Dark Fairytale Trilogy - Book Tour and Giveaway

Tay's best friend, Cale always told him fairy-tales were dark, but they all have happy endings, right?

Willow’s Way
Dark Fairytale Book 1
by Cheryl Headford
Genre: LGBTQ YA Epic Fantasy 

Cale always told Tay that fairy tales were dark. But they always have happy endings, right?

Taylor Preston is a normal sixteen-year-old whose biggest worries are his GCSE exams. He’s right in the middle of them, but he has a summer of fun with his parents to look forward to after. Or not.

Despite their promise to spend the summer focusing on their one and only son, Tay’s parents, Local Authority specialist foster carers, take on one more special case.

Willow’s arrival throws more than Tay’s summer into chaos. Suddenly, his best friend is possessed by a demon, his parents aren’t his parents after all, and he’s literally living a nightmare in a fairy tale world that as dark as anything Cale ever warned him about. All he has is Willow and a burning desire to save his friend before he succumbs to the demon and Willow kills him.
 
​
Amazon * Apple * eXtasyBooks * B&N * Google * Kobo * Bookbub * Goodreads

​Life had never been what you might call ordinary for Taylor Preston. His parents were Local Authority foster carers, specialising in difficult children. For as long as he could remember, Taylor had shared his home with other children of varying ages for varying periods of time. He’d put up with tearaway teens and tantrums and with never knowing quite what he’d find when he came home from school every day.
It hadn’t always been easy. In fact, it had never been easy. There’d been tears and tantrums of his own when he’d had to share his parents with children who needed their attention far more than he did. And every time he got used to one of them, maybe even got to like them, they were whisked away, never to be seen again.
Today, he’d come in, thrown his coat and bag on the floor in the hall, as always, and was heading up the stairs when his mother called from the kitchen.
“Tay, is that you?”
“No. I’m the worst burglar in the history of the world. I’ll just pop upstairs and rifle your drawers. Then I’ll be down for the TV.”
“Leave my drawers alone and come in here. We’ve got a new placement coming tonight, and I want to talk to you about him.”
Taylor groaned and dragged his feet to the kitchen. “Mam, you promised,” he whined. “You said you wouldn’t take any new ones until after the holidays. You promised we’d spend some time together this summer.”
“I know, hun. And I’m sorry, but this is an emergency and it was either us or a children’s home.”
“Then why not let them go into a home. They’re not bad places these days, and you promised me some time and attention. Besides, I haven’t finished my exams yet. I can do without the distraction.”
“You’ve got two exams left…maths and art. You don’t need much revision for either, and you know full well you wouldn’t have done any. By the weekend, you’ll be free of compulsory schooling forever.”
Taylor rolled his eyes. “As if that makes a difference. It’ll be even worse next year. The sixth form is no picnic, you know.”
“Oh, right. I’m not that old I don’t remember. The work is harder, but you have more free lessons, a brand new lounge to spend them in, and you lord it over the school like you’re something special, with all the little’uns looking up to you.”
“I’ve had enough of that here. Can’t stand the responsibility. Besides, I already lord it over the school. You know I’m the most popular guy there.”
“Right. The most modest, too.” His mum, Lily, sighed. “I’m sorry, Tay, I know it’s a bad time, and I know we promised to focus on the family over the summer, but I just couldn’t say no.”
Taylor sat down at the kitchen table and pulled one of the scattered papers towards him. “Okay, so what’s the story?” He glanced quickly at the photo attached to the paper he was holding. “What makes her so special you can’t resist her?”
“Him,” his mother corrected and Taylor, shocked, examined the photo more closely.
His initial cursory glance had shown him a slender, pale creature with an oval face and hair that reached his waist, which was why he’d assumed it was a girl. On closer inspection, he could see quite clearly that it wasn’t.
Yes, he was slender and pale, with white hair that cascaded over his shoulders and fell to his waist, but there was a strength in the delicate features that was definitely masculine, as were the defined abs visible through the plain t-shirt that was a few sizes too small. Taylor found himself fascinated by the boy, who seemed to be around the same age as he was. Although his features were delicate, he wasn’t pretty. There was too much strength and—arrogance maybe—there for that. In fact, he wasn’t conventionally good looking at all, but he was definitely striking.
“He doesn’t look very friendly. What’s he done?”
“He hasn’t done anything. Haven’t you been listening to a word I’ve said?”
Taylor’s face flushed and he ducked his head as he always did when caught out doing something that he felt guilty about. “Sorry. I think I’m in shock.”
His mother smiled. “He is very…um…interesting, isn’t he?”
“Interesting? That’s an understatement. Is there something wrong with the photograph or is he really that colour?”
“What colour?” Lily plucked the paper out of his hand and re-examined the photograph.
“Well…no colour at all.”
“It mentions it in the notes. He is very pale, isn’t he?”
“Pale? That’s one way to put it. He’s white. Everything’s white. His hair, his skin. I’ve never seen anyone like that before.”
“Not everything’s white. His eyes are blue.”
​

Tay’s Trials
Dark Fairytale Book 2 

​Tay is trying to settle into his new life with a group of strangers who call themselves his family. Even Willow has deserted him. Then he meets Wisp, and things look up – until a shadow assassin attempts to kill him, Cale traps his shadow in a gem and the only way to save him appears to be a mad wizard.

What can possibly top all that? Meeting a hundred-thousand-year-old king and his dragon friend, the very dragon on whom the entire city is built.
 
​
Amazon * Apple * eXtasyBooks * B&N * Google * Kobo * Bookbub * Goodreads

​Tay poked listlessly at the fire using a stick he was suspicious might once have been an arm. Willow hadn’t wanted a fire, couldn’t see the point when they had a perfectly good one inside the tent. He hadn’t understood why Tay wanted to sit outside in the cold, poking at a fire that caused nearby trees to whisper uneasily, when they could have been reclining in comfort and leaving the rest of the world the hell alone. What Tay hadn’t told Willow was that he wanted to hold on to the illusion when he suspected it was the last time that he could really be him, Taylor Preston, the last time he could at least try to pretend things were normal and none of the craziness had ever happened.
They could have ended their journey last night, but Tay had dragged his feet in every way he could, delaying until he was able to beg to camp. Maybe Willow understood more than Tay thought, or maybe he had his own reasons for not wanting to be home just yet, because he didn’t put up much of an argument. And so, Tay had his reprieve, had a few more hours of being a normal sixteen-year-old, camping in a wood.
He’d tried so hard to keep up the charade in his own head, but it hadn’t been easy. In the end, it hadn’t been possible at all, and Tay had ended up miserable and wishing they’d pushed on after all. How could he pretend anymore? How could he shut his mind to the fact that his companions were a car driver with moss-green skin and yellow eyes, and a pure white ice-man who spoke to him inside his head? Then there was the crowd of fairies who liked to sit in his hair and giggle in his ear when they weren’t keeping up a running commentary of all the things they saw as they travelled.
Tay had a lot to thank the ethen for, and he became more determined than ever that one way or another, he was going to get the little fairies the recognition they deserved. No more would the ignorant refer to them as buzzers and treat them as little more than annoying insects. But that was for later. For now, as he watched the fire elementals dance and crawl along his stick, all he could think about was that in a few short hours, he’d be meeting his mother and sisters for the first time. He was so not ready.
It wasn’t as if he had any experience to draw from, any pointers or advice. It was hardly a subject talked about at school, contained in any textbook, taught to children by parents, or generally cropped up in TV sitcoms and dramas—well, only fantasy which he’d never been particularly keen on. There was nothing in his background to prepare him for this, and he hadn’t exactly been eased into it. No, in a very short time, he’d gone from being a perfectly ordinary, sixteen-year-old schoolboy, with loving, caring parents, to some lost fairy prince on the run from demons, about to meet his real family for the first time. He’d left everything behind at the drop of a hat—his life, his parents, his friends, and now, he’d left Cale behind to.
Thinking about his best friend brought a treacherous prickle to his eyes. At least he knew Cale would be okay. The demon had been defeated, and Cale was in safe hands, learning how to control his newfound demon powers. He seemed to be enjoying it. For Tay, it wasn’t so easy. Saying goodbye to one family was bad enough, but meeting a brand new one? To fall into a role he’d never been trained for? To be held up in the spotlight as…whatever—a hero, a prince, a rival, a threat? Oh God, what was he going to do? How the hell was he going to learn to survive in this place, let alone rule it?
Swallowing hard, Tay battered down the fear that threatened to overwhelm him whenever he thought about what it meant to be a prince. One thing at a time. One step after another. There’d be time to think of that later, after he’d met his…mother.
 

Godric’s Gift
Dark Fairytale Book 3 

Tay had thought that fighting demons was the hardest thing he’d have to do, but what came after was so much harder.

No one thought Tay was ready to face his possessed brother and the demon army at his back, and that included Tay himself. Gray, however, thought different and, as usual, Gray got his way. But if Tay thought the demons were the hardest thing he’d have to face, he would soon find himself dead wrong.

From determining ownership of the land formerly occupied by the demons to a world that had been without a High King for so long they weren’t sure they needed one, every day brought new problems, and then there was the magic that was not so slowly leaking out of the world. Tay’s life got more complicated every day.
When Gray stepped up with the answers, it only made things a whole lot worse.
 

Amazon * eXtasyBooks * B&N * Google * Bookbub * Goodreads

​

​Grey flicked his glance toward the crowd, who were now all looking at Tay. Oh shit.
Drawing himself up as straight as he could, he drew in magical energy, and when he spoke, he fed the magic into his words so they would carry to everyone who needed to hear.
“I don’t have the High King’s talent for words, so I won’t try to give you as many as he did.” A tiny ripple of amusement passed over the listening people, and for some reason, it gave Tay confidence. “However, I do have something to say. I have been among you for a relatively short time. I’ve been a prince for even less. However, I feel more a part of you than I ever have of anything in my life. I feel you. I feel the earth. I feel the life. I feel…everything, and every moment since I’ve set foot in Faerie, I have felt the blight of the demons, the darkness they spread over everything, everywhere.”
He took a deep breath and glanced at Cale. “Someone I look on as a brother was almost taken by a demon, and my brother, Prince Hal, was taken. I never had a chance to know him. He never had a chance to grow into the man, the king, he should have been. I know that many of you have personal stories to tell about the horrors they represent. My own father fell to the demons, and my entire kingdom exists under their shadow. It is time to cast that shadow out. Today is the day we take back our kingdom. Today is the day we cast the shadows from our lives and our hearts. Today is the day we drive away the demons for once and for all.”
Tay ran out of steam and glanced at Gray for reassurance as the entire army burst into cheers. Swords clashed against shields. Fists were pumped into the air, narrowly missing the clouds of flying creatures who rose all around.
“I thought you couldn’t do speeches,” Gray said. It was no longer a surprise to Tay that he could hear Gray clearly even though he’d spoken softly amongst an almost deafening cacophony.
“I can’t. That wasn’t a speech…exactly. It was just how I feel.”
“All the best speeches are. Ready?”
“I’ll never be ready.”
“Good.”
Without another word, Gray spurred his horse and began to ride. They rode slowly at this point for those who were walking to keep up. Gray pulled slightly ahead of the rest of the line and motioned Tay, Wisp, and Cale to join him. Talen and his men rode immediately behind, with heavily armed soldiers spreading out in a line as far as he could see in either direction. It was a woefully thin line but the best they had. Maybe they’d be enough.
As they drew closer to the horizon, Tay realised that it was no longer just a line where the sky met the earth but a much denser line of blackness that thickened and heightened. The moment Tay realised what it was and how far it stretched, his mind rebelled, and it took everything he had not to turn around and run. It was a wall, a very high wall made of absolute blackness, the texture of oily smoke.
He glanced to either side. The wall of blackness stretched as far as he could see in either direction. His army wasn’t enough. It was nowhere near enough. He could tell from the sounds coming from behind that others were thinking the same.
“Time for my secret weapon,” Gray said, grinning against all the odds. He raised his hand, and a bright light grew around it until Tay was no longer able to look at it. Then there was an ear-popping sensation, and the light shot upward, making a beacon that stretched up as far as Tay could see. It held steady for a few moments, then vanished.
There was silence. Absolute silence. People glanced uneasily toward the demon lines and the roiling clouds above that had been tinged silver by Gray’s beam. Was there something moving up there.
A shadow passed over the clouds as if something flew above them. It swooped from side to side, growing bigger. Then the silver light turned red, and the enormous form of an ancient red dragon burst free and swooped over their heads and over the demon lines, spewing sheets of fire. If he hadn’t known better, Tay would have sworn the dragon was physically present, and he was sure that many, if not most, of those present would have no idea that the dragon’s physical body was still in The Kingdom. At least, he hoped it was.
 

Cheryl was born into a poor mining family in the South Wales Valleys. Until she was 16, the toilet was at the bottom of the garden and the bath hung on the wall. Her refrigerator was a stone slab in the pantry and there was a black lead fireplace in the kitchen. They look lovely in a museum but aren’t so much fun to clean.
Cheryl has always been a storyteller. As a child, she’d make up stories for her nieces, nephews and cousin and they’d explore the imaginary worlds she created, in play.

Later in life, Cheryl became the storyteller for a re enactment group who travelled widely, giving a taste of life in the Iron Age. As well as having an opportunity to run around hitting people with a sword, she had an opportunity to tell stories of all kinds, sometimes of her own making, to all kinds of people. The criticism was sometimes harsh, especially from the children, but the reward enormous.

It was here she began to appreciate the power of stories and the primal need to hear them. In ancient times, the wandering bard was the only source of news, and the storyteller the heart of the village, keeping the lore and the magic alive. Although much of the magic has been lost, the stories still provide a link to the part of us that still wants to believe that it’s still there, somewhere.

In present times, Cheryl lives in a terraced house in the valleys with her son, dog, bearded dragon and three cats. Her daughter has deserted her for the big city, but they’re still close. She’s never been happier since she was made redundant and is able to devote herself entirely to her twin loves of writing and art, with a healthy smattering of magic and mayhem
 

Website * Facebook * X * Instagram * Amazon * Goodreads
​
​

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
​
​
​

a Rafflecopter giveaway