Free Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell

this time.
    The blue one rolled her eyes. “You are running out of time. Years and hours are tangled, it’s true, but both go fast. If you want to save yourself and those you love, you need to figure out how to get out of all this.”
    “Wake up, you don’t
belong
here,” the third one, the red-lit one, piped up. “Wake
up
already!
Do
something!”
    There were footsteps in the hall, Lianna’s strange, syncopated gait.
    No, wait, just a moment….
Aurora was torn between panic and frustration.
    “Time for your bath.”
    Her friend appeared at the door holding a towel and a brush.
    The fairies were simply gone. Like they had never been there at all.
    The princess succumbed to her bath thoughtfully. She had accidentally wished…and
something
had happened.
    Aurora was glorious in her golden gown. Without a trace of envy, Lianna declared it was the most beautiful the princess had looked yet; somehow the seamstresses had managed to create a dress several perfect shades lighter than her hair, and it sparkled when she moved. With her tresses up in intricate loops of braids and a golden diadem on top, the royal princess was an image of the sun itself, her tippet and skirts rays that just touched the earth.
    Probably. No one could quite remember the sun.
    Aurora gave her speech of gratitude and thanks to her aunt with verisimilar emotion. And by the end of it, she actually felt the way she had when she first wrote it.
    The queen wore golden horns that night in deference to the theme. She kept her eyes modestly lowered during the speech and then thanked her ward warmly when it was over. The crowds cheered. Everyone seemed a little wilder that night. Dancers danced faster and harder. The musicians played like the devil was after them now that their leader was truly gone. Laughter was far too loud, and the drinking far too copious. Time may finally have taken a toll on the survivors in the castle.
    Aurora watched it all distractedly from her usual spot next to Maleficent’s throne, but she wasn’t really paying attention.
    What if the fairies were actually evil demons from the Outside trying to get in? What if they had discovered her mind was weak, like the drunken minstrel’s? A perfect, pliable vessel on which to work their evil influence. Wasn’t she
just thinking
about how great it would be if everyone died before the fairies arrived?
    What sort of person even
thought
those kinds of things? Who imagined opening a door and letting death in?
    A new idea interrupted this familiar spiral of thoughts she had been torturing herself with.
    What if she wasn’t the only person these visions appeared to?
    What if there were other minds in the castle, as weak and diseased as her own, prone to self-destructive thoughts—gateways of evil?
    Like the minstrel…
    Aurora looked back and forth over the golden-hued crowd, searching for something. Some sign of a weak or evil mind. Nothing immediately revealed itself.
    The laughter may have been borderline hysterical, but that could have been relief that things were back to…“normal.” If they questioned the source of their magical banquet, the gilded quail eggs and golden soups, they were at least eating it. If the musicians sorely felt the absence of the minstrel, still they played in key for the twirling golden dancers. There wasn’t an off note anywhere, actual or metaphorical.
    “Why aren’t
you
dancing?” Maleficent asked. She clasped a golden goblet that held some thick black wine. Her eyes were shadowed, and her movements were slow. She would be her old self again, in just a few hours….
    Aurora bit her lip. She was almost overwhelmed with a drowning sense of déjà vu. She had done this before. At least once. She would do it again at the next dance probably. And again and again and again…
    Panic was building in her head, and she wasn’t sure what to do with it.
    “
Go,
” her aunt said, flicking her wrist imperiously, shooing her away. Aurora nodded and obediently