Mistress of All Evil (Villains 4)

Circe sat back down beside Snow. “We’ll be fine, sweetheart. I promise. This is the way my sisters and I have always traveled. The house is meant to move from one place to another like this. I just don’t understand why it’s happening now and on its own.”

“But where are we going, Circe?” Snow asked.

“I don’t know, my dear. I guess we’ll find out when we get there.”

Nanny had never imagined sitting with Maleficent like this again, just talking.

“I wish I knew what you were thinking. I always did,” Maleficent said.

“You seem much changed to me, Maleficent,” Nanny replied. “There are so many things I want to know, so many things I want to say to you, but there isn’t much time.”

“What could you possibly say to me now that would make a difference?” Maleficent snapped.

Nanny paused for a moment. “I could tell you that I understand.”

Maleficent stood, her rage burning within her. “There is no way you could possibly understand! Do you know how I spent those years after I destroyed the Fairylands? After I was finally myself again and no longer in my dragon form?” Maleficent asked.

Nanny shook her head.

“I was alone, tortured by the thought that I had killed you!” Maleficent’s rage knocked Nanny back like a blow to her chest. It felt hot and vile. Nanny was worried that Maleficent was about to lose control. It must have shown on Nanny’s face, because Maleficent cackled manically. “Oh, don’t worry; I won’t burn down your precious Tulip’s castle. I can control my powers now. Nothing will burn. Not unless I want it to.”

Nanny didn’t find that knowledge reassuring. “Maleficent, listen to me, I couldn’t find you, I swear. I searched everywhere. I used every kind of magic I could to seek you out. I mourned you sincerely, because I thought you had died when you destroyed the Fairylands. I thought your rage had consumed you. You have no idea how much I suffered over the loss of you.”

Maleficent shook her head violently. “But when you learned she was alive, you didn’t come to her. Your daughter! The odd sisters told you they’d found her, and you didn’t come! You didn’t come for her! You left her alone in that ruined castle.”

“You mean I left you alone in that castle. I didn’t come to you.”

“That girl, your daughter, she doesn’t exist! She’s dead because you abandoned her!”

“I was afraid,” Nanny admitted. “It wasn’t until the odd sisters came to me for help with the little princess that I knew what you had been going through. But then I had Aurora to consider. She was small and defenseless, like you had once been. She needed a home. And she needed someone to care for her and love her.”

“So you put her in the hands of the three good fairies? You gave my daughter to them! How could you?”

Nanny was shocked. “Your daughter? How is that possible? Is that true?”

“Don’t pretend like you didn’t know! Of course you knew! You know everything. Tell me you didn’t guess. Tell me you didn’t know in the back of your mind that she was mine. Be honest with me and with yourself for once!” Maleficent bellowed. “You gave her to them. To them! Those foul fairies! Those horrible creatures who loathe me! You gave my daughter to them!”

Nanny felt terrible. She’d failed Maleficent more than she had known. Nanny realized that Maleficent could never forgive her, no matter how much she pleaded with her. “I didn’t have a choice! I saw it the day of the exams. I saw that the good fairies would take care of a little girl whom they would grow to love very much. She was their charge, Maleficent. It was ordained. I can’t control the order of succession. I can’t change what is written in the book of fairies. You know this! You know it better than any fairy!”

“Why couldn’t you have given her to the Blue Fairy? To anyone other than them?”

“You know the Blue Fairy has her own charge—the little boy. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather were next in line. I’m sorry, Maleficent, but there was no way around it. All abandoned children with destinies of their own are given to a fairy. This is a fairy’s primary duty. And besides, if you hadn’t cursed her to die, cursed this child you call your own, the good fairies wouldn’t have had to stay in her life. Their involvement would have ended the day they gave her to King Stefan and his queen, the day of her christening! You caused the fairies to take her away into the forest and change her name. You did that with your curse. This is not my fault, Maleficent. You have brought this on yourself!”

“You could have taken her case! You could have stepped in!” Maleficent shouted. “You were always Oberon’s favorite. No one would have questioned you. You could have done that for me! You could have cared for her yourself! My goodness, in a way, she is your granddaughter.”

Nanny was stunned. “What do you mean my granddaughter? Where did you get Aurora? Is she your true daughter? Or did you find her?”

“The odd sisters didn’t tell you? You really don’t know?” Maleficent’s face became very still. She looked like an animal considering her prey as she tried to decide if Nanny was telling the truth. Nanny couldn’t hear Maleficent’s thoughts. She had no idea what she was thinking. Her face revealed nothing, no emotion, not even anger.

Maleficent smirked. “I’ve been practicing keeping my thoughts from you. I see that it’s working. For too long, you invaded my mind. For too long, you tried to steer me onto the course you thought I should take. All the while you knew we would end up here. In this place. In this time. As enemies.”

“I am not your enemy, Maleficent. You are.”

“You dare say that to me? Am I just another vain, power-hungry fool flinging herself into danger? Don’t insult me! You have no idea the pain I endured—what I went through.”

“Tell me.”

Maleficent was taken aback. “What?”