Daughter of the Beastly Beauty: The Enchanted Castle Archives

By Michelle Levigne

Life in the enchanted castle, in the center of the enchanted forest, had its benefits and its drawbacks. Emphasis on drawbacks, with 'Na's problematic 17th birthday approaching. Thanks to her parents' reputation for breaking enchantments and solving magical problems, they had numerous enemies.  Chances were good some of them had set numerous curses to take effect on her birthday. The best way to avoid trouble was to stay home, alone, and keep the doors locked.

Then clumsy Prince Ruprick and his assistant/bodyguard/troubleshooter Ambrose showed up. The prince didn't know how to take no for an answer. His father had failed at winning the Beastly Beauty for his bride, so now it was up to him to win the daughter.

 

Plus, Fang, the half-vampire bunny, had showed up in a bad mood.

 

What else could go wrong?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ye Olde Dragon Books
• Release date: Mar 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781952345999

Michelle Levigne

On the road to publication, Michelle fell into fandom in college and has 40+ stories in various SF and fantasy universes. She has a bunch of useless degrees in theater, English, film/communication, and writing. Even worse, she has over 100 books and novellas with multiple small presses, in science fiction and fantasy, YA, suspense, women's fiction, and sub-genres of romance. Her official launch into publishing came with winning first place in the Writers of the Future contest in 1990. She was a finalist in the EPIC Awards competition multiple times, winning with Lorien in 2006 and The Meruk Episodes, I-V, in 2010, and was a finalist in the Realm Award competition, in conjunction with the Realm Makers convention. Her training includes the Institute for Children’s Literature; proofreading at an advertising agency; and working at a community newspaper. She is a tea snob and freelance edits for a living ([e-mail] for info/rates), but only enough to give her time to write. Her newest crime against the literary world is to be co-managing editor at Mt. Zion Ridge Press and launching the publishing co-op, Ye Olde Dragon Books. Be afraid … be very afraid.  www.Mlevigne.com www.MichelleLevigne.blogspot.com @MichelleLevigne

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Copyright © 2021  Michelle L. Levigne

Originally published 2021, in When Your Beauty IS the Beast

ISBN 13:  978-1-952345-99-9

Published in the United States of America

Publication Date: March 1, 2023

Cover Art © Copyright Ye Olde Dragon Books 2023

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Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination, or are used in a fictitious situation. Any resemblances to actual events, locations, organizations, incidents or persons – living or dead – are coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

ONE

'Na wanted nothing more than to be considered ordinary.

Average.

Normal.

Impossible. She lived in an enchanted castle, for one thing.

There were no human servants in the castle, just very efficient breezes. Because of various curses flung at her parents over the years, since they took up their full-time occupation of curse-breakers and enchantment-smashers, working for such a notorious couple could be dangerous. That was no hardship, because the breezes could do almost anything. Whip up a gourmet feast in no time (without an accompanying chorus of disembodied voices and instruments, fortunately). Create a ball gown that five neighboring princesses would have fought to the death over (which was why 'Na had no playmates most of the time, as she was growing up). And most important, handle the cleaning of the castle and tending of the garden when the lord and lady were away on some new mission. Which was most of the time.

The breezes also made very good nursemaids, from 'Na's parents' point of view, at least, because they could be everywhere, instantly. That made it hard for her to get away with anything. That also made it nearly impossible for the occasional vengeful sorcerer or faerie queen to wreak vengeance by stealing a child with so much magical potential. Being the daughter of the Beastly Beauty and the Dis-enchanted Prince sort of guaranteed there was strong magical hijinks in her future. Or maybe the more accurate phrasing was that she was doomed to it.

'Na grew up in the library, when her parents weren't home. Mostly because of the lack of people to talk to. Other than Eyesallova, the magic mirror, when she wasn’t busy monitoring the mirror network and dealing with requests for advice and assistance from around the world. The breezes were wonderful servants, but decidedly disappointing when it came to conversation. Fortunately, 'Na's magical potential awoke early, allowing her to learn to read before she learned to walk. Until she learned enough self-defense spells to safely leave the protections built into the castle walls when she was alone, 'Na spent most of her days, and many nights in the library.

She still spent most of her time in the library now, even though she was self-sufficient and more than able to defend herself. The library, the gathered knowledge and magic suited her. She especially loved the quiet, except when the magic-filled books got their feelings hurt through neglect. Or they had temper tantrums when different spells woke up too much and got into arguments over which was more powerful. Then it was best to retreat to one of the gate towers and daydream until the storm and whirlwind of torn pages settled down. 'Na grew extremely adept at putting books back together, and creating new looks for them when the bindings split or the covers wore thin

She could only name a handful of people, in history and currently alive, combined, who had the upbringing and life that she did. So ‘ordinary’ and ‘average’ moved farther away from her grasp every year.

And of course, there was her name. 'Na was short for Belladonna. Her parents gave in and saddled her with the name because it was the only one that more than three dozen allies could agree on. They knew the value in not irritating people who could snap out curses while sneezing, especially slightly disgruntled faeries and enchantresses. It didn't matter if that happened on purpose or accidentally. Best to live on the defensive. Especially when 'Na was young and easily snatched up by pixies or eagles, or able to slide through the tiny, momentary tears that often appeared in the fabric of reality. One of the hazards of living in such a heavily enchanted castle, full of magical books. And of course, the growing hoard of magical objects, beneficial as well as inimical, that her parents collected through the years. Some were souvenirs, and others were brought home to the castle to keep them out of the hands of idiots and villains. All that collected magic had a tendency to thicken the atmosphere and make magical accidents even more probable.

And, of course, push ‘ordinary, average, and normal’ even farther away from 'Na.

This moon, being ordinary