Mirror, Mirror: Chapters 20–38

She grabbed the basket and began the arduous walk back to the castle, cursing her old legs.

She should have dispatched him when she first spotted him.

“As does her resolve. Learning her father lives has given her new vigor to proceed.”

Without her mother there to confer with, there was so much she was unsure of.

There was something about the smoke that looked odd. It didn’t billow up in a single line, or spiral like a twister.

It seemed to be spreading wider and wider, becoming darker with each plume.

The space was musty and dank.

The mirror had given her the power she needed to conjure that storm.

When the storm struck, Snow, her hapless prince, and those little men had no choice but to take cover in the cave.

Katherine began to take shape in the corner of the room, but this time she did not appear droll.

As Katherine stood watch, Ingrid succumbed to the pain and fell into a deep sleep on the cold floor.

Its masklike face was solemn.

He was not as short in stature as the dwarfs, but he was diminutive.

“But our new queen is not. She has taken our kingdom’s wealth and squandered it while destroying our relationships with our neighboring kingdoms. For our kingdom to survive, her reign must end.”

“This is for our livelihood,” Anne told him.

“If your village has already seen that ‘wanted’ scroll, then I suspect there must be dozens more just like it around the kingdom,” Snow mused.

“And one may not fare as well as the other in the end.”

“Alas, something is not right. The fairest and her beau are mist on a bright summer’s day. They have vanished in plain sight.”

Ingrid glanced at the poison apple that remained unused, lying on top of a basket of fruit. Its potency was still strong.

“What is this hogwash?” Grumpy blustered.

“What is this hogwash?” Grumpy blustered.

“Your presence here means more than I could ever convey. We have something the Evil Queen will never have—friendships, families, allies. In short, each other.”

Even after all these years, his blue eyes were still brazen.

Her end would then be imminent.

It stared at Ingrid somberly, making her feel uneasy.

Slipping through her corridor, she found a guard and spoke to him in the shadows, making like one of those incessant maids who used to always be hovering about till she’d had most of them dismissed.

The prince jumped out, wearing a guard’s uniform. Where had he procured that?

From her window, she could see the pandemonium, and she drank it in like the most wondrous elixir.

The boy’s body was on display for the entire village to see, and the fear on their faces was palpable.

Choose, the mirror surprisingly implored her again.

The once mighty Evil Queen had transformed into a hag, and Snow could not fathom why she had not turned back.

They had been made official envoys of the queen, and it was their job to journey to villages throughout the kingdom to talk to the people and learn of their needs and problems.

With the Evil Queen vanquished, the kingdom welcomed change.

Taxes were made more manageable, and farmers and miners enjoyed the opportunity to profit off what they’d sowed and found in the ground.

His official duty was acting as a trade liaison between neighboring kingdoms, including his own, but unofficially he was her heart and soul, and she wouldn’t be surprised if a day came in the not-so-distant future when they announced their intentions for marriage.