Hark looked straight at Cinderella. “You, in the back. Come forward.”
“That is my stepdaughter. But I know for a fact that she was not at the ball. She wasn’t feeling well. She stayed home,” Galatea said.
“Madame Gray, please tell me that you are not disobeying the directive. Every girl in the Queendom must try on the shoe.”
“I merely wanted to spare you some time. Cinderella wasn’t at the ball. But she will try on the shoe, as you wish,” Galatea said, knowing she would not win the argument.
When I was small, I learned that the world could turn on a single moment.
We can all be saved or lost by a kiss or a kill. Either takes seconds and changes everything, Hecate had said.
For so long I thought the words applied to the royals, not to one of us. Not to me. But I realized now was one of those moments.
“The prince is looking for the girl he danced with at the ball. He intends to marry her and take her away from this place. He could make all her wishes come true,” I said, trying to send a message to Cinderella.
I imagined that Galatea already knew the truth of Cinderella’s recent Past and my role in it. She would consider all that I had done a series of hostile acts—ones that my sisters could not overlook, but ones they could not address either in the presence of the prince. Lucky for me, she could not know what I was about to do.
Cinderella looked down at the shoe, understanding, but not all at once. She inhaled sharply, remembering clearly that she had spent only a dance with Mather, while I had spent most of the night.
I know it’s not me, but I wish it were. I wish the shoe fit; I wish I were free of them, Cinderella thought.
Being a princess was not what she’d wished for. But being a princess was possibly going to be the thing that saved her.
As Cinderella slid her foot into the shoe, I touched my wand and cast the spell:
As she sits,
Make the shoe fit.
Give the prince his future queen.
Let him know she is the best the Queendom has ever seen.
In time she will win his heart.
Let the shoe be the start.
“It fits!” Hark exclaimed. “Prince Mather, you have found your new princess.”
It was done.
While being with Prince Mather was all my heart yearned for, I knew I would never have a place with him—especially if my sisters took over the Queendoms. I didn’t need Hecate to tell me that we could not have a future. But he and Cinderella could.
She could help him rule. Together, they could save the Queendoms.
Suddenly a barrage of arrows hit the open door. Their Black Glass tips stuck deep into the wood.
“Bring me the witches!” Queen Magrit cried, stepping out from behind another army of soldiers. “They’re mine.”
“No, they are not!” South cried from the sky, landing between us. His wings folded upon his back. “You will never defeat the Entente.”