by Anita Valle
I return to the yard. “They’re fine,” I tell Hunter. He stands a few feet back from the table, watching Cinderella. I creep over to stand at his side. I wonder if this would be a bad time to try and kiss him. He looks so tempting, his brown hair ruffled from running his fingers through it, his sleeves pushed up to the elbows, baring his smooth arms. I ache to have him all around me.
I start to reach for his hand. Then Godnutter pops back in sight, on the other side of the table. She stares at Cinderella, smoking and scowling.
“Well?” Hunter asks.
Godnutter shakes her head. “Not good. She needs a kiss to wake her up. The poisoned apple was made with true hate-” she glares at me “-so only true love can cure it. She needs to be kissed by someone that loves her.”
I can’t help it. I giggle.
“What’s so funny?” Godnutter asks sharply.
“What’s funny is that she will never wake up!” I say, laughing. “Because absolutely nobody loves Cinderella!”
Hunter bows his head and closes his eyes. He folds his arms tightly and heaves a long sigh.
“I do.”
I turn and look at him. He looks back at me, soft and sad. “I’m sorry, Snowy. I really am. But I can’t help it.”
“What are you saying?” I ask.
Hunter’s eyes drift away from me and settle on Cinderella. “I love her,” he whispers.
Tears wash over me instantly. “Hunter… that’s impossible. You love me and no one else. You told me that!”
“I know.” Hunter’s face looks anguished. “But… now I love her. I didn’t try, it just happened. I think – I think I can wake her up.”
I draw my breath. “You’re going to kiss her?”
Hunter looks at her. And nods.
I clench my fists, my chest heaving. I won’t allow this! Hunter has kissed no other girl but me!
“She’s not good for you, Hunter!” I shout. “She’s a bad person! Selfish and nasty and mean!”
Godnutter cracks a laugh. “She is, you know.”
“She was improving,” Hunter says. “She needed someone to be kind to her, that’s all. She needed to be loved.”
“What, and I don’t need to be loved?” I cry.
“I did love you!” Hunter says, louder now.
“Oh, but now you love her!” I jab a finger at Cinderella. “And what’s made her so special, hmm? Is she prettier than me?”
Hunter steps toward me. He looks right in my face. “She sewed a button.”
I stare at him. “What?”
He points at the top button of his vest. “It fell off one night. She offered to sew it back on. She offered.”
I scowl at him. “So?”
Hunter starts to pace. He looks worked up. “So, when did you ever do anything for me? I didn’t want to steal the baby! I didn’t want to kill the queen! None of that mattered to you. You just wanted me to worship you and carry out your commands! You never asked me what I wanted.”
“He’s got a point, pumpkin,” Godnutter says.
“Well, what do you want?” I snap.
Hunter folds his arms. “Right now? I want Cinderella.”
My face squishes up and I cry. My Hunter! He is my first thought when I wake in the morning, my last before I fall asleep. Everything I did, I did for us. How could this happen? All of this over one lousy button?
Hunter turns away from me. He steps toward the table where Cinderella lies, stiff and pale as a corpse. He gently slides his fingers under her hand.
I’m breathing heavily. And I realize something. This is all The Mirror’s fault. The Mirror kept me away from Hunter. It wouldn’t tell me where the cottage was. It wanted me to use magic to get rid of Cinderella, so I wasted precious time trying to make a poisoned apple. It convinced me I had to be the queen, something I never even wanted. And all that time, Old Cinders was working her evil charms on Hunter. I fell prey to The Mirror, just like she did. I let it control me.
I would much rather have Hunter, warm and loving, than the ghost of a dead mother behind a piece of glass.
Hunter pushes a delicate strand of hair off Cinderella’s face. He leans in toward her lips.
I put out my hands. “Hunter, wait!”
He stops and looks at me.
I wipe my eyes and try to stop whimpering. “C-can you do one more thing for me? Just one more thing? And then I’ll… I’ll let you go.”
“What is it?” Hunter asks softly. I can see he feels sorry for me.
“I need you to destroy The Mirror.”
~*~ 33 ~*~
We walk through the forest, back toward the palace. The sun is high now, the sky blue as a jewel. We have to bring the babies with us. I’m carrying one, wrapped in a thin green blanket, while Hunter carries the other. Godnutter stayed behind to watch over her sleeping beauty.
“Why can’t one of those big fellows bash the looking glass?” she asked with a scowl. I shook my head at her. I want Hunter to save me. And I want him to punish The Mirror.
We don’t talk. I stare at the baby cradled in my arms. She’s so perfect, with cheeks soft as a sigh, and a feathery fluff of red hair. The baby Hunter holds has brown hair. My little sisters. I wonder if Cinderella will ever let me see them.
It feels strange, awful, walking beside Hunter without speaking to him. I don’t know what to do, I just don’t. Once he breaks The Mirror, he’ll go back to Cinderella. And what about me? I’ll just be the stupid queen. Sitting in that big empty throne room with nothing but the dopey Dwarves for company. I don’t care about the kingdom. I don’t care about the people. I just want Hunter!
We leave The Wood behind us and cross over the palace grounds. My shawl fell off during my tussle with Cinderella, leaving my arms uncovered. The wind swoops over me, whispering a chill into my skin. A foretelling of frost to come.
I climb the palace steps first. Cooper must have seen us coming because he’s waiting at the top. He looks grouchy and his beard is tangled.
“Came back, did you?” he says gruffly. “We were all set to go out and look for you.”
“I’m fine,” I say. Boy, what a lie that is. “I brought Hunter to do something for me.”
Cooper nods a greeting at Hunter. Then he looks at the babies. “Is the queen dead?”
Hunter and I shake our heads. It’s too much to explain.
We pass him and enter the main corridor of the palace. The other Dwarves are waiting there, each holding a huge weapon. Like they really need those to look for me. By our faces, I think they can tell something’s up because when I turn into the parlor, they follow.
The Mirror – my mother – is angry. She knows. We’re not even on the stairs yet and I can feel the thick aura of rage. My heart starts to squirm. I press the baby into my chest and push against the fog of fury. This has to be done. With The Mirror gone, maybe I can win Hunter back. Become again the Snowy he loved. But that won’t happen so long as The Mirror continues to rule my life.
Hunter lifts a foot onto the bottom step and stops. He turns to me, startled. “Oh my goodness.” He can feel it.
I nod, my mouth dry and sticky. “Try to ignore it. Don’t listen.”
Hunter works his way up the stairs, the baby on his front, the crossbow on his back. I keep close behind him but every step is harder. It’s like trying to swim upstream through a torrent of filthy water. First my stomach sickens, then my head pounds, then my feet become heavy as lead. The baby in my arms grows restless and makes whimpering noises.
Traitor.
The word enters my mind like a blade. It soaks into me, bone deep, heavy as sin. I am betraying my own mother. The person who gave life to me. I deserve to be hanged by the neck from a tree and have crows pick at my flesh.
Ahead of me, Hunter sways and catches the railing. For a moment I see the side of his face and it’s sparkling with sweat. I wonder what she’s telling him.
“Fight it!” I hiss through my teeth. “It’s only a mirror!”
�
�It’s a demon,” Cooper says. I twist back to look at him and his rugged face has gone pale. So have the other Dwarves. But they’re not shaking like me and Hunter. Maybe The Mirror is just focusing on the two of us. Or maybe the Dwarves are just bigger and stronger. I don’t know, but either way, they look less affected.
“Help us!” I whisper.
Cooper steps behind me and takes hold of my shoulders. Barker goes ahead and puts a hand on Hunter’s back. Together, they push us to the top of the stairs.
The chamber lies ahead, double doors hanging open. For one short moment, I see The Mirror, its moaning mouth of dusty glass surrounded by the dark golden frame. Then the doors swing on their own and shut with a heart-stopping BANG!
The babies jump and break into frantic crying.
~*~ 34 ~*~
On the landing, Hunter and I lean against the nearest wall. I try to calm the baby by patting her back, but she cries, harshly and jaggedly, her little tongue suspended in her mouth. The sound cuts through my head like a saw.
“Stay there!” Cooper shouts. He takes his club, the heavy one with spikes on the end, and steps in front of the doors. He lifts, swings, and drops the club on the door handles. CRACK! The handles break and fall to the floor.
Cooper raises a booted foot and kicks the doors open. “There! Let’s get this done.” I guess he’s figured out what we came to do. It’s pretty obvious.
The Dwarves troop into the room first. I wait and watch but they don’t get incinerated or drop stone-dead. So I hoist the wailing baby higher and walk into the room. It still feels like I’m wading through a lake of tar.
Worthless.
The next word crushes down on me. I can barely stand. I am nothing, nothing at all. No beauty, no talents, no intelligence. The unwanted daughter of a wicked king. I should throw myself from the highest tower and end our disgraceful line.
Hunter is beside me, his face clenched with pain. “Take her!” he says. I barely have time to shift the first baby before he transfers the second one into my arms. He lifts the shoulder strap of his crossbow and swings the weapon around to his front. “I’m going to shoot it.”
My arms are shaking. I can’t hold both babies, not in my state. I crouch and carefully lay the babies on the floor by the wall, using their blankets to cushion them a little. It seems harsh but still better than dropping them. And I can’t trust the Dwarves to hold them gently.
I’m on my hands and knees, laying out the second baby, when I feel a burst of power from The Mirror. Hunter’s thrown right off his feet and hits the wall behind him. The air around me tightens like a fist and I shriek as I’m sucked across the floor on my hands and knees. Fingernails scraping marble, I’m dragged in front of The Mirror. It spins me around to face it.
Stand!
I can’t disobey. I lift one wobbly leg, then the other. Trembling all over, I look into The Mirror.
There she is. My mother. She fills the glass, top to bottom, larger than life. She’s wearing the same blood-red gown she had on when my father killed her. It flaps around her as if blown by the wind, and her long black hair ripples behind her. Her beautiful eyes blaze at me, burning with dark fire.
“Ungrateful child!” she cries.
I stand there sobbing. I can’t stop. Everything she says drops straight into my soul and becomes part of me.
“You would destroy your own mother?” she shouts. “Look at me! Look at what he did!” She lifts her chin and shows me the ring of dark bruises around her neck, left by my father’s fingers.
“I’m sorry!” I cry. “I really am! But he’s gone now! You need to stop using me for your revenge.”
“You will be queen!” she says savagely. “And nothing else! I have waited too long for this!”
“I don’t want to be the queen! I’m not you! I want to be me!”
“And who are you, Snow White? Nothing but a bratty child. Even that silly boy no longer wants you. You have no one but me now!”
“That’s YOUR fault!” I shout. Tears are pouring down my face. My hands ache so much with cold I can barely move my fingers and the throbbing chill has spread up to my elbows. “You’re no better than Cinderella! No better than my father! You’re all just EVIL! I don’t want any of you!”
My mother stares at me, her hair dipping and swirling across her face. She’s so angry she looks more scary than beautiful, her pale skin tight on her bones.
“You are my child!” she says. “You belong to me! If you won’t embrace the life I’ve given you, then I can take it back. I will not be abandoned!”
I gasp as I’m yanked forward, thrust flat against the mirror. I catch myself with both hands and they’re so frozen they mist up the glass. My whole body is squashed against the surface. And immediately I feel weakened, heavy with fatigue.
“You will suffer as I have, you wretched girl!” my mother says. “I will draw you in here with me!”
My vision blurs, my limbs shake. She’s taking my energy, all of it at once. I’m going to die within seconds. And then she’ll pull my essence into the mirror and I’ll be trapped there with her. Forever.
From far away, worlds away, I hear a familiar voice. “Snowy! Drop!”
I look at my hands on the glass, try to focus on them. And I push. My body pitches straight back and I hit the floor like a felled tree. Then comes the explosion: a high, twinkling, burst of glass; a rush of white fragments flying over me; a musical rain of bright slivers. And then it’s quiet. The mirror is nothing but a blank wooden oval with a frame around it. An arrow from Hunter’s crossbow is embedded at the center.
~*~ 35 ~*~
I roll over, push up on my elbows. The fog in my head begins to clear. The babies wail harder, sounding terrified. And the Dwarves look shocked. My eyes travel up the floor ahead of me, littered with jagged shards of the mirror. But not as many as there should be. I look ahead and I’m staring at the bottoms of Hunter’s boots.
I gasp. “HUNTER!”
I scramble over to him on all fours. He’s on his back, the crossbow dropped near his feet. Dark patches of blood are leaching through his clothes. They cover his legs, his chest, his arms, and fresh gashes bleed from his neck and face. When he shot The Mirror, she hurled her fragments at him. Stabbed him all over his body. Hunter’s gentle brown eyes stare at the ceiling, blank as stone.
I stare at him. I can’t breathe.
My Hunter… my Hunter….
He’s gone.
I grip the sides of my head and scream, loud enough to split the walls. I draw my breath and scream again, bowing down to the floor. I drop one hand to the marble and the pain bursts out of me and I hear a sharp crackle. I open my eyes. A layer of ice has spread out like a star around me, nearly the width of the room. The dead center is where my hand touched the floor.
I just found the magic within me.
I look up at the Dwarves, stunned, my eyes coated with tears. I blink to clear them. The seven Dwarves are all staring at me. There’s not one friendly face among them.
“You just killed our brother, you witch,” Cooper growls.
“No!” I squeak out.
Cooper turns back to his brothers, all grim-faced and clenching their axes and clubs.
“Kill her,” Cooper says.
“NO!” I scream. I lurch forward and smack my other hand to the floor while directing my gaze at the Dwarves. A path of ice shoots across the floor and slides up the Dwarves’ legs to their knees. I stare, focusing my fear on them, and the ice thickens. They can’t move.
I lift my hand off the floor, gaping. I can’t believe that worked!
I jump up, avoiding the slippery ice. I sprint over the floor and stoop to pick up the babies, first one, then the other. The Dwarves are cursing and straining their legs against the ice. I know it won’t hold them for long.
I rush out of the room and down the stairs, fast as I dare, considering I’m carrying two infants with wobbly heads. The jostling distracts them from crying for the moment. But they’re h
eavy for me. I don’t know how I’ll outrun the Dwarves this way. And if they catch me, they’ll kill us all.
I get out of the palace. I don’t take the gravel drive that leads out to the towns, it’s too open. I cut through the palace gardens, dried up and dying with the approach of autumn. The Wood lies ahead of me, a rough wall of trees. I hurry across the grass, anxious to reach the shelter of its shadows. I’m nearly there.
BOOM! Godnutter pops right in front of me.
“Well!” she barks. “Fine mess YOU’VE made of things! Who’s going to save my Cindy now?” She’s got her hands on her hips, so angry she’s not even smoking.
“Godnutter, please!” I cry. “Please help me! I have to get away from here, they’re going to kill me!”
“And it would serve you right, wouldn’t it? I didn’t come to save you, tootsie. I came to lighten your load.” She swoops in and scoops a baby out of my arms, the one with brown hair. She steps back. “This one’s mine.”
My eyes widen. “NO!”
“She wanted a fairy to protect her baby, didn’t she? Well, here I am! I want another chance at this.”
“Give her back, she’s my sister!”
“Not any more. And you don’t have time to argue, those fellows are breaking out of that ice.” She shifts the baby to her left arm and with her right thrusts deep into the pocket of her dress. She yanks out the pipe and points the tip at me. “Hold still.”
I gasp as she fires a river of sparkles at my chest. I step back, my breasts warm and tingling, and look down. They’re swollen like two melons and feel heavy.
“What did you just do?” I cry.
“Gave you the means to feed the baby, you cow! Now off with you! Get her to safety!” Godnutter vanishes and the brown-haired baby with her.
I tuck the red-haired baby against me, her fuzzy head just under my chin. And I run into The Wood.