Her sisters hung there, pinned, unable or unwilling to move, not saying a word.
“Never meddle with the Prince or Belle again! If you do, I will make good on my promise! I will give your voices to Ursula and you will never be able to use your foul magic again!” The odd sisters just stared at her, wide eyed, saying nothing, as they had been commanded.
Circe put her hand on the face of the mirror where she saw Belle crying over the Beast’s dead body. The poor thing thought she had just lost the love of her life. “Not if I can help it,” said Circe as she cast her magic. Rose and silver lights showered down around them, lifting the Beast’s body into the air. His body twisted and entangled with the glittering lights until he was no longer the Beast but the man Circe had once known so many years before. The Prince. His face was no longer marred with anger, vanity, and cruelty. She could see his soul had truly changed.
With her magic, Circe encircled the lovers in light that soared upward into the sky and cascaded down again, raining beautiful sparks, transforming the castle and everyone within it to their original forms.
“Lumiere! Cogsworth! Oh! Mrs. Potts! Look at us!” cried the Prince, seeing his fondest friends for the first time in many years.
Circe smiled as she saw how delighted her magic had made the Prince and Belle. They were happy, and they were in love, and they were surrounded by all their friends and family—including Belle’s father, who looked more than a little confused suddenly to be at a fancy ball when only moments before he’d been in that appalling sanitarium. But he wasn’t going to worry about that just then. He was happy to see his darling Belle again.
It turned out exactly as Circe had hoped. The Prince had finally learned what it was to love—to truly love and to have that love returned.
She smiled again, taking one last look at the Prince and Belle dancing in the great hall before wiping their image from the enchanted mirror, leaving them to live and love happily ever after.
SERENA VALENTINO has been weaving tales that combine mythos and guile for the past decade with her work on the comic book series GloomCookie and Nightmares & Fairy Tales, published by SLG Publishing. She has earned critical acclaim in both the comic and horror domains, where she is known for her unique style of storytelling, bringing her readers into exquisitely frightening worlds filled with terror, beauty, and extraordinary female protagonists. Her first novel, the well received Fairest of All, examines the life of Snow White’s Wicked Queen.