“Are you sure you want us to save your mother, dear? Do you really want to go back to your lands with your mother always watching you from behind the mirror? Trapped forever in the company of the woman who tried to kill you?”
“You made her do it! I read the book of fairy tales! I read your journals! I know the truth!”
Lucinda inched her way closer, her eyes locked on Snow. “So brave. You surprise me,” said Lucinda. Then, looking down at Grimhilde’s bloody and broken body, she cackled. “Can you hear me, Grimhilde? Can you feel how frightened your daughter is? You wouldn’t know it by the look on her face. You should be proud. She has found her hate at last.
“When was the last time you saw your own reflection in the mirror and not your mother’s, Snow? She doesn’t want you to know how beautiful you are! She never has! She’s the same spiteful, hurtful witch she always was! Do you know she begged us to kill you? Begged us! So desperate to be rid of you so her father would call her the fairest in the lands. She wished for your death!” said Lucinda, taking delight in hurting Snow White.
“Shut your mouth! You did that to her! My mother loves me! She loves me now, and she loved me then.”
“So she does. Loves you so much she trapped Maleficent’s bird Opal, using the poor creature against her will so we could lure Maleficent from beyond the veil! And then your mother marveled in awe as she watched us use debased and black magic to bring Maleficent’s dragon form back to life! Loves you so much she helped Pflanze aid us in our escape from the land of dreams so we could raise Maleficent from the dead. All in exchange for you! She’s been plotting and scheming with us without a care about who lives or dies in the process! So don’t you see, my dear? Your mother is, and has always been, a witch. She is just like us.”
“Lies!”
“Your mother came to us in the dreamscape! She begged us to help her! She agreed to do whatever it took as long as she had you back at home with her again. So who is lying, Snow White? I think it may be you who are lying to yourself!”
Snow White looked down at her mother. Her breathing was shallow and blood was starting to pour from the long slashes that covered her face and body. “She’s dying, please help me!”
“Look at this. Snow White asking us for help? Asking the vile harpies who turned your mother against you to save her. What would King Charming think of that?”
But Snow wasn’t listening; she was bent over her mother, trying to hear what she was saying. It was a small whisper, barely audible, like a small hiss.
“Come closer, my darling. I love you,” said Grimhilde as her wounds started to crack open. She was falling apart like a shattered mirror, blood pooling all over the floor around her, making Snow White scream. Her mother was dead. Shattered into a million pieces. Snow had lost her forever. And to her surprise, underneath the horror, pain, and grief, she felt relief.
The odd sisters laughed as they watched Snow White looking down on her mother in horror. “Oh! We see into your heart, Snow White! Not so pure after all! We see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! Wishing death upon your mother, we see!” The odd sisters spoke in sickening har
mony.
“It’s not true!” screamed Snow. “It’s not true!”
“Speaking of apples,” said Ruby. “Did you find the gift your mother left on our doorstep?” Snow White looked up at Ruby, disgusted by the delight she was taking in these horrors. “What are you saying?”
The odd sisters laughed again. “Who else would bring you such a nice red apple but your mother?”
Snow White stood up, her hands and the hem of her dress covered in her mother’s blood. “Lies!” The odd sisters’ laughter filled the room, and something about it made Snow White feel as if these wretched women were telling the truth. She hated to admit it, but she knew in her heart her mother had left the apple. She had felt the same way that day in the odd sisters’ house that she felt right before her mother appeared this evening. Panic. The need to flee. But that feeling was gone. Dead with her mother. And with that she found a great sense of power within herself. She wasn’t afraid of the odd sisters.
“Don’t be a fool, Snow White. Witch’s daughter or not, you have no power over us. No antidote. True love’s first kiss will not help you to defeat these witches!” Martha said, cackling, as Lucinda grabbed Snow White by the throat and squeezed tightly.
Circe finally managed to burst through the door. Her face contorted in horror as she saw what her mothers were doing to Snow. Hazel and Primrose followed, readying themselves for battle.
“Snow! The locket! Drink it!” screamed Circe. She and Hazel flung curses at Lucinda, but they only made Lucinda laugh more—that is until she heard choking noises coming from Ruby and Martha. They were being strangled by an invisible force. Lucinda released Snow at once, and Ruby and Martha fell to the ground as well, gasping for air. A look of utter disgust crossed Lucinda’s face.
“What witchery is this?” she whispered, looking at Circe. “Did you do this?”
Circe could feel her mothers’ anger. It sent a chill throughout her body, making her shiver. The odd sisters were screaming so loudly she thought they would bring the mansion down around them.
“How dare you share your blood—our blood—with Snow White!” screamed Lucinda, her eyes blazing with anger. “You can’t protect Snow White from us forever!” Then she turned to Snow White. “And you can’t have her! Circe is ours! As she was meant to be! As she was designed to be! Together we will bring darkness into this world and we will sing and dance to the sounds of screams from the land of the living!”
“Daughter, stop this at once!” It was Jacob. He stood there, serene and composed. Stoic and fatherly. Lucinda stopped cold. Her face crumbled into that of a little girl being scolded.
“Father?” Lucinda whispered, her voice so small that it seemed unnatural.
Circe had never seen her mother so passive. A calmness came over Lucinda, as if seeing her father somehow brought her out of her madness, if only for a moment. Martha and Ruby looked transfixed, their heads tilted to one side, their eyes too wide, and their mouths agape. Something about the man calmed her mothers, bringing them back to the edge of sanity and making Circe remember why she loved them.
“Calm yourself, my precious girl. All this rage and anger. You’re too much like your mother and grandmother. You must learn to quiet your souls,” Jacob cooed, trying to soothe his daughters.
“Don’t speak to me of my mother and grandmother! They cast us away, sending us off to live with the fairies and into the hands of the One of Legends! You realize that is how she got her name, don’t you? It wasn’t coined because of her greatness!” said Lucinda, her madness returning.
“We didn’t want to send you away! We had no choice, my girl! I promise you it was the last thing your mother and I wanted to do!”