Circe opened her eyes, then blinked, trying to see which of her sisters was looking down at her with such a buggy expression on her face.
“Lucinda.” She smiled up at her.
“Circe, we have something to show you. Something very important. Come with me.”
Lucinda led her befogged sister to the other room. How it must have looked to Circe, who hadn’t been privy to the evening’s events. The room was lit by an extravagant number of candles, all of them white and reflecting beautifully in the many enchanted mirrors placed around the space. In the largest mirror she saw the Beast.
“What’s this?” she asked as she rushed over to the mirror and placed her hand on its lovely silver frame. “Is he dead?”
All three of her sisters were standing there, hands clasped, like eager little girls waiting for praise. Circe looked down at the scrying bowl, then back to her sisters. She felt ill, hollow, and inhuman.
“You did this?” She thought she was going to be sick. They said nothing. “You killed him?” she cried.
“No! It was Gaston. He killed him!”
Circe couldn’t breathe. “With your assistance, I see!” she said as she threw the scrying bowl across the room.
“We thought you would be happy, Circe! We did it for you!”
Circe stared at her sisters in shock. “How could you think I would want this? Look at the girl! She’s heartbroken!”
She was looking at Belle in the enchanted mirror.
“I love you,” Belle said to the Beast as tears streaked down her face.
Circe was also crying. Her heart was filled with dread and regret. “I never wanted this to happen!” she continued. “Look! She loves him! This isn’t fair. I’m bringing him back! I’m giving him a chance to break the curse.”
The odd sisters started to scream in protest as they advanced on their little sister, but Circe’s fury sent them flying back until they were pinned to the wall.
“Not another word, do you understand? You say one more word and I will give your voices to the sea witch!”
Lucinda, Ruby, and Martha knew their little sister’s powers were far greater than their own, but they had always been able to manage her because she was the youngest. It looked now as though that time was past, however. They were too frightened to speak; like broken dolls, they looked inanimate and frozen in their bizarre poses as Circe continued to rail at them. “I’m bringing him back! I’m bringing him back to life, do you understand? If he loves her, too, then the curse will be broken. And you will never seek to reverse it!”
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.
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