by Nadia Lee
Melinda was stunned. She'd been unable to see the Evil Witch before because of the blindfold. In all the illustrations, the Evil Witch was shown as a disgusting old hag. It was the farthest thing from reality. Glossy black hair framed a delicate heart-shaped face, and a pair of wide green eyes shone bright under the yellowish lights. A Tudor-style dress with a tight corset and ornate petticoats accentuated her slim body. If Melinda hadn't known better, she would've thought the Evil Witch perfect for playing the role of an ingénue in old Hollywood films.
"You're the Evil Witch?"
"If you insist on using such a vulgar epithet."
"You're really...gorgeous."
The Evil Witch beamed. "Why, thank you, my dear. You are too kind." She preened, then peered at Melinda through her eyelashes, her manners almost coquettish. "I believe I like you."
"If you like me, would you mind letting Beauty go?"
"I don't like you that much, my dear." Then the Evil Witch smiled. "If I let her go, what will you give me? Freedom from Fairy Godmother?"
Oh Lord. Melinda had almost forgotten about the watch. She raised her hand to tap her wrist, and...realized the watch was gone.
The Evil Watch wagged a finger. "How silly you are." She made a quick gesture and the watch appeared in her hand. She dangled it as if it were a dead rat. "Looking for this?"
Edward growled beside Melinda, and the Evil Witch laughed merrily.
"I could sense Fairy Godmother's snooty magic all over it. Truly, my dear, you should've guarded it with more care."
Edward said, "I knew she would steal it."
"Sorry."
"Now, children. I didn't steal it. I just took it."
That had to be some kind of family motto.
Beauty began to struggle. "Please let me go. I didn't do anything."
The Evil Witch twisted her around so she could look Beauty in the face, then backhanded her. The air cracked with the sound of flesh striking flesh, and Beauty fell, whimpering like a wounded bird.
Melinda sucked in a breath. "We have to do something, Edward."
Edward straightened himself painfully. "It's me that you want, Aunt. She's just an innocent girl."
"An innocent girl?" The Evil Witch opened and closed the hand she'd used on Beauty. They could hear her knuckles crack from across the second-storey divide. "I will never understand how all you Fairy Court sycophants can tolerate such simpering spinelessness." She pointed at Melinda. "She wasn't like this when my underlings caught her. A woman needs more gumption!
"Anyway, Nephew, I was right. You haven't changed at all. Still choosing your own self-interest over what is proper. And look where it's gotten you. You can't go home, and you can't have Beauty's love. Rather ironic, don't you think? Whereas I can now change everything. Truly, my sister should've read the Seventeenth Neverland Magical Accord with more care. Then she would know I can change the conditions of my curse whenever she meddled directly."
That sounded ominous. Melinda felt every beat of her heart with clarity. Edward was tense to the point that energy was radiating off of him like a heat wave.
"Your curse, as you can no doubt see, is restored. And I shall impose a further condition to break it.
"In addition to finding a woman who will love you in your beastly form, you will remain as you are until you can make an honorable, unselfish choice, one contrary to your self-interest. It took decades before you found Beauty, but of course she will never fall in love with you now. You'll have to find another. And now it will be doubly difficult, for I shall ensure that everyone knows of your action tonight." The Evil Witch got a beatific expression on her face, as though she were smelling freshly baked cookies. "Oh, that's so good. Misery is simply oozing out of you like molasses, Edward, and I like it. It's so thick it's almost tangible. And for no better reason than to add insult to injury, I'm going to use that emotion to anchor my beacon between this world and ours. No one will be able to cross into either without my permission. Including you, my dear," she said to Melinda.
The Evil Witch dropped the watch on the floor and stomped on it. The display cracked. "But really, you should thank me." Another stomp, and the crystal shattered. "Who else is going to--" another stomp "--teach you better manners and humility?"
Was that a cloud of fairy dust gathering around her foot? Melinda had imagined a more triumphant and heroic return to the Fairy Tale world, but she wasn't one to waste an opportunity.
"Happily ever after," she whispered, and crossed her fingers.
The light in the Tudor House vanished as though being sucked down a very long tunnel, and Melinda found herself falling.
IX. In Which Our Heroine Makes the Ultimate Sacrifice
There was a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. It expanded with breathtaking rapidity, and then the floor rose up and smashed into Melinda.
It took her a moment before she could think again. Beauty was beside her, mewling and cowering. Blood seeped from a scrape on her arm. The Evil Witch was sprawled amid her skirts. Edward in his beastly form was the only one who seemed to be sanguine about things. But then he had a thick hide and had somehow managed to land on his feet.
They were back in the Fairy Courtroom. The crowd was milling around in panic, and the judge had jumped to his feet.
"Order!" he shouted, banging with his gavel. "Guards!"
A squad of porcupines rushed in with their swagger sticks and shields, their quills quivering with tension. The Evil Witch rose and hissed at them. They stopped immediately, and one of the young ones squealed.
"What is this, this circus?" She gestured at the guards. "Why hasn't my sister upgraded to something more dignified? Like trolls?"
"We couldn't agree on pension benefits," Fairy Godmother said from her seat on the judge's right. A spotlight shone over her. "After Snow White unionized those dwarves, the trolls followed suit and, well..."
"Fairy Godmother!" Melinda said. She got up and curtsied. "Sorry for crashing into your court like this."
"It's all right, my dear. I just wish you'd remembered my instructions so Beauty wouldn't have been injured. I told you to tap, not stomp."
Melinda nodded. "I apologize."
"Stop sniveling!" The Evil Witch turned to Fairy Godmother. "I was hoping never to see you again."
"Hello, baby sister."
Baby sister? Melinda looked at the Evil Witch, then Fairy Godmother then Edward. "You're all related?"
"Didn't you know?" the Evil Witch said. "She's his mother. Oh, do close your mouth. You look like an imbecile goldfish." She looked around slowly, meeting each and every person's eye. Then she began pacing deliberately along the front of the judge's bench. "Now. I want to make it clear that you've all failed. You have failed, and I have won. Beauty will never fall in love with Edward, and he is doomed to live bestially ever after."
The crowd gasped and murmured. Several princesses swooned, but fortunately quick knights caught them before they hit the floor. The frog hopped to and fro on its seat.
The Evil Witch laughed. "Oh don't be so melodramatic. You haven't even heard the best part! With the Beast's misery I can bring unhappiness to both this world and Lightfoot's." Her teeth gleamed white as she smiled. "You should've read the accord more carefully, sister."
"My, that is rather unfortunate," Fairy Godmother said.
"Unfortunate?" The Evil Witch stomped her foot. "Unfortunate? It's catastrophic!"
Fairy Godmother turned to Melinda. "Miss Lightfoot, is this all true?"
Would Fairy Godmother shoot the messenger? Melinda thought the prosecutor might. They probably needed someone to blame, and they could pin everything on her. After all, if she hadn't come to the Fairy Tale World, the Evil Witch would never have been able to escape with Beauty. But looking at Fairy Godmother's serene radiance, she knew she could never lie to her.
"I'm afraid so. I'm sorry." She gestured at Beauty, who seemed to have an absolutely inexhaustible amount of tears. "She saw Edward in his human form."
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br /> "Oh dear."
"It's not only that, sweet sister," the Evil Witch added gleefully. "Edward chose to save Lightfoot so that he could return to his castle, and Beauty saw that as well. No spell exists that could ever erase such a horrific betrayal from one's memory."
Fairy Godmother frowned. "That does seem rather dire."
"You should've been a better disciplinarian. I told you there's no child a good rod wouldn't benefit, but noooo. You had to spoil your boys rotten."
"I'd think that a woman who doesn't have children of her own wouldn't complain about other people's parenting. Walk a mile in another's shoes and all that."
"I don't want your old shoes." The Evil Witch glared at Fairy Godmother's pink slippers. "Mine are prettier." The Evil Witch raised her skirt and extended a well-shaped leg. The foot at the end of it was encased in a glass stiletto.
"Hey, wait a minute!" A blonde in a pretty blue silk dress rose. "That's mine!"
"Not anymore."
"You stole my shoes!"
"Why must these accusations of 'stealing' forever hound me? I took them."
Fairy Godmother nodded. "To be expected."
"But they were a gift from the prin--"
The Evil Witch glared at the blonde. "Don't think your happily ever after is going to stay safe if you persist in being difficult on this point, Cindy."
The blonde turned deathly pale, her gaze darting to the Beast. She sat down.
Melinda raised a hand. "Excuse me."
The entire court turned to her.
"It's nice to like...I don't know, witness a heartwarming family reunion, but shouldn't you be more worried about other things?"
"I'm not at all worried," the Evil Witch said. "I'm sure my sister is."
Everyone looked at Fairy Godmother.
"Ah, well." She shrugged and adjusted a ruffle on her dress. "I'm sure we'll find a suitable princess for Edward soon."
"Will you? I added another condition to the curse."
"True love conquers all, baby sister."
The crowd nodded approvingly, but the Evil Witch pointed at Edward. "Love? More like charity. Just look at him! Who could possibly love an animal like that?"
Beauty raised her eyes to Edward and made a keening noise of distress, her sobs redoubling. Edward looked at her and growled in frustration. Melinda, watching them both, found herself stepping forward. "I could."
All heads swiveled her way.
"What!" the Evil Witch exclaimed.
"I could. Love him, that is." Melinda swallowed, suddenly nervous. "As a matter of fact, I already do."
"What a fool you are. Don't you know he'll be a Beast until he can make an honorable choice contrary to his self-interest? Do you think that will happen anytime soon? Ha! You might as well wish for Frog Prince to sprout wings and fly!"
"That can be arranged," Fairy Godmother said.
"No."
Edward had risen to his full (and very impressive) height. Everyone looked at him, and Melinda's heart began hammering. What did he mean no?
"Melinda, I cannot allow you to make such a choice. You deserve a happily ever after of your own."
"So?"
"You cannot have it with me."
"Why not, Edward?"
"Because..." He heaved a sigh. "You shouldn't be with something like me. You should be with someone who's better. Who's not a beast. Not...cursed." His shoulders slumped and he whispered, "Someone like Charming."
"But I don't want Charming, silly. I want you." She went to him and held his huge clawed paw in her hands. "Remember how you said all happily ever afters are hard work? Well, you were right. I...I thought they weren't, and I thought my own would just magically happen for me one day. I was just waiting for something good to come my way."
Confusion clouded his emerald eyes.
"Now I'm tired of waiting. I want to reach out and take it."
"That is...welcome news indeed," he said slowly.
"I know. That's why I'm going to hold onto you."
"Melinda." He gently disengaged his paw. "You promised you won't give up on your happily ever after."
Melinda shook her head, flushing at the memory of their kiss. "I'm not."
The entire court gallery sighed. Knights made ready to assist.
"This is ludicrous!" the Evil Witch said, stamping her foot. Melinda hoped her glass shoe would break, but it was probably enchanted or something. "Get a room, you two! We have minors here. And stop lying for the sake of your audience." She turned to face the crowd. "He is making a false choice to trick us." She walked toward Edward until she was standing a hairsbreadth away and glared up at him. "Selfish arrogant nephew, your lies don't fool me."
"Look!" The judge pointed at the soft glow of fairy dust that was coalescing around Edward. "His Highness is changing."
He was right. Light shimmered around Edward, and the fur and mane fell to the floor, exposing human skin. His face began to shrink and reform, and the Evil Witch stared at him with her mouth open.
"Well! It looks as if magic knows the truth," Fairy Godmother said with a smile.
"No!" The Evil Witch turned to Fairy Godmother. "I won't stand for this! You're cheating somehow!"
Fairy Godmother shook her head. "It's your curse, sister. I haven't done anything. I swear it."
"The beacon is weakening. Argh!" The Evil Witch pulled at her hair. "I'm stuck here again!"
The prosecutor stood up, pulling at his collar. "Ah, ahem. If it pleases the court, I recommend that all charges against Miss Lightfoot be dropped. It seems she has done us a great service."
The crowd cheered, and the Evil Witch turned a dull, poisonous red. (People remembering the event years later said that she somewhat resembled a certain vegetable, but no one would say the name of the vegetable aloud.)
Edward and Melinda held each other. Fairy Godmother turned her attention to a dejected Beauty. "Poor child, you've gone through so much. I do apologize...but I think there may be a solution."
She looked to a particular spot in the gallery, and a large frog jumped off of its chair, the crown on its head falling and rolling along the floor. It hopped through the balustrade, under the prosecutor's table and to Beauty's feet. She picked it up in one hand and stared at it, her tears finally beginning to dry. Melinda had never thought that amphibians had much in the way of expression, but this one kind of looked hopeful.
"Let us convene a council to discuss the matter," Fairy Godmother said. "Methinks Beauty deserves a happily ever after." She glanced at her apoplectic younger sister over a shoulder. "Would you like to join us? Your council seat is still available."
"Oh, I suppose." The Evil Witch grabbed Beauty's free hand. "Come along, we're going to discuss your fate. Perhaps I should give you a pox so that you and that toad will match."
"He's a frog, not a toad," Beauty said, but it was lost in the Evil Witch's muttering.
When the crowd had gone, Edward took Melinda's hand. "Are you sure this is your decision? You may not be able to return to your world. Your 'Charger' and dwelling and so on...what are you going to do?"
"It's not as difficult as you make it sound. We overcame the Evil Witch, Edward. We can do anything." She put her arms around his neck and gave him a big smile. "My love, I have everything I want as long as you're with me."
...and they lived happily ever after.
About Nadia Lee
Bilingual former management consultant Nadia Lee has lived in four different countries and enjoyed many adventures and excellent food around the globe. In the last eight years, she has kissed stingrays, got bitten by a shark, ridden an elephant and petted tigers.
She shares an apartment overlooking a river and palm trees in Japan with her husband, winter white hamsters and an ever-widening pile of books. When she's not reading or writing, she can be found digging through old Asian historical texts or planning another trip.
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