Page 66 of Once Upon an Enchanted Castle

Two more words appeared.

the sky

Her gaze landed on the parchment next to the open book. She was desperate to sit and record the words. She pulled out the chair slowly, stepped around it, and perched on the edge. She wrote the three wordswhen the skyand then sat back and waited.

The moment she jotted the words, they disappeared. The vines and thorns and brambles rearranged themselves and covered the letters. In place of the letters, a rose bloomed, the petals unfurling as though seeing the sunlight.

“Oh.”

The word slipped out between her lips on a murmur.

She sat back in the chair and waited, gripping the quill so tight her fingers cramped.

Movement again on the page and this time, the vines revealed more words.

is blind and the stars

She sucked in a sharp breath and wrote the next line. As she finished, the pages changed. The roses bloomed.

Never in all her years of translating strange texts had she seen anything like this before. It was astounding.

Quickly, she dipped the tip of the quill in the ink and waited again.

Again, the same thing happened. The thorny vines wound around the odd shaped runes and then more words appeared. She wrote them in a hurry.

dare not shine

A breath hiccupped out of her as triumph flooded her. She made progress. Sitting back in the chair, she read the line altogether in a low voice.

“When the sky is blind and the stars dare not shine.”

What did it mean?

Outside her boarded window, the wolf howled.

“When the sky is blind…” she repeated, her mind racing.

She shot from the chair and prowled the small library, her heart drumming against her chest as excitement drummed through her. She thought she knew what it meant as she searched the shelves for a book that might tell her. Her father was always bringing home new and wonderful books about anything and everything. He loved all subjects and read voraciously.

When she found the one she wanted, she pulled it off the shelf and flipped it open, the musty scent of the ancient pages fluttering up to her nose. Then she saw it and halted, staring down at the page that was a drawing of the phases of the moon.

A blind sky.The new moon?

Stars dare not shinemight indicate the total darkness of night that seemed to swallow the stars.

Was the new moon the key to breaking the curse? Or did it mean if the curse was not broken by the new moon, he would forever remain a beast?

She glanced at the cursed book. The book that played tricks and liked to hide the meaning behind cryptic messages that she was forced to unravel. She understood, now, how it worked. She understood how to reveal the hidden messages behind the brambles and thorns and vines.

Patience was key. Let the message reveal itself.

Now more determined than ever, she tossed aside the celestial book and went back to the desk. She had more work to do.

Chapter 28

Morningcame.

When she awoke, her neck hurt. At some point in the night, she moved to the small two-seat sofa unable to sit upright anymore. The decorative pillow under her face was scratchy and uncomfortable. Her back ached. Her head throbbed. Her stomach growled. She was still in her dress from the day before. Her fingers were still stained with ink.

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