Dream Trysts: A Sleeping Beauty Story (Passion-Filled FairyTales Book 4) by Rosetta Bloom Page B

over.”
    Blissa nodded. She’d felt a pang of distress more than ten minutes ago, right as the two of them had arrived. It had been disturbing and sudden. It had to be Briar Rose. “We must find her,” Blissa said. “She shouldn’t be left alone somewhere. She needs to be with her family.”
    Hilly nodded.
    “Is there no way to break the spell?” Edmund asked. “Surely, if she’s a powerful fairy herself, perhaps Briar Rose can do something to break it.”
    Hilly shook her head. “The only way for it to break is for the hundred years to pass or for her to have a kiss from her true love.”
    “Does she have any?” Blissa asked. “I mean, her friends. Is it possible one of her friends could be in love with her or vice versa? What about James?”
    Hilly’s eyes widened. “James isn’t real, is he?”
    Edmund stared, his eyes darting back and forth from his wife to the old fairy. “Who is James?”
    “Sometimes, when I visited Rose in dreams, she told me of a friend, James, who she sometimes played with. Though she hasn’t spoken of him recently. In fact, she’s not been around recently when I’ve tried to make contact with her in dreams.”
    Hilly moved closer to Blissa. “Rose would often ask to go out, to head out with more people, and we told her it wasn’t safe. She said she was stuck having no real friends, just the people she made up in her head. Occasionally, she’d say something about James, and when I asked, she just said James was her made up friend because she couldn’t go out and make real friends.”
    Blissa raised a hand to her chin in thought. She was trying to figure out what it meant when Dwennon gasped. She looked over, in time to see his eyes pop open.
    “What is it?” Edmund asked, rising to his feet.
    “I was looking into her future, trying to see if there was a chance for her to awaken earlier, and I saw it. I saw a man come and kiss her. When Rose awakened, she smiled and said, ‘James.’”
    “He’s real?” Hilly said, wonder in her voice.
    At that moment, a servant burst into the royal chamber. “Your highnesses,” the woman said, her breath heavy. “There’s a maiden asleep in the high north tower. She was just discovered and we fear it’s the princess Briar Rose.”
    Blissa stared at the servant, stood, and said, “Take me to her.” The servant curtsied and turned so Blissa could follow. As she walked out, she turned to Dwennon and said. “Start the search for James. We have to find him.”

Chapter 14
     
    Rose was in the meadow of the Crystal Pond, and she was alone. She usually came here with James. She wondered why he wasn’t here. Maybe he’d been too excited to go to sleep. She’d been completely giddy when she’d returned home after meeting him. She wasn’t exactly sure how she’d gotten to sleep herself, when she’d been so elated after seeing him.
    She supposed she could go for a dip in the pool, and wait around for him to return to her. Only she didn’t want to wait. She closed her eyes and called out to him. She wanted him here with her.
    When she opened her eyes, there was James, just as he’d looked earlier today. Handsome, tall, sexy. Oh, so incredibly enticing, with his dimples, and his perfect, plump lips.
    He seemed a tad disoriented, but smiled when he saw her. “I’ve been looking for you,” he said.
    She eyed him curiously. “Looking for me? What do you mean?”
    “Well,” he said, walking toward her, wrapping a hand around her waist. He kissed her briefly on the lips. “I went to sleep hoping to tell you I’d arranged my trip to your kingdom tomorrow, but I didn’t come to you, as I normally do. So, in my dreams, I called out for you, only there was no answer. It was an odd sort of sleep, as if I were wandering aimlessly, searching for you. And then I felt a tug in my gut, and I was here.”
    He kissed her again, this time sliding his hands along her back, making her insides tremble. She smiled. “Then I’m glad I