Fifty Shades of Sleeping Beauty by Lotte Harding Read Free Book Online Page A

I hope later you will join us in the ceremony of presenting the gifts you have brought for our little child."
    This was a sign for the feast to commence, and servants walked between each table - or, more accurately, staggered beneath the weight of the platters they carried. "I can't believe you named her after mother," Serena whispered to Isis.
    "It seemed the best name. If she grows up anything like mother, then she'll truly be the fairest of us all." As she spoke, Isis passed Talia to Magnus, who cooed at her affectionately.
    The day seemed to be proceeding perfectly when, without warning, the doors to the great hall shot open, scattering not a few guests and servants. There was a sound like thunder and a woman entered at the far end from the high table.
    "I can't believe you forgot me, sister," said Bellatrix with a scowl.
    Immediately, Isis shot to her feet and, with a clap of her hands rushed from the table and down the clearing that ran the full length of the hall. "Bellatrix!" she cried out. "You came!"
    Serena forced a smile. She was glad, she supposed, that her sister had arrived after all this time, but something about the timing of this gave her cause for concern. Glancing at Magnus, she could see he was worried as well, rocking Talia in his arms but not taking his eyes from the new entrant.
    "By all the gods, who in all of Nysa is this?" called out the king, annoyed that his carefully prepared feast was being interrupted.
    "I'm the reason you're still a king," Bellatrix replied, stalking down the aisle and ignoring her sister whose face fell as the older woman passed her by.
    King Roland frowned at this answer, but then his face lightened. "Of course!" he bellowed cheerfully. "The third sister! But we thought you'd gone. Please, my lady, join us at high table." With this he gestured to some of the servants who scuttled away to find an extra chair and cutlery.
    Bellatrix joined them, followed by a somewhat crestfallen Isis. If the younger witch seemed put out by this strange display, the elder was glorious in her hauteur. Something had changed about her, Serena decided. She appeared... not exactly older, but certainly more aloof, crueller even. Physically she looked almost identical, though the spiders web she had always worn were now matched with patches of leather that made her seem more severe, and in her raven black hair was a single white streak that reached from the crown to the very tip. Looking more closely, Serena also noticed slight lines around the eyes and lips, as though of a woman who frowned and scowled more than was good for her.
    "Sister," Bellatrix said, her voice dripping with irony. "How good to see you."
    "It is good to see you," Serena replied, more honestly.
    When a seat was set for her at the table, Serena sat down and stared around her. Her look for all the royal family and her sisters was contemptuous, but when her eyes alighted on Thalia Serena noted that for a second something akin to pain glanced fleetingly across her features.
    "I see you managed to keep your cock out of my sister's arse long enough to conceive a child," she said, causing the king and queen to gasp with horror and Magnus to stare at her with shock. Isis was clearly upset as well, but Serena decided to try and lighten the situation.
    "Well, you know Isis. She was always the most versatile of us."
    "Yes, she could turn a trick as quickly as any whore in Nysa. Not that it was difficult for her to accommodate our little Magnus that day, not after what she'd done with the emperor."
    The king and queen were outraged at this, and Isis looked as though she was going to cry as Magnus handed her their daughter and stood up.
    "Listen to me, lady Bellatrix," he said as politely as his anger would allow. "I am very sorry that you were hurt by the events of that day -" Bellatrix scoffed at this. "By the events of that day," he repeated, "but I must ask you not to dishonour my wife's good reputation."
    "Oh, she can do that all by