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She wondered if that was how the Beast had felt when the curse took away his humanity, and heat rose to her cheeks as shame washed over her. Of course her sisters would say that he had brought it on himself. That she had given him a choice. And that was true. But it hurt her heart to think she had ever managed to cause such pain to another, even if he had deserved it.
As she and the other victims rose out of Ursula’s garden, freed, she saw the ghastly remains of her captor scattered on the ocean floor and knew her sisters were probably nearby. She swam with a mermaid’s tail and cringed when she saw large portions of Ursula’s severed tentacles, feeling an intense guilt for the part she’d had to play in Ursula’s death.
She didn’t unde
rstand why Ursula had betrayed her, and though she was no longer trapped within Ursula’s garden of lost souls, the empty, terrible feeling lingered within her. She just wanted to know why. She had always liked Ursula. She had always been her friend. She would never know why Ursula had betrayed her….
Or would she?
There, glistening on the besmirched and murky ocean floor, lying among Ursula’s remains, was the golden seashell necklace. Circe snatched it in her little hand and made a desperate wish.
She was instantly assaulted by a rage she’d never before experienced. The weight of it was impossible to contain; she felt as if it would consume her. No, that wasn’t right; it felt like something was growing inside her, something too large and too vile for her to contain. She felt as if she would burst and nothing but hate would remain.
It was unbearable, this pain. This anguish. But the hate, and the rage—that was the worst of it. It was like a terrible sickness that wrapped itself around her heart, distorting her mind and filling it with horrific images. Circe’s head was filled with visions she didn’t understand. Terrible, frightful scenes of a man being slaughtered, pulled literally to pieces by an angry mob, trying to keep it away from a young girl. And images of the same young girl standing on a cliff, crying, her heart full of fear and loathing. The pictures kept flashing one to the other in rapid succession. Circe didn’t know what they meant, but she could feel the memories as if they were her own, because she felt herself to be something entirely new, entirely different…alien.
In that moment, she had come to possess the psyche of the sea witch.
She was Ursula.
She was leviathan, her body swelling not only with rage but with strength and girth. She had the power to command the sea and she did so at her pleasure. That power was too much for any witch to bear, even Ursula, and it frightened Circe. She fought not only against herself but against an enormous hate being directed at her. She couldn’t comprehend who had the power to direct such hatred. Who had the power to use her own magic against her? Her mind whirled at the maelstrom of hate that flooded her. She had grown to immeasurable proportions and felt she was impenetrable. Her hate had betrayed her.
Circe saw into the sea witch’s heart. She was foul. She was ugly. She was monstrous and loathsome. She was everything her brother said of her, and everything the Dark Fairy foresaw. And the sea witch had known she deserved that end. She had known it the moment before she died. She had betrayed the odd sisters, her dear friends for this…for this power and for revenge. A power that was destroying her. A power she couldn’t control. She had no will of her own. The seething hate had taken possession of her. It was its own creature, and she had no will to command it.
She had been dead before Eric took her life.
Circe pealed a frightful scream so loud and so terrible she thought the force of it would rip her throat.
She was herself again, but diminished, not only from her ordeal but from seeing into Ursula’s heart in the sea witch’s final moments.
When she reached the surface, she could see purple and black billowing smoke rising from the ocean like a menacing cloud of ruin, filling the sky and blackening the ships that had been docked near Morningstar Castle. Ursula’s remains had floated to the surface and mingled with the sea foam, turning it a putrid grayish black. Her hate seemed to linger even after her death.
The Lighthouse of the Gods stood shining in exquisite brilliance, however, as if refusing to be diminished by the foul smoke of decay. As Circe stepped out of the waves and onto land, it was comforting to have feet again and to feel the sand beneath them. She felt her sisters were near, and rushed to the castle in a panic, because she knew there was something horribly wrong.
She didn’t bother with the guardsmen at the gate and simply willed them to let her in. Mr. Hudson greeted her at the door with a panic-stricken look. He was pale and his eyes were full of terror.
“Miss. Circe, thank the gods you’re here! There is something terribly wrong with Princess Tulip, and Nanny has been attacked!” Circe tried to clear her head, which was still muddled from her transformation from mermaid to witch.
“Where are they? Take me to them.”
Mr. Hudson directed her to the main room, where several guardsmen were trying to chop their way in with axes, succeeding only in breaking their weapons, which lay in a heap on the floor.
“Stand back, gentlemen.” Circe cast her hand forward, blasting the door inward with a violent splintering crash.
Nanny and Circe’s sisters were lying on the floor, unconscious.
“Where’s Tulip?” she asked, looking around the room.
“In her room, miss. Rose has been trying to wake her for hours.”
Circe couldn’t fathom what had happened.
“I need everyone out of this room.”
Mr. Hudson tried to protest, but Circe silenced him with an uncustomary sternness.
“Hudson, now! Order everyone out of this room so I can tend to Nanny and my sisters.”
As Triton made his way through the murky waters, trying to find his daughter, he was sickened by the horrors that surrounded him. He could feel his sister’s hate embedded in the decay that littered the ocean floor. He thought he would choke on it and assumed that was her intention. He knew he deserved her hatred, and he felt an overwhelming sense of dread for the part he had played in her demise. There was nothing Triton could do to atone for his malversation toward his sister, but he could make things right with his daughter, even if it meant turning her into a human.
