Unhappily Ever After: Fairy Tales With a Twist
Page 17
I stared wide-eyed, wondering if this were some sort of dream; if it was, it was one of the most haunting and beautiful dreams I’d ever had.
“Snooooow Whiiiiiite.”
My name again, but this time the voices were as one and much stronger. The pinpoints all gathered in one solid mass before me, regrouping until they’d formed what appeared to be the face of a woman. I held my hand up in front of me in awe, enchanted by the way the lights moved and swirled around the lady’s head to form long, flowing hair.
The face’s lips curved up into a smile. “Snow White,” the voices said as one, “I have been watching you.”
I wrinkled my eyebrows at the face and tilted my head to the side. “I’m sorry, have we met?”
The face smiled again as if laughing at some joke I didn’t get. “No, but I know all about you. I know everything that happens within this realm, as well as many others. Your journey has interested me greatly.”
“Why would a person who can watch what’s going on in the entire realm, be interested in my pathetic life? After the evil queen was killed and the dwarves got lost in that diamond mine, there’s nothing else to tell. I rode off with my prince and I’m living ever after.”
“What about the ‘happily’ part?” she asked.
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “I’m just happy that I’m living. Charming saved my life. I owe him something for that, don’t I?”
“There was another who saved you first.”
I hung my head in shame at her words. As if I needed reminding. “Yes, well, I lost my chance with him.”
“What if I told you that there was a way to erase your past and start anew. If you could go back to the exact moment in time in which you made the decision you most regret, would you?”
Now she had my full attention. I threw the covers back and came up to my knees on the bed, adjusting the bottom of my white nightgown. “Such things aren’t possible … are they?”
This time she laughed out loud, a sound like tinkling bells. “My dear, I can make it so.”
My mouth fell open at the exact same moment that my heart leapt into my throat. My palms broke out in a cold sweat and a shiver ran through my body.
“Who. Are. You?”
I had to know. I wasn’t just dealing with some magician and her tricks. Whoever this was, she was powerful.
“I have many names, but in every realm I serve as Queen of the Faeries. I alone have the power to grant you your deepest wish.”
My mind immediately went back to the last time someone offered me a wish. An old crone held an apple out to me, and told me to bite it and make a wish. Weeks later I wake up to Charming. I haven’t made a wish since; not even on a star.
“How do I know that this isn’t some sort of trick? What do you want from me in exchange for this wish?”
“My, haven’t we grown cynical?”
“The years haven’t exactly been kind to me. I had that innocence beat out of me when my children grew old enough to talk. I trust no one.”
“That I understand. You are much wiser now, my dear Snow White. That is why I wish to make you such an offer. I believe that if I were to send you back, armed with the knowledge you possess now, you would undoubtedly make the right decision.”
Of course I would! Without hesitation.
I came to my feet on the bed, eye to eye with the floating woman’s face. “I’m not saying yes,” I warned, “but I have to know that this is real. Prove to me that you are what you say.”
“As you wish,” she said before the little floating lights dispersed into a formless mist once again. They surrounded me, coating me in a golden sheen from my head down to my toes. The tiny globes of light began to hum and vibrate, and before I knew it my feet were leaving the mattress. I barely had time to gasp before I was floating through the window and out over the castle walls.
From my present height, I could see all of the castle grounds as well as most of the surrounding village. In the distance, I could make out the abandoned cottage of the seven dwarves—my friends who I missed dearly. I vowed to myself to change the course of their fate as well. Who knew that their quest for diamonds would drive them so deep into the mines that they would never come out? I promised myself then that I would do everything I could to talk them out of going down into that dark hole ever again … if this Queen really was who she said.
But it was to the cabin of my Huntsman we were headed, I soon found out. As the swirling golden dust set me back on my feet in the warm grass, I was surprised to find him standing on the porch as if he’d been waiting for me. As soon as my feet were on dry ground, I was running to him, my mouth open to spill every detail of the night to him.
“I already know,” he said before I could get three words out. “I was visited by the same golden mist. ‘Tis the Queen of the Fae.”
I gripped his shoulders tightly and stared deeply into his eyes. “Are you certain that this is real? Perhaps this is some kind of strange dream.”
“We are having the exact same dream?” he asked, amusement creeping into his tone.
I sighed in exasperation. “Maybe the pixies are out playing their tricks. You know how they delight in mischief.”
He grasped my upper arms and held on tightly, as if willing me to believe in what I was seeing. More than that, I think he wanted me to believe in him.
“Snow, this is happening. This is our chance. The Faerie Queen sees all and knows all. We are fortunate that she has taken pity on us and given us a chance to fix our mistakes. Don’t you want us to be together … really together? Don’t you want to save your dear friends, the dwarves? This is it! We won’t get another chance like this.”
“And what if you’re wrong?” I asked him, some small part of me still clinging to the thought that this could all go so wrong so quickly. “I couldn’t bear to lose you completely. I know that you aren’t really mine—not the way I wish that you were—but if we were to fall prey to some witch’s tricks or sorcerer’s games, I could lose you forever. I couldn’t bear to live without you.”
“And I can’t bear to walk away from this chance without knowing what could have been. What are the chances that we were visited by the Faerie Queen on the same night … that we would both be offered this one chance at happiness?”
I knew that he was right. I knew that this was real, yet fear still consumed me. “I think …” I stammered, “I think I might be afraid of making another mistake. What about that saying … something about stepping on a butterfly’s wing in the past could drastically alter the future. We don’t know what damage we could cause by going back and changing the past.”
“There are only two things worth worrying about and their names are Ephraim and Lilith. If you choose me instead of the Prince, they will never be born.”
I’d always wondered if something was wrong with me, and times like this were no exception. Here I was being offered a chance to choose an alternate future in which my children did not exist, and I was barely batting an eyelash.
“I am willing to make that sacrifice,” I answered with a small smirk. He laughed softly in response. He knows just as well as anyone what horrible monsters my children have grown up to be. Maybe in my new life, my new future, I’d be blessed with children again. This time, though, their father would be a real man, someone to take a firm hand with them so they didn’t become little beasties like Ephraim and Lilith.
“Does that mean you’ll do it? Will you come back with me?”
I glanced from him to the dancing golden mist, which had regrouped to form the Faerie Queen’s face once again. She watched us silently, expectantly.
I turned back to him and slid both my hands into his. “You know that I would follow you anywhere.”
He smiled down at me and nodded. “Ladies first.”
I turned and released one of his hands, keeping a tight hold on the other as I led him toward the still figure of the Faerie Queen’s face.
“We have decided,” I said as we stopp
ed just in front of her. “We want to go back.”
She smiled again and seemed to nod approvingly. “A wise decision. Fear not, my dears, I want nothing in return for what I am about to grant you. There are no stipulations upon this agreement. The night is kissed with Fae magic and it delights us to unite and reunite lost souls.”
The face disappeared as the lights parted into a large circle. At the center of the circle the backdrop of the forest wavered and faded, and a familiar scene from my past confronted me. My breath hitched in my lungs as I gazed down on myself, asleep in a glass coffin, surrounded by seven little men.
“When you step into this portal,” said the Queen’s voice, “you will slumber once again, as you did after biting the poisoned apple. As before, you will face a choice … both of you. I trust you to make the right one this time.”
I released my Huntsman’s hand and moved as if hypnotized toward the image of myself. I couldn’t seem to stop myself, not that I wanted to. I paused just in front of the portal, reaching out to stick my hand through. It disappeared on the other side. One glance back at my Huntsman reassured me.
“I’m right behind you, I promise,” he whispered.
I nodded and stepped through.
A bright flash of light enveloped me, drawing me into a tunnel. I zipped through it at unbelievable speeds, the last seven years of my life passing me by in a blur. The twins flinging peas at the Duke and Duchess, Charming inspecting my gown and yanking down the front of my dress, years’ worth of scrubbing and cooking and cleaning, the birth of the twins—an awful pain I believe to be a prelude to their actual awfulness—and the grueling pregnancy before it, my wedding day …
All passed me in a blur of memories I wanted nothing more than to forget.
And then finally, light at the end of that tunnel.
A bright flash.
The voice of the Faerie Queen urging me to find happiness.
And then darkness.
Nothing.
***
The first thing I felt when I regained consciousness was tickle of something soft across my lips. My eyebrows wrinkled in concentration but my eyelids remained closed. They were heavy, a lingering side effect of the apple’s poison. Several more seconds would pass before I could open my eyes.
Everything about this moment was as I remembered it. The sweet smell of honeysuckle, baby’s breath, and irises filled my nostrils for the first time in weeks, a welcome relief from the stale air inside the glass coffin, the top of which has now been lifted off of me. My slumber was restless, and I remained conscious of all that went on around me without being able to open my eyes. It was a daunting experience, one I was glad I didn’t have to repeat. Now was the time for awakening, for changing the course of my life forever by altering one seemingly small decision.
But this wasn’t right; something about this moment was different. It was the kiss, I realized, as the heavy curtain over my eyes began to lift. The last time I’d been awakened by a kiss, the Prince’s lips had been entirely too wet, sloppy and searching … as if he were trying to devour my entire face. This time, it was firm, sure, and tender … three attributes that definitely didn’t belong to Charming.
My eyes flew open and instead of the deep blue I was expecting, I was confronted by a comforting, mossy green. He was pulling away, his arms braced on either side of the glass box, his lips curling into a knowing smile. He was beautiful, framed in sunlight and grassy rooftops of the trees. White blossoms were raining down over us from the branches that shielded us from the rest of the world. I gripped one, rubbing it slowly between my fingers, needing the sensation to remind myself that this was real.
“You? But how?”
He didn’t answer, but gave me his hand instead, lifting me to a seated position. As my eyes adjusted to the sunlight, my seven little friends came into view. They surrounded a thrashing bundle that I soon recognized as Charming. He’d been trussed up like a Christmas goose and sat glaring at us from his seat on the ground.
Laughter bubbled up in my throat as my Huntsman scooped me out of the coffin and held me in his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and savored the moment, in no hurry to be set on my feet.
“My, you’ve grown bold, Huntsman.”
He smiled radiantly and laughed. “I believe a little boldness was in order. What kind of lover allows another man to awaken his woman with a kiss? I allowed your pansy prince to stand in my way once; I promised you I wouldn’t let it happen again, didn’t I?”
“That you did. I can see that you are a man of your word.”
He made to set me on my feet but I clung to him, forcing him to keep me up against his chest. He didn’t seem to mind.
“You don’t have to worry, love, I won’t be letting you go anytime soon.”
“Another one of your promises?” I teased, stroking a lock of hair back from his head.
“I’ll make as many of them to you as it takes to reassure you of our future together.”
“One last request.”
“Anything.”
“Take me home?”
I’d always thought of his little cabin in the forest as home. I had years yet before I had to worry about my friends getting lost in the mines and decided to have a talk with them later about the dangers of greed. For now, though, I was ready to live ever after … no, happily ever after. For real this time.
About the Author:
Ever since she first read books, such as The Chronicles of Narnia or Goosebumps, Alicia has been a lover of mind-bending fiction. Wherever imagination takes her, she is more than happy to call that place her home. The mother of two and wife to an Army sergeant loves chocolate, coffee, and of course good books. When not writing, you can usually find her with her nose in a book, shopping for shoes and fabulous jewelry, or spending time with her loving family.
Alicia can be found on the web at any of the following links:
www.fantasybyalicia.com
www.facebook.com/fantasybyalicia
www.goodreads.com/alicia_michaels
Follow her at Twitter: @fantasybyalicia
If you enjoyed The Huntsman and I, be sure to read these other twisted fairy tales; epic Fantasy twists on classic tales!
Daughter of the Red Dawn (The Lost Kingdom of Fallada Book One)
Beyond The Iron Gate (A Lost Kingdom of Fallada Novella)
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication:
A Wolf’s Tale
About the Author:
Beauty and the Beast
About the Author:
Flutterby the Spider Fairy and the Incident of the Fragile Web
About the Author:
Jack
About the Author:
Jorinda
About the Author:
Not So Perfect
About the Author:
Rumpelstiltskin’s Ghost
About the Author:
Shattered Glass
About the Author:
The Devil’s Belt
About the Author:
The Eighth Dwarf
About the Author:
The Huntsman and I
About the Author: