Cinders: Necessary Evil (Magic Mirrors Saga Book 1)

by Sky Sommers

  ‘You got your wish. You have our body back. You said you are going to honour the deal you made.’ The angel says. ‘Time is up. It’s time to go.’ He says it simply, expecting no disagreement, no tears, just obedience.

  ‘I need to say goodbye to my son.’ I steal a glance at Peter. ‘And husband.’

  Gabriel nods and I head to the trap door and down the stairs with Peter in tow.

  Fine! I’ll figure out how to get reassigned here to be near my family.

  Gabriel khm-khms from up top.

  Fine! You heard me! I told you what I wanted and you are still making me go. What the hell happened to you?

  Being Boss, I hear him say.

  * * *

  ‘Henry!’ I call out when we are back in our kitchen. ‘Be a good boy, come say bye to mama.’

  Mama really needs a hug.

  ‘Is there anything we can do?’ Peter asks. ‘We need you. I need you.’

  Henry comes running, his red shirt hanging off his shoulder.

  Bless. He’s grabbed one from the pile that is too big for him.

  When he sees me, he stops dead in his tracks.

  ‘Mama?’ Henry looks into my eyes and then at Peter who nods.

  You are right to be cautious, baby. I sound like mama, but look a lot different. I’ve shrunk and as a courtesy of the Agency’s ‘let’s resurrect Grace from memory’ gimmick I’m 25 again, without the added three-stone of hormones and childbirth. At least I had the good sense to hide my wings.

  I squat down to his level.

  ‘Mama…’ He frowns and touches my shoulder-length hair, which has already started to curl in the heat of the kitchen.

  ‘Don’t be afraid. I’m still your mama. Close your eyes and just listen to me, pumpkin. Just listen…Put your hands on your eyes so you don’t see. Just listen…’

  He does as he’s told. ‘Mama?’

  ‘Just listen to my voice… You can hear me much better now, yes?’

  He nods.

  ‘I’m still here, sunshine.’

  Eyes closed, he smiles.

  ‘Henry, listen, mama has to go away.’

  His eyes fly open.

  ‘You be a good boy for papa, ok?’ I say to him and tell Peter, ‘I’ve taught Greta how to cook. With a little bit of help from her Granny, in time, she can handle the restaurant. Hans can go to school and be a server in the evenings. Ella’s married off. You can watch over Henry. Your life will be different, but you’ll be fine.’

  ‘Mama go away. Mama come back?’

  ‘Oh, honey, you said two whole sentences! Peter,’ I look up. ‘He said two whole sentences! He usually says one word, a noun or an adjective, but he said…’ I know I am babbling to stop myself from crying.

  At least I got to hear my baby boy start speaking before I go.

  ‘You’re such a good boy!’ I kiss him all over and he laughs. Gods, I love his smell.

  ‘Give mama a big kiss!’

  I wish I could have hugged and kissed him more.

  Greta hollers for Henry from the restaurant.

  He wriggles free. ‘Mama come back soon,’ he tells me and runs off.

  Kids.

  They have the utmost belief that parents come and go and that they are forever.

  I stand up.

  My husband is looking at me, his shoulders sagging in listless defeat.

  I take in every inch of his face, his body, his lips.

  He reaches for me and I fall into him.

  ‘I will come back. I don’t know when or how, but I will come back. In the meantime, promise me you’ll tell him good things about me. Stories. Have a small painting made. But mostly stories. Funny ones, ok?’ I mumble into his shoulder.

  He nods, closes his eyes and I brush my lips against his one last time.

  * * *

  Peter and I ascend the stairs to the rooftop in silence.

  There isn’t really anything to say.

  I’m being claimed.

  He can’t stop it.

  So, what’s the point of tearful goodbyes?

  Besides, this might not be a goodbye.

  I vow I will come back.

  Peter opens the trap door and reaches out for my hand.

  I feel like I’m being handed over.

  Gabriel and Loretta are still standing where they were ten minutes ago. The archangel looks as immaculate as ever, white T-shirt hugging his biceps and the jeans nice and loose.

  I start to walk towards my employers when Peter lowers his head, steps in front of me and asks, ‘What if I won’t let her go?’

  Bless his soul.

  ‘It’s not for you to decide,’ Gabriel says, nodding at me. ‘As Grace very well knows.’

  ‘Why not? Who made you god?’ Peter asks, sticking out his chin.

  ‘His predecessor,’ Loretta says.

  ’Leave,’ Gabriel tells Peter and extends his hand to me, ‘Shall we?’

  Like it would be the easiest thing to do, to spread my newly found wings and soar sky-high, letting go of regret, anger and all the mixed emotions of leaving my family behind.

  Epilogue

  Grace

  As I stand and flex my new wings I remember Henry and the way he smells and laughs and his kisses and I feel warmth start to spread like a flower where my unfeeling heart was mere moments ago.

  Gabriel said curiosity was the last one to go. What if he was wrong?

  Love…love is what makes us human. It’s what has brought me back from my angelic stupor, from feeling nothing. It’s what is giving me the power to fight for what I think is right.

  ‘What if I do a couple of gigs and retire? To the Magic Kingdom? Guardian angels retire, don’t they? Your Boss did…Why can’t I?’ I remind Gabriel as Loretta gapes at me, mumbling ‘not after one posting they don’t’. ‘Haven’t I served my time?’ I add.

  Gabriel looks at me long and hard. ’Being of service is not a prison sentence, you know.’

  ‘Then why do I feel like it is?’ I parry. ‘Didn’t you yourself say I have gone beyond the call of duty and deserve a break?’

  ‘I meant at the Agency. So you could be a guardian again. For others who need you.’

  ‘Henry needs me. So does Peter. At least let me remain here. Ella’s fairy-tale is complete. As a bonus round, Hans and Greta’s story is fixing itself as we speak. Maybe I can fix some more stories? In say, fifteen years?’

  He looks resolute. So that’a s no.

  ‘Gabriel? I’’m telling you there is another way to honour my deal and you still insist that I come with you. Why?’

  An uneasy silence settles.

  ‘You know why,’ Gabriel says and turns away, but not before I see the side of his mouth twitch.

  Loretta makes goo-goo eyes at me and then at Gabe.

  When he turns back, his composure is that of a greek statue. ‘Nothing ever goes like we plan it. I had planned to see you happily married to Peter and live a full life and then, maybe after 80 years or so, recruit you as a guardian, but it was not meant to be.’

  I walk up to my guardian angel and put my hand on his arm, ‘We all make choices. You made a choice thirteen Earth years ago when you chose a new job over me.’

  ‘You know why I had to take that job,’ Gabriel says and I see something akin to regret in his baby blues.

  ‘You said your Boss would have killed me if you didn’t and you chose to believe him. Don’t you get it? What we could have had is no more. You stepped away. I met Peter, I love Peter, we have a son. Even if I do come and serve as a guardian, I will still love and miss my family. For all practical purposes, you are a non-romantic entity to me. Your choice was made thirteen years ago.’

  Gabriel’s eyes darken to a stormy grey.

  ‘Now, you just expect
me to up and leave my toddler and family at your say-so?’ I ask him and Loretta shrugs, rolling her eyes. ‘Is it really out of character for me to fight you on this?’

  ‘I remember there was a lot of fighting thirteen years ago,’ Gabe says. ‘I almost gave up on rescuing you.’

  That is news to me.

  ‘Well, if I was this much trouble thirteen years ago, why did you bother recruiting me?’

  Silence.

  ‘How am I the bad guy?’ He asks.

  Loretta whispers something to him rather theatrically so I can hear. ‘Erm, Boss? Haven’t you noticed how the deals you have started to make lately are not a far cry from what your Boss used to do? Remember how you loved those? Why are you faulting Grace for trying to get out of one?’

  ‘Guardian angels have to be willing, right?’ I say.

  He looks at me for a long time.

  ‘Why recruit an unwilling angel who would only waste away, staring at the Magic Kingdom screen to keep watch over her family?’ I ask.

  Still silence.

  ‘What if I chose not to serve? I mean, I can’t be the only one who…’

  ‘Is this attached to her family?’ Gabriel says, ‘No, Grace, you’re not. But that’s why we mostly recruit orphans with minimal attachment.’

  I chuckle, ‘Well, here’s the conundrum. I’m an orphan with plenty of attachment. I know I’ve made a deal, but can I choose not to go with you?’

  What would they do to me?

  What COULD they do to me?

  Send me to another dimension for penance?

  That would be punishment and the Agency isn’t about punishment. From what I remembered, saving someone presumed an understanding of the situation, the beings, their reasons for being in peril and not once had I heard a guardian say, ‘I told you so’.

  They wouldn’t punish me for insubordination, would they?

  ‘Trust me, you don’t want to go there,’ the man says.

  No, not a man. An angel.

  ‘Tell me.’

  He looks at me. ‘You made a deal with the Agency. And the Agency has strange ways of enforcement. When angels refuse to honour a deal they make, with the Agency or with their charges, they remain in the world they were sent to,’ he says.

  ‘Hooray! I get to stay here!’ I smile.

  ‘You do, but hear me out before you decide,’ he says and I nod.

  I get to decide. That was good.

  ‘You get to stay here. In your body,’ he says.

  Hooray!

  ‘But it would still be in the same peril as it was before and you wouldn’t get to use it,’ he finishes.

  ‘I am aware I can kick the bucket and end up a spirit.’

  I could be a ghost. Spirits can talk to people. I could still be a benevolent presence in my son’s life. I won’t be able to hug him, but I could talk to him.

  ‘You would not be a spirit. In your understanding of karma, you would be reinserted and into the situation as…a lesson,’ he says, his eyes telegraphing compassion.

  ‘If I cannot be a good example, I’ll be a horrible warning?’ I ask. ‘That kind of thing?’

  He nods.

  ‘That’s basically another guardian angel gig, just in disguise,’ I muse. ‘So, I’ll be a villain, but I do get to stay here?’ I ask.

  He nods again.

  I was a stepmother for three years and agreed to be the villain in Ella’s story. How much worse can it get?

  ‘Suits…’

  Gabriel holds up his hand, ‘Before you finish that sentence, listen to the very end. You wouldn’t be loved. Yes, you get to stay near your son, but he would hate you. He would be taught to hate you and be afraid of you.’

  I thought about Grizelda and the twins and how well they were getting along. ‘In time and with a lot of love I can overcome that,’ I say.

  He shakes his head, ‘You assume you’ll be able to speak.’

  ‘A mute character whom everybody would hate?’ I ask. ‘I thought angels weren’t vindictive.’

  ‘Not mute. Just not human.’

  ‘I’m not human now. What’ll change?’ I throw back at him.

  ‘Everything. You’d be unrecognisable. An animal. Your son would hate you. Is that really a life you would choose over serving as a guardian?’ Gabriel asks.

  ‘Unrecognisable I can handle. Animal? As far as I remember, Magic Kingdom has rules about NOT putting down sentient animals, courtesy of a talking horse way back when. I’d have time. Unless restricted by the life-span of the animal or my aneurysm, of course. And yes, I would choose that limited time living in someone’s skin who is hated, but being able to see my son over anonymously serving beings who mean nothing to me. Any day. Until I keel over.’

  Gabriel stares at me.

  I stare right back. ‘You still don’t get it. That a mother would do anything to be near her child. Even when it’s torture, even when she can’t speak to or touch her child. Even when her child hates her guts. Even if I’m my child’s ugly pet dog.’

  Gabriel just shakes his head. ‘You don’t understand what you’re asking me to do.’

  ‘I don’t want to go with you. I wish to remain here. Any way I can. What’s not to understand?’

  ‘Looks like your mind is made up,’ Gabriel says. ‘Fine. You get your wish. You will remain here, in the Magic Kingdom as a warning. For however long your body lasts. You won’t be a dog, though.’

  ‘What, then?’ I ask, getting a funny feeling in my extremities.

  ‘A wolf,’ Gabriel says as I hunch down on the ground, under the clothesline full of Henry’s bright red T-shirts.

  One month later

  ‘Is Grace coming back?’ Ella enquired, shoving a plate in front of Henry. ‘Eat!’ she told him as he looked up at her and smiled.

  ‘No,’ Peter said. ‘I’m afraid not.’

  ‘Well, why not?’ Ella demanded. ‘I’ve only just got married, I can’t take you all to live with me at the palace…’

  ‘You don’t have to. Grandmother will take Hans and Greta. Me and Henry, we’ll…relocate. Somewhere smaller,’ Peter said. ‘The village needs a huntsman, what with the wolves snooping around in the nearby forest. We could move to the edge of the village. I’ll have someone else take over the restaurant.’

  ‘Greta can do it, if she has a bit of help,’ Ella said. ‘She has always loved it. Don’t take that away from her. Hire someone to be the grown-up she can boss around.’

  Peter nodded, ‘Maybe Grizelda can tend the restaurant with the twins. If they can show that they have forgive her, maybe the rest of the villagers will be as charitable? Maybe it could be the new start they all need? They got their happily ever after…because of Grace. So did you.’

  Ella huffed, ‘Yes, I remember. And even I am worried, why aren’t you? Grace disappears and not only do you not go looking for her, you disband the entire family? While a wolf is on the loose? What kind of father are you?’ she demanded.

  ‘A grieving one,’ Peter said and scooped up a gob of porridge from the front of Henry’s favourite red shirt.

  Ella

  July 29th

  Dear diary,

  My life is completely changed!

  The very next day after Nick ‘saved’ me, he proposed marriage during the family dinner. He dropped down on one knee and held up a ring with the biggest sapphire I ever saw.

  Three days later we were married. The palace threw another ball, limiting attendance to the most trusted noble families, inviting their sons and daughters to mix and mingle, now that the Crown Prince had found his true love.

  Before the wedding, I needed help getting ready. Not from Mellie. She is off again, chasing after the man of her dreams. Again. The last I saw her, she came by the palace, gushed that she had found out where Oz was staying and is going afte
r him. Strangely, I could no longer find my silver shoes after she left. Loretta said she would deal with it later, after she is be back form some rescue mission.

  No, someone else helped me get ready. Someone I know better than any of the others, except it turns out that I didn’t know her at all. Someone nobody would suspect could be kind. Now and to me. She fluffed my skirts, straightened my veil, pinned my tiara. The whole lot. The handmaidens were more jittery than helpful, so I sent them away. The tiara - a lovely tradition, and it was so pretty - had to be pinned, but loose, detachable for when the archbishop would replace it with a small golden crown instead of it.

  Yup, I now have handmaidens who will be fastening my golden crown every morning. And fluffing my skirts. Dresses made by the best seamstresses in the land from materials of every colour of the rainbow.

  I’m still trying to get used to my hair…being done by other people. The maids like to keep it wavy, just like it was when I ‘met’ Nick.

  My mother-in-law is not as fearsome as everybody thinks. She even shed a tear at our wedding. I bet Belle is a big softie. I know the Beast is.

  Princess lessons started as soon as Nick and I were back from our honeymoon. Who knew there was so much to learn about royal duties? I thought my school and chore days were over. Sigh.

  Unlike school and chores, stepmother did go away.

  Grace disappeared on the night of my wedding. I found out about it a month later, when I visited Father - Peter, I still can’t get used to calling him Peter - after my honeymoon. I wanted to tell him the happy news about the baby. But I couldn’t tell him anything, not the state he was in.

  Grace simply…disappeared. The weird thing is, she didn’t take anything with her. She didn’t leave a note. Nor did she tell anyone where she was going.

  Father wears black and has even tried to get Henry to give up his red shirts. As if. So, people have started whispering that Grace is dead. Henry can’t tell me anything at all besides ‘Mama go away. Mama come back soon. She promised.’ He misses her like crazy and when he visits with Greta, he sometimes cuddles into my lap and cries, poor baby. For him, I wish she was still here. Not for everyone to hate, but for him to love. At least he has started talking more. I guess Grace worried for nothing.