The Masked Slipper: Tales of Evermagic, Book 1 (excerpt)

Once Upon A Time

CHAPTER 1

Once upon a time ...

In my world—this land of fairy tale—things are not as the story books would have you believe. The versions you know are those of the original magic-touched girls, or that's what most of you believe. The fairy tale lives we live aren't like the ones you are most familiar. The original girls had it pretty hard in most cases. Poor Sleeping Beauty ended up with two kids and no idea where they'd come from. Your popular versions—and they existed, it's true—had it easy.

In the last ten years, there have been fifty Rapunzel, a hundred Thumbelina, and ninety-three Swan Princess girls with and without the black's appearance. Beauty and the Beast is the rarest of the stories to be lived out entirely. There are not so many people with the kind heart the first girl had. Many poor souls died a beast.

I know my fairy tale. I dread it. Though fairy tale lives are ample in our world, happily ever is not. I am a cinder-girl. My circumstances, like most, is different from what you know. I have three stepsisters. Two are awful. The third is kind. Our kingdom has one prince. Most telling's of the tale do. But the chances of me being his princess, however, is slim. Why? Well. I am a noble, low on the ranking list but still a noble. That isn't the problem.

First, do you know how many fairy tale lives are being lived right now? And how many of them call for dashing handsome princes? A lot. Furthermore, royalty doesn't find their spouse in the original way in this kingdom. Balls are not thrown for them. We don't have fairy godmothers. We have sorcerers. A handful of them are under the command of the royal family. It was once decided that they would be used to find their child's spouse. The spell is meant to find the person whom the prince or princess would love best and who would love them best.

A lovely idea. Sure. But I'm not interested in marrying a prince. Even if I am his Cinderella.

Nicolette shifted the basket on her hip full of red apples picked from an orchard near her home. She looked down at them, grinning at their smooth texture and bright color. Rose, a Snow White, had been kind enough to let her have some. Her kingdom was only a three hours walk from Nicolette's home, a walk of perfect solitude she did not mind. To get back, she traveled a dusty road empty of travelers save for two people she knew. Seeing them meant her cottage wasn't far. Her eyes lifted away from them to watch a bird fly up and over her head, and she pulled a wheat colored curl from her brow.

The couple turned away from her as they passed. They were nice people who lived in the farm down the lane from her father's estate. She grinned and nodded in polite acknowledgment to them despite their cold indifference. She knew they despised her for the lies her stepmother had told them. For this reason, and because her stepmother forbade it, she did not speak to her neighbors or to anyone else. She didn't mind her social restrictions though, she was shy and expected cruelty. To talk to strangers frightened her.

She paused at the white gate where a fence circled her father's cottage. It was currently the only functioning building on the estate. Her stepmother, Claudette, would have preferred to live in the mansion. But there were not enough servants to keep it up.

Nicolette paused and then sighed to hear the sudden sound of shattering glass. With that one noise, the joy the sun had brought her that morning faded. She would be called to clean whatever mess had been made and so mentally prepared herself for the task.