“What is that horrible brat queen doing in our house?” Martha yelled, but Lucinda quieted her sisters. She wanted to hear what Circe was saying.
“I understand now. It all makes sense. Everything. Every foul deed. My sisters’ mania. My powers. Everything.”
“No!” The odd sisters’ screams filled the chamber, but they were distracted by some of the mirrors that were now flashing images of Maleficent.
“Sisters, look! It’s Maleficent!”
Ruby shot Aurora a wicked look. “Why are you changing the mirrors? We asked to see our sister!”
“Ruby! Look! The Tree Lords are going to kill Maleficent!” Martha cried.
“This isn’t how she dies! This isn’t how it ends!” Lucinda screamed, panic-stricken.
“No, Sisters, look!” Ruby said, pointing at another mirror, where the prince was escaping Maleficent’s castle on his white horse with the help of those wretched good fairies. From the parapet of her castle, Maleficent waved her glowing staff, summoning her dark magic. Shouting the words of her evil spell, Maleficent took control of the thorny vines, making them encircle King Stefan’s castle.
“Good girl!” Lucinda yelled. “You control the darkness, evil one! Make a dark storm! Surround the castle with thorns!” She looked to her sisters. “This is what’s happening now! She is pursuing the prince!”
Lucinda was worried about the good fairies’ helping the prince, and she was fearful they would overcome Maleficent. She took a little crescent moon-shaped sickle from her bodice belt and sliced her hand. She held her hand open, palm up, and let the blood pool there until there was so much it started to seep between her fingers, dripping onto the floor. “Sisters, come.”
Ruby and Martha held out their long, clawlike hands, letting Lucinda slice open their palms with a quick unceremonious gesture. Aurora watched in horror as the odd sisters placed their bloodstained hands on the mirror while Lucinda said the words: “Let us help this witch, this fairy true, and see into her heart and give her her due.”
The odd sisters started to convulse, shaking uncontrollably as they repeated the words, this time more loudly than before.
“Let us help this witch, this fairy true, and see into her heart and give her her due.”
The odd sisters could now see into the Dark Fairy’s heart. They knew she wanted to kill the prince. They could feel what she felt—all her sorrow, her loneliness, her anger and pain. The weight of it was crushing.
This is how the story goes. This is who I am and who I was always destined to be. I am the mistress of all evil.
The odd sisters felt cold hearing Maleficent say those words. In a confusing flash, they saw the young Maleficent, they saw themselves young, all of them different, much different from how they were now. They remembered the young girl they had loved, the young girl they had hoped would never see this day. The little witch fairy they wanted to protect. Suddenly, without understanding why, their perspective changed; they were brought back into themselves, feeling quite different, quite like themselves again. They were eager to see Maleficent embrace her powers and her dark destiny. To see her control the darkness and use it to her advantage. They’d always known this day might come, even if there had been a time when they wished it wouldn’t. The witches they were now knew that it was meant to be, and that they themselves had played an even larger role than the Fairy Godmother in bringing Maleficent here, to this place in time. The time Nanny had always seen. The time Nanny had dreaded with all her being.
Nanny just hadn’t seen them, the odd sisters. Hiding behind the mirrors. Where they always were.
The odd sisters knew Maleficent wouldn’t betray herself. They knew she was no longer afraid to kill the prince, especially now that he was thrashing his way through the forest to the sleeping Aurora. She was the mistress of all evil! But they were brought out of their reverie by Aurora’s terrible screams as Maleficent stood confidently against the prince, a green inferno surrounding her. The foes faced each other on the drawbridge of King Stefan’s castle, Maleficent’s powers reaching their apex. The sisters had never seen her so powerful. Aurora’s hysterical crying was distracting them. Lucinda put her hand on Aurora’s face, almost tenderly at first, and then pushed her backward. The princess fell gently, almost as if she were floating in reverse onto the floor.
“Sleep, child! Sleep in the land of dreams!” the sisters cried together.
Martha gasped as she saw Maleficent erupt into a tempest of black and purple storm clouds, growing and towering over the castle. They were connected to her, by spell craft and by blood. The sisters began to tremble violently again, their hands bleeding all over their tattered white dresses and staining their porcelain skin. The first to fall to the floor was Ruby, then Martha. Lucinda stood over them, doing what she could to comfort her sisters and keep them from injuring themselves while they convulsed. They were sprawled on the floor, shaking and screaming unintelligibly, their eyes rolled back into their heads. Then, suddenly, they went completely quiet and still. Their eyes bulged from their deep-set sockets. Lucinda could see only the whites of their eyes, and she knew she could now communicate with Maleficent through her sisters. She put her right hand on Ruby’s heart and her left on Martha’s, making a deep red bloodstain on her dress from the cut her in hand.
“Embrace your destiny, Maleficent! Die if you must to keep your daughter safe!” Lucinda screamed. She smiled as she heard Maleficent say the words.
“Now shall you deal with me, oh Prince! And all the powers of hell!”
Lucinda watched as Maleficent grew, towering above the storm clouds that were crashing and erupting in the tumultuous sky. She could feel the power surging through Maleficent as she transformed, making her feel more wondrous than ever before, and Lucinda knew in her heart that Maleficent was finally herself.
Her true self.
The mistress of all evil.
As Maleficent transformed into a magnificent beast, she didn’t feel pain. How she loved being in this dragon form. She wished she had embraced her evil long before; perhaps then her transformations wouldn’t have been so painful. If only she hadn’t resisted who she really was for so long. She reveled in destroying the prince. She wanted to taste his blood and feel his bones snap within her powerful jaws. I’m going to save my daughter. Time to die! Her terrible jaws snapped at Prince Phillip, the pain from the blows of his sword not even registering. She had one purpose. She would kill the prince to save her daughter. And she would enjoy it. She would stand watch for an eternity, protecting Aurora from anyone who dared try to wake her. Nothing else mattered. Everything had been building to that moment. She was free. She would finally be able to give her daughter the one thing no one had ever been able to give Maleficent: peace.
Lucinda’s scream echoed in Maleficent’s ears. “The sword! They’re enchanting the sword!” But it was too late.
“Now Sword of Truth, fly swift and sure, that evil die and good endure,” Flora chanted.
The prince threw the enchanted sword into the dragon’s heart. Her scream echoed through the many kingd
oms, reverberating in the hearts of those who had once loved the Dark Fairy. They felt her pain as she used her last breath to blast the prince with fire before she fell over the precipice to her demise. The prince expected to find the dragon’s body lying at the base of the cliff, but he saw only his sword plunged into Maleficent’s empty tattered robes. It was over. The young prince had taken Maleficent’s life so he could begin his own.