It had been years since the queen tried to penetrate the enchanted forest. My protection spell was bound by blood, and none of my bloodline remained. No counter spell would unlock this enchanted territory, and yet any time the forest animals didn’t behave normally. My nerves raged.

My illusion of safety didn’t stop my nightmares.

It didn’t stop my paranoia.

It didn’t stop my fears.

After all these years, I still wasn’t strong enough to face the queen. My magic was too pure to handle such evil.

Shaking the dark thoughts from my head, I turned back towards the cottage on the other side of the forest.

Henry, my best friend and beloved, leaned against a thick oak tree with a blade of grass between his full lips. His shirt hung open, and the ripples of his well-defined muscles distracted me. His chestnut hair ruffled in the breeze, and he smiled, flashing teeth as white as newly fallen snow.

My skin warmed more from his grin than from the afternoon sunshine. I couldn’t help but smile back.

I didn’t hear you following me today. My gaze drifted over his bare chest and back to his gray-green eyes. I should have known you were there. The other animals weren’t playing, just the chipmunks, and we all know they are not the brightest in the bunch.

He pulled the reed from his lips and crossed to me, stretching his hand out for one of the pails.

I raised an eyebrow. I was perfectly capable of hauling water back to the cottage.

I’m just offering a hand, Maggie, he said in that deep timbre that made me shiver.

I understood why some referred to him as Prince Charming, but he was fierce and protective and sometimes not charming at all. This was not one of those times. Right now, he represented his nickname in all its sappy glory.

With a resigned sigh, I handed him a bucket.

We crossed the open glade into the thick forest. The chipmunks stayed hidden. His hand drifted to the small of my back, and the brush of his fingers on my dress created such a delicious heat.

We walked, and only the sloshing water interrupted my thoughts. His smile faded. He scanned the forest, sucking his lower lip between his teeth like he did when he was in problem-solving mode, or when he had news he knew I wouldn’t like.

I hoped it was the former. I let him stew on whatever was on his mind until we came into a large clearing. Our cottage sat a few yards away from the woods, with a small plume of white smoke filtering from the chimney.

What’s bothering you? I asked and opened the door.

Inside, seven dwarves sat around our table with papers strewn about, pulling my attention away from Henry. We stepped inside, and their chatter ended abruptly. Every set of eyes moved from me to Henry and back.

Whatever Henry was brooding over had to do with the concerned looks on every dwarf’s face. I set the fresh water on the counter, turned to Henry, and crossed my arms.

He blew a stream of air from his lips before turning to the counter. His shoulders pulled taut, and he put his bucket down next to mine. The stress displayed in every one of his tight muscles set my body on high alert. Henry didn’t tense up to just anything. He was my rock, my steady hand, my level head.

When he picked up the flyer on the table and handed it to me, I saw nothing that would cause the alarm sizzling in the air in the small cottage.

My picture stared back along with the queen’s bounty on me. According to the advertisement, I was worth one hundred gold pieces, but I had to be brought in alive.

She upped her price, I said and handed the flyer back to Henry with a shrug. She had been upping the ante for my head for years. This wasn’t new, but their faces said there was more than just another rate hike in the bounty.

"These were posted inside the edge of the enchanted forest. We caught one of her lackeys at the boundary," Simon, the dwarf with the flaming red hair, said.

His words produced a darkness behind my eyes. The hunters were insanely brave or insanely stupid to breach the enchanted forest.

I glanced at Simon. He was just as protective of me as Henry, and his lips were set in a stern line.

Now that he had my attention, he continued, He said the queen has hired a powerful mage to locate you.

Really? My eyebrows rose.

According to our sources, the queen had wiped the land of all who even remotely carried enchantments in their bones. She ingested the magic,