Dreams of Beauty
Category:
Fantasy
Publisher: SynergEbooks
ISBN-10: 0744310970
Type: Fiction
“Although Emme has never met him, his face appears every night in her dreams.”
Emme, a demure young woman living on the fringes of Briarswood, is doomed to be an old maid. Her childhood friend is recently engaged to the town beauty, and Emme is reluctant to venture into society and find love. Instead she entertains idle dreams of Davian Hawthorn, a nobleman who disappeared nearly a century ago. When Davian’s elderly sister, Lilly, and her daughter, Rosalie, return to claim his abandoned Estate, Emme discovers that he is still alive, held captive under a Sorceress’s curse. The curse leaves him suspended in time as a young man in an eternal slumber, only to be awakened by a kiss.
With Rosalie struggling to keep Davian’s existence a secret, only Emme believes in the curse and discovers his true whereabouts. To make matters worse, Rosalie intends to squander the family’s fortune, selling the Estate, along with Briarswood to developers and endangering the entire town. Emme must overcome her fears and risk her life on a perilous quest to awaken Davian before his inheritance is lost as well as her home. During her journey she unearths secrets about the parents that she never knew, learns to trust in herself, and discovers that true love is not won with a kiss, but cultivated and nourished over time.
Excerpt
Excerpt: Chapter 19 Kiss
Grabbing the handle of the pick in both hands, Emme held her breath and swung. The tip of the pick sunk into the glass, leaving a spider work of cracks that zigzagged out on the top. The sound of splitting glass echoed off of the mountaintops. Two black crows cawed in alarm and took off into the shadows. As always, Snowdrop snorted her displeasure at the interruption.
Ignoring Snowdrop and the crows, Emme took another breath, aimed precisely, and swung again. The pick landed near the same spot as before, fatally weakening the glass. Emme tried to press her weight on it, but still it did not budge.
She braced herself for another blow. This time when the pick hit the glass, a bright white light shot out and the glass fragmented and shattered like a thousand chandeliers crashing down from ceiling to marble. Emme toppled onto her back, blinded by the light.
The back of her eyelids seared with blotches of red and yellow, like when she stared at the sun for too long. It took a long moment for her eyes to adjust. When she opened them again, the light had faded away.
Rubbing her eyes, Emme realized that she still clutched the pick as if it were the last item she had on earth. Discarding it beside her, she sat up slowly, clearing the dust from her head.
She gasped, her whole being shaken like she was hit with a bolt of lightening.
Davian lay in the grass beside her, and he was utterly perfect like the first day she had laid eyes on his image, captured precisely in the painting.
Sleeping soundly, his chest heaved slowly with each breath, muscles like smooth river stone moving slightly underneath his white shirt. His hair lay askew over one eyelid, black as night with waves of shine. Lips, curved in a luscious pout awaited the kiss that would set him free.
Emme studied him, eyes transfixed, until the final swell of twilight faded into shadows. A full moon overheard cast a luminescent light, making Davian seem that much more magical.
Carefully, she brushed her fingertips through his wave of hair, the ebony strands light and glossy in the waning light.
Emme tore her eyes away and took out the journal in her pocket. Sitting beside his sleeping body, she reread the chapter that had the cure for Ambecin.
Although she had read it a hundred times, the answer still remained the same: one kiss. It was so simple, yet so undeniably irreconcilable. Emme buried her face into her hands. She couldn’t do it. Growing up she had kissed Thomas and Laura on the cheek many times, but not like this. This was entirely different.
Somehow it felt wrong to kiss Davian without his permission. Emme frowned in indecision. She could barely even touch him, never mind put her lips to his.
Emme tried reasoning with herself. What was she going to do? Sit out in the wilderness and wait for him to wake up? She thought of Lilly laying on her deathbed, and Rosalie signing papers with the lawyers. Although it seemed that time had no meaning in the wild, the rest of the world ticked away with little regard for personal agendas.
She had to do it.
Bending down over him, Emme half expected him to wake up before she could place the kiss. And then how would that make her look? In fact, what if he waked up while she was kissing him? How could she explain herself?
Emme decided that it was going to have to be quick. Awkwardly, with her face hovering over his, she placed her hands gently on his shoulders. After being so far away for so long, it was so strange to be this close: like a wonderful, magnificent dream: a dream that put all other dreams to shame.
Closing her eyes, Emme put her lips to his and the world around her melted away. Surprisingly, they were warm and soft. She lingered a fleeting moment before pulling away. Blushing profusely, Emme watched as Davian’s breathing slowly changed. His eyelids fluttered and his head moved restlessly. With a few blinks he opened his eyes.
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