Cold Hearted (Villains 8)

Lady Tremaine didn’t know what to think. She desperately wanted to get her and her daughters out of the Many Kingdoms, and if trusting these treacherous witches helped them to do that, then what could possibly be the harm?

“We can help you escape, Lady Tremaine,” Circe coaxed. “You don’t have to marry off one of your daughters to a priggish prince. Besides, that fate lies with Cinderella.”

Lady Tremaine’s eyes bulged. “Cinderella? She’s not even here!” she said, looking around the ballroom. “She’s at home—she—er—she has nothing to wear.”

“Oh, she will be here, and the prince will want to marry her. It’s all written,” said Lucinda.

Lady Tremaine threw her hands up. She was sick to death of the book of fairy tales and this supposed prophecy. “If it’s already written, then how do you propose we change my fate?” she asked, clutching her brooch. She felt herself growing angry. None of these women made sense. Not these witches and not Nanny.

“By magic,” said the four witches at the same time, laughing again.

“But Nanny said she couldn’t help me, because I am the villain in this story. How are you going to help me?” Lady Tremaine asked.

“Her magic can’t, but ours can. The princesses are the fairies’ domain,” said Circe. “The villains are ours. We are the villains’ fairy godmothers, if you will. Now, do you wa

nt to stand here all night while we explain how magic in the Many Kingdoms works, or do you want us to get you and your daughters back to England where you belong?”

Before Lady Tremaine could answer, a blue blur flew into the ballroom, cascading sparks. Lady Tremaine realized it was a gray-haired woman—from the looks of it, a fairy. She wore a hooded blue robe and carried a wand, the source of the sparks. The fairy looked quite a bit like Nanny, and for a brief moment, Lady Tremaine thought it might be.

“I warned you to stay away from this ballroom, Odd Sisters! I won’t let you meddle with my Cinderella!” the fairy said, casting her wand at the Odd Sisters, who scattered and hid behind the frozen party guests to avoid getting spelled.

“Nanny, what are you doing?” screamed Lady Tremaine. The fairy stopped in midair and looked down at Lady Tremaine, hovering above her with an indignant look on her face.

“Oh, you must be mistaking me for my sister. She told us all about you,” said the fairy. “I’m the Fairy Godmother.” Her expression suddenly transformed into a brilliant smile, as if saying her own name caused her great pride.

“Are you here to help me?” Lady Tremaine asked, hoping with all her heart that she was. The Odd Sisters said they wanted to help her, but something about them scared her instead. She would far prefer the help of this kindly-looking fairy in the blue robe. “Nanny said she would ask the fairies for help, but I had given up hope.”

The Odd Sisters laughed mockingly, their voices screeching in the distance. “The Fairy Godmother will never help you!” they cackled.

The Fairy Godmother scanned the room, trying to figure out where their voices were coming from amid the statue-like partygoers.

“Help you?” said the Fairy Godmother in shock. “Help a villain? Don’t be ridiculous. My sister, Nanny, might have been tricked into thinking you were the innocent in all this, but I’m not. I’m here to make sure nothing stands in the way of Cinderella marrying that prince, and that you and your daughters get exactly what you deserve.” The fairy’s shimmering wings twitched in anger.

“But Nanny said she would help me,” Lady Tremaine pleaded. “She said she would see if she could talk the Fairy Council into helping me. She made a promise! You have to help me, Fairy Godmother, you just have to. You can’t abandon me now.”

The Fairy Godmother narrowed her eyes. “I see why my sister was so easily fooled by you. You are convincing, but even if I could help you, I wouldn’t. Not after what you have done to Cinderella.”

Lady Tremaine wanted to cry. She felt like she was losing her grip on reality, and she clutched her brooch for strength.

“You may not have been a villain when you landed on Morningstar shores, but you have become one since,” the Fairy Godmother continued. “You have urged your daughters down the same path, encouraging them to be as nasty and miserable as you are and using them to torture my Cinderella. No, Lady Tremaine, you deserve what comes next in your story.”

“What comes next? What will happen to me and my daughters?” Lady Tremaine asked, feeling as if she were trapped in some horrible nightmare where everything was upside down. She had thought she was the heroine of her own story. She had fallen in love and traveled to a foreign land to start a new life, only to realize she had been tricked. She had endured years of abuse. And now a real fairy godmother was telling her she was, in fact, not the heroine of her own tale, but the villain in someone else’s. “Please tell me, what is going to happen?” she begged, grasping her brooch and willing herself to remain as calm and cold as she could be.

“You will just have to wait and see,” said the Fairy Godmother, raising her wand.

“What are you doing?” asked Lady Tremaine.

“Making you forget, and setting everything back on its proper course,” said the Fairy Godmother. “Oh, look, and just in time for Cinderella’s arrival. I see her carriage pulling up in front of the palace now.” She began to wave her wand, but the room started to rumble and shake, causing her to whirl around, searching for the source of the magic.

“Fairy Godmother, stop!” the Odd Sisters screamed, all four of them suddenly standing before the fairy and Lady Tremaine.

“Don’t do this,” said Circe. “We’re not here to meddle with Cinderella. We’re here to help Lady Tremaine. Cinderella can have her prince, just let us help Lady Tremaine and her daughters. Nanny saw what was really happening. She wanted to help the lady and her girls, but where is she now? Why has she never come back to help them?”

“My sister was sent away,” the Fairy Godmother said. “I’m afraid she won’t remember who she is for quite some time, let alone remember Lady Tremaine.”

“You wiped her memory?” Circe was shocked.

“It was for the best. She was threatening our way of life, threatening fairy tradition. She had to be stopped,” the Fairy Godmother said.