Once Upon a Time: The Villains by Shea Berkley Read Free Book Online Page A

blessed. I spit on the ground, hate oozing from my pores and wait for the girl.
    She enters on a charger, her golden hair flowing in the wind, her face flushed from the ride. Worry etches her countenance, yet it doesn’t detract from her beauty. If anything, she appears more comely. Her vulnerability calls to the prince’s sense of honor.
    The king snaps his fingers and the guard brings the girl forward. She is confused. Lost. She looks for some sign of mercy. The king has never shown the trait. I smile; anticipation at what he’ll do tingles my spine.
    The prince gazes at the girl. His face shines with admiration. Cupid’s arrow has found its mark. Love at first sight has dealt a fatal blow. “Good morrow, fairest maiden.”
    The girl is just as stunned. I am more than pleased. I have given little effort in speeding my plan forward. Her terror eases as she gazes at the prince.
    He takes her hand and raises it to his lips. He grazes her knuckles and her cheeks heat. A pleased smile deepens a set of disarming dimples. “Who are you?”
    “Your bride,” his father says, then grunts skeptically, “…if she can do as her father claims.”
    “What is that?” the prince asks, though I doubt he is listening to his mad father. The beauty of the maid fills his princely vision.
    She shakes her head, panic jumping from her eyes.
    The king waves his steward forward. “To bring us untold wealth as is befitting our station.” He orders the servant to fill a room to the ceiling with bundles of straw, “…and place a spinning wheel in the center.”
    The prince frowns at his father’s odd request and asks the girl. “What is this about?”
    She shakes her head. “I-I—”
    The king takes the girl by the elbow and shoves her toward the head guard, separating her from his son. “I would not attach myself too soon. By morning, not one strand of straw shall be left untouched, and I expect a room full of gold. If not, hang her from the castle gate as a lesson; no commoner shall dare bear false testimony to their king.”
    Shock wipes the disbelief off the prince’s face. “You can’t be serious, Father. What you demand of her is an impossible task.”
    “We shall soon find out.”
    Terrified, words fail the maid as she is wrenched from the prince’s presence and taken into the castle.
    “What you ask is madness.” The princely heart is already breaking. “If her father promised the deed, hold him accountable. I beg you, let her go.”
    The king faces his son. “Why spend a moment of worry on her? Though beautiful, she is but a lowly peasant.” He steers his son toward the entrance to the keep. “Yet, if by some miracle she spins a room full of gold, there will be nothing we cannot attain.”
    The prince grows angry. “The price is too high.”
    Smug satisfaction settles on the king’s face. “You say so now, but you will thank me one day. One way or another, our family will rule this land forever.” He forces his son into the keep, ignoring the prince’s pleas for the girl’s life.
    How noble of the prince, and how greedy the king. The first virtue I don’t understand, and the second I detest in everyone but me. Little does the king know. He need not worry his fortunes will suffer. I will give him what he so desires. As I melt further into the shadows, I vow, “You will curse the day you took the maid into your home.”
    I wait until nightfall and slip into the castle. Stealth has carried me through life and it continues to serve me now. When the guards’ backs turn, I steal into the room where straw peeks from under the door.
    A musty smell fills the room. Bale upon yellow bale climbs to the ceiling. A small path weaves through the room to the center where the maid sits on a stool, her head bend. She weeps; she wrings her hands. Her despair is my joy. At my approach, she looks up. Huge tears course down her cheeks in rivulets of misery, yet her beauty stays true. Such rosy perfection even affects me, but I