If the King is fated to love thirteen women before he turns fifty, is he still husband material? One cold, snowy Wintertide Eve, Queen Geneva of Foresta tracks her straying spouse in an attempt to discover where exactly he goes at night. Has he met his next great love already? Will he put her and their three children aside? As Geneva labors over the solution to her husband’s curse, King Reginald is attempting to discover a solution for a problem of his own—and for the entire Middle Kingdoms. This 7500 word short story is a stand-alone prequel to A Spell for Susannah. Rated PG-13.

A not-so-Grimm tale about a not-so-obedient princess and the kingdom she’s determined to save NO BOYS ALLOWED... Twelve bored royal daughters in a kingdom where the nobility has been cursed to bear no male children. One sly detective who's been tasked to find out where the ladies disappear to at night. What's a princess to do? FORBIDDEN MAGIC... If you're Princess Susannah, the eldest of the twelve princesses, you research inheritance laws and curse-breaking magic until you develop the ability to work fairy magic yourself—which is completely forbidden. You might use that magic to discover an enchanted land beneath your palace where hundreds of amnesiac princes dance and cavort all night long. DESPERATION LEADS TO DESPERATE MEASURES... If you’re the King and Queen, you hire a professional to find out how your daughters are ruining their dancing shoes on a regular basis, despite all the measures you’ve taken to keep them secure. For that delicate job, you choose the handsome detective who instantly gets under your eldest daughter’s skin. But enchantments and dancing won't modernize the patriarchal laws in time to prevent the Middle Kingdoms from falling into anarchy. Can Susannah outwit the detective, the patriarchy, the curse, and the fairies in time to save her kingdom—and herself? Author’s Note to Readers: This 105,000 word novel was originally published by Samhain Publishing in 2008. This edition has been reedited, reformatted, and updated with a new cover but has not been substantially altered.