Corlan stood up and began to pace within the parlor. Snow could tell he would not rest until the full strategy had worked itself out within his mind.
She listened to the fairies chatter for a few minutes before walking over to him. “What are you thinking?” she asked.
He stopped and glanced her way. “I was just pondering everything, wondering if perhaps this might actually work. Remember, I have read the accounts of what the mirror has done in the other kingdoms. We must at least try to withstand it.”
“None of the other kingdoms had fairies,” she said.
“I know. It is what gives me hope.” He grinned over in Hope’s direction.
Snow searched his features until he looked at her again. Then she caught his gaze and held it. “Do you believe Melantha can come back to us?” she whispered.
Corlan closed his eyes briefly. “I hope so, though I do wonder how we will ever be able to forgive her.”
She looked at him for a while and could not say a word. Even her forgiving heart would take a long time to trust and forgive after this.
“Come, you two,” Grace called. “Let us sort through the rest of our plans. No matter what happens tonight, whether we are able to save Melantha or not, our true focus is to bring peace back to Olivian and remove the curse from the castle.”
They planned for several hours, all of them together. The fairies made sure everyone was comfortable and well fed, but the plan was all anyone could speak of. And then just around seven o’clock, Love announced to the group, “I hear the horn. It is time!”
Quickly, Raven, Corlan, and Snow huddled together while four fairies stood around them, tugging upon their clothes.
Snow looked up at Corlan, her hands clenched his. Her slight fear must have shown on her face because he kissed her brow and whispered, “It will be fine. I will not allow her to harm you.”
“Now!” Grace commanded. “It is time.”
And they were gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE GROUP ARRIVED JUST outside the castle. As they had planned earlier, Corlan walked in alone first while the others waited for King Herbert and Brave to appear. He made his way directly to his mother’s rooms. If all went as intended, it should be quite easy to trap her within the mirror. What happened after that was still uncertain, but at least a massive battle would not be needed, thanks to the help of the fairies. It was crucial that the fewest people possible were harmed in this confrontation.
He knocked upon her door. “Mother, I have come home.”
The door opened on its own and he found her seated in front of her mirror, her back to him, her red hair as full and pretty as before. “I know,” she stated simply. “I know everything.”
He walked closer to her as she flicked her wrist and the door slammed shut. “Are you sure you know everything?”
“Yes!” she hissed and turned toward him. She was even more hideous than before.
He flinched. Her face had a green-grayish tint to it with deep lines and a long, crooked nose. “Mother?”
“Yes, Corlan, it is I, your mother.” She stood from her chair and took a few steps toward him, her back greatly bowed. “This is what you made me! This is the monster I have become now!” Her eyes took on a reddish hue. “Do you see me?”
“How did I do this?” he asked.
She shrieked and lunged for him. Her nails looked like pointed claws as he easily sidestepped her. When she fell to the ground, he did not offer to help her up. “Do you see this? Do you see me?” she wailed. “I found the mirrors you hid away. I have seen myself, and it is your fault! You and your precious Snow White!”
She let out a wild roar at Snow’s name, her face contorting as she howled at the ceiling. “I want her dead!” she screamed. “Dead!” Her breathing became harsh afterward and she had to speak softer. “Why did you bring her back to life? Why did you work with those dim-witted fairies? You had to fall under Snow’s spell, just like everyone else.” She reached for a stool near his feet and threw it upward at him.
He dodged just as it whizzed past his head.
“Why were you so stupid? Did you not know what she was doing to you? You do not love her! You would never love her on your own. She has forced it out of you!” Melantha lay down and curled into a ball as she began to sob. “Look what it has done to me. Your own mother.”
“No,” he said quietly. “It was not Snow’s curse that has ruined everything.” He hunched down to be closer to her. “It was your greed and your mirror that have destroyed you. You chose this life. You chose this face. I have no sympathy for anyone who cares so little about the people they rule over that they would follow the promptings of an evil mirror.”
“Take it back, Corlan,” she said, her voice taking on an eerie quality.
“Never.” He stood up. “I will never, for it is the truth! Your greed has given you this appearance. I am only attempting to save this kingdom from you before it is too late!”
“Take it back, Corlan.” Her shoulders began to shake.
He stepped further away. “No. You need to hear the truth before all is lost. We can save you. We have come to save you, Mother. If you destroy the mirror, everything will go back to the way it was. Everything. But you must do it! You must!”
“I will never destroy that mirror!” she screeched. In a great flurry of motion, she stood up and began to grow before him, rising higher and higher.
“You must!” he shouted at her.
“The mirror is me!” Her features blurred briefly and he saw the mirror’s face—the man peering down at him. “We are one!” she bellowed, her voice echoing wildly.
Just then the fairies broke through the door.
“No, you demon!” Corlan ran toward her. “Get out of her! You do not own Melantha!”
“Corlan! Halt!” Terrance shouted as he rushed into the room. “Do not attack the mirror or it will absorb you too!”
Melantha grew even taller. Her red wig slipped off, showing scales down her neck.
Corlan stepped back, coming flush up to Raven and Snow. “Get out of this room!” he fiercely whispered.
“No. I came to face this with you,” Snow said.
Terrance pushed Raven behind him and moved her toward the door as the small fairies went forward.
“I know all!” the queen said. “I know why you are here! You wish to kill me! You want to demolish my mirror. I will not let you! You will all die first!” Green smoke began to pour into the room—from her mouth this time.
“Now!” shouted Corlan to the fairies. “Do it now!”
The fairies formed a circle in the air as the green smoke lapped up Corlan’s legs, freezing him to the spot just as King Herbert ran into the rooms and became frozen as well.
The fairies chanted something and the whole chamber glowed in a mystical white light before it flashed—the brightness exceeding anything Corlan had ever experienced before.
All at once, he could hear the sound of Melantha shrieking, and he noticed he could move his arms. “It worked! The power is receding!” Twisting around, he saw the others moving their arms too. The fairies were now above Melantha, and she had shrunk back to her normal size. The green smoke seemed to be pulling her into the mirror with it.
The queen’s frantic shrieks pinged in his ears. As the smoke slid down his legs, he could feel his knees and then feet give way. Finally he was free! He spun around and captured Snow quickly up to his heart. “Do not leave my side,” he whispered in her ear, grateful she was still in one piece.
“Melantha, enough!” shouted King Herbert as she slipped into the mirror. He ran up to the looking glass.
Her hideous face peered at him in shock. “Herbert?”
“I am here!” His eyes traced her features anxiously. “What have you done, my dear? What have you done?”
“Do not look at me!” She hid behind her hands in the looking glass. “Go away! Leave me now!”
Corlan stepped forward. This was the mother he remembere
d. Could the curse be slipping?
The king grasped the mirror. “What have you done to yourself?”
She peeked at him through her green fingers. “You came back.”
“Of course I did! I would always come back for you!”
“The mirror said you would not. He said you would never come back to me, that you hated me.” She began to sob, her face still covered.
“Fairies, please release a portion of her, if you can,” Herbert said. “Please. Just her head. I wish to speak to her, to touch her.”
“No!” Melantha tried to pull away, but the bright light of the fairies’ magic forced her head and neck out of the mirror, removing her hands to show them all how truly revolting she had become. The queen turned her head away. “Herbert, leave me. Do not see me this way, I beg of you.” Her sobs grew even more.
“Shh…” The king stepped forward and brushed a tear from her green, lined cheek. “I did not fall in love with your beauty, my dear. I fell in love with your heart, your desire to change the world for good.” He held her face and peered into her eyes. “Where is my bride? Where is her heart? I know she is in there. Come back to me.”
“Herbert, you fool!” she shouted at him. “I killed your daughter! You do not want me. I will only continue to hunt you all. I am not who I once was!”
“Mirror!” Herbert commanded, “I am speaking to my bride. I want no more of your conversation here. Leave us!” Still holding her face, he said, “Melantha, tell him to leave!”
She shook her head slightly as more tears came. “I cannot.”
“Yes, you can. It is that easy. He must listen to you. You own him. He does not own you—not yet. Do not let him take you from me. Melantha, I know you are there.”
“Why do you care? I am a monster now. You do not love me. You should not love me!”
“You are wrong. You are so very wrong. Do not leave me, my dear. Do not allow the mirror to take you too.” A tear made its way down the king’s face. “Come back. I love you!”
“Herbert?” she cried. “How could you still love me after all this?”
He leaned forward and kissed her green lips as if she really was the dearest woman on earth. “Because I am yours. I have always been yours. And I will not give up on you just because you have given up on yourself. I love you, Melantha. Tell the mirror to leave so I can have you again. I need you, my dear. I need you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
RAVEN WATCHED WITH TEARS rolling down her cheeks as Melantha closed her eyes. She never truly understood the goodness of her stepfather’s heart until that moment. If every woman had the love of a man as great as King Herbert, she would never fail.
She brushed at her tears as Terrance’s arm wrapped around her waist and brought her in closer. “Are you well?” he asked.
Sniffling, she nodded. “Yes.”
Her mother’s face twisted and strained, its ugly features distorting even more. The image of the mirror formed itself upon her features before flickering away again. “Release me!” she muttered as she pushed against the force of the curse surrounding her. “Release me now!”
All at once, the mirror’s frame cracked and popped apart a few inches at the seams.
Raven gasped. It was working! The queen was destroying the mirror!
The king stepped back. “Melantha! Yes!”
Green smoke began to pour from the mirror again, but this time it faded as soon as it touched the ground. With a loud groaning shout, she pushed again and then said, “Mirror, I command you to destroy yourself! Let me go! My husband’s love is ten times more powerful than you are!” She strained again and this time the mirror cracked. A small line fissured from her neck up to the frame. With another groan, the mirror gave in a great explosion of shattered glass.
Raven and Terrance ducked as it flew at them and then dissolved before their eyes. When Raven looked up, she beheld her mother—the mother she had always known, in her red-haired glory, standing in front of them all. She wore her gold wedding gown and had never looked more enchanting.
“Melantha?” Herbert asked as he stepped toward her.
“Yes.” She glanced around the room as if seeing everyone for the first time. “It is me. I am back.”
He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. “I love you!”
Almost in a daze, she slowly folded her arms around him and then whispered, “I love you more.”
When she pulled away, there were tears glistening in her eyes. “Thank you.” And then she searched the crowd. “Snow?”
Corlan held her. “Yes?” she said, but did not step forward.
“I do not expect forgiveness for anything I have done, but know that I vow never to wish you harm again.”
“Corlan?” She nodded at him and then said, “Raven?” She searched until she found her. “I am sorry for what I have done to you as well. I promise I will do everything in my power to make it up to you both.”
“Perhaps,” King Herbert said with a shaky breath as he grinned, “it is better you do not try to do things in your power. Mayhap it is best if you do things as well as you can, and allow the rest to sort itself out.”
Melantha looked at him seriously for a moment and then rested her head upon his shoulder. “I think I shall take each day one step at a time, and relearn what truly makes me happy.”
“I love you,” he said to her.
Suddenly Melantha slipped to her knees and began to weep. “What have I become? I do not deserve any of this, and yet, you are too kind. You are too good. How will I ever rise above that monster I turned into?”
“It was not you, Mother,” Raven said. “It never was. We always knew it was the mirror behind it all.”
King Herbert knelt down. Placing his arm around her, he said, “Every day will prove itself brighter—every single day. Now that you are out of the mirror’s clutches, you shall truly begin to heal. No matter what tomorrow brings, know that I will always love you. And if I have breath in my body, I will use it to prove that.”
And he did. King Herbert and Queen Melantha ruled in peace for the rest of their years together. Their kingdom was one of graciousness and love. And thankfully, due to the harsh lessons of the mirror, Melantha learned to settle into helping those nearest to her and allowing them the peace they deserved. No longer did she desire for the power to save the world—only the ability to help those closest.
Corlan and Snow soon wed and he moved her to his castle in the kingdom next door—the castle he grew up in. They ended up having seven children, three stalwart princes whom they named Truth, Brave, and Peace, and four princesses who bore the names of Grace, Hope, Joy, and Love. They ruled their kingdom using those seven gifts all seven days of the week, and truly found eternal happiness.
It took a bit more convincing for Terrance and Raven to see how they perfectly belonged to one another. However, at the wedding feast for Corlan and Snow, Terrance bowed low and presented Raven with a golden ring engraved with the words “Forever yours, forever true.” He did so with such flourish and with those dashed dimples peeking out, she could do nothing but weep and accept the love he offered, for even she knew it was time.
After the wedding, they moved to the Sybright court, where she happily ruled with him for the longest of the three couples. They had two strapping sons and a delightful daughter who was just as quick-witted as her parents but had all the charm of her father. At least, that is what her mother would say each time she looked at her daughter’s divine dimples.
And so we see in this tale the beginnings of three different stories, all wrapped around an eternal purpose—to love with all thy heart. For this is the story of kings and queens who overcame their fears, learned to battle the worst within them, and grew in patience to mature into who they were destined to become.
And each and every one of them lived happily ever after.
THE END
FROG PRINCE
CHAPTER ONE
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE Nolan turn
ed to his mother, Queen Bethany of Hollene Court, and announced, “I have decided to do it!” He threw the missive from his intended, Princess Blythe McKenna, upon the small end table near the settee in the formal drawing room where his mother preferred to take her tea.
“You decided to do what, dear?” his mother asked as she sipped at her cup.
“I have decided to visit Blythe in disguise.” He sighed and sat down across from her in a green-and-white striped overstuffed chair. “I must meet her in person. I cannot ascertain from her letters what she is truly like. It is a great muddle, and it is time I decided once and for all if I will indeed offer my hand or not.”
“But you are already promised to each other!” She set her cup upon the saucer and placed them both on the end table. “What is this nonsense?”
“Mother, it is not nonsense. Betrothing me as an infant is not something I can accept, especially when I am quite unsure whether my bride-to-be is a spoiled child or a blessed saint.”
She gasped. “Nolan! Watch your tongue.” She never did enjoy his mention of saints as general cant.
Nolan sighed. “Forgive me. But there is something so self-possessed about her letters that quite causes me to scowl. I have got to sort this out for myself before any royal announcements are made. It is time I approached this differently, visited her as an uninvited guest, and saw how she would treat me.”
“My goodness!” The queen’s hand flew to her prominent bosom, the plum ruffles of her gown doing much to make her appear rounder and plumper than she actually was. “What do you plan to do, Nolan? Disguise yourself as a pauper or some such?” She looked truly scandalized.
He chuckled to himself. Perhaps it was the mischief-maker in him, or perhaps he enjoyed unsettling her feathers, but whatever the reason, he took pleasure in watching his mother’s reactions. At times they were simply invaluable. “No, not a pauper. I have decided to take it a step further than that.”
“How shall you disguise yourself, then?”