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Nanny waved her hand, summoning Merryweather, Fauna, and Flora. The fairies were surprised to find themselves standing in front of a legion of angry witches. “Where are Diablo and Opal? Where are Maleficent’s birds?” Nanny asked sternly.
The three fairies looked frightened and began speaking all at once. “We didn’t mean for them to be harmed, I swear! We didn’t realize that our charge would turn herself into Maleficent and threaten us! We thought she was Maleficent! We thought she was angry because we had stolen her precious birds!”
Maleficent stopped crying, her face turning a startling shade of green. She just stared at the fairies. She was deathly quiet and seething with anger. The fairies almost wished she would scream at them. Her silence was unsettling.
“Maleficent, I’m sorry! We would never hurt your birds on purpose,” Flora whimpered.
Maleficent quietly stretched out her arms, the sleeves of her robes resembling a raven’s wings. “Where are my birds?”
The three fairies gasped with fright. “We don’t know! We promise! We swear!”
Maleficent’s face became stone cold and her yellow eyes blazed. “Lies! Where are my birds? Tell me now!”
“No! Not until you stand down and renounce your right to wish granting!” Merryweather shouted. “We can’t have you sullying the good name of the fairies in this land by spreading your filth to the many kingdoms!”
“That’s enough!” Nanny yelled. “Tell us where you have put Maleficent’s birds or I will punish you myself!”
“You will not touch them, Sister!” the Fairy Godmother said, stepping in front of the three fairies. “When will you give up this wretched girl? When will you see that Maleficent will bring you nothing but pain and misery? You saw it the night you brought her home, when you looked through her time in this world. You saw it through to the end, but still you insisted on taking her in. You cared for her and defended her even though she doesn’t deserve it!”
“What is she talking about?” Maleficent’s anger was turning into heartbreak.
“Nothing, my dear, nothing,” Nanny said.
Maleficent began crying again. “What is she talking about? What did you see? Am I evil? Is that why I was abandoned?”
“Yes! You were created in evil, and you will do evil to the end of your days. You will destroy everything you have ever loved!” yelled the Fairy Godmother.
“No, Maleficent, don’t listen to her. It’s not true!” Nanny insisted.
Maleficent’s fingertips started to tingle. The terrible feeling quickly spread to the rest of her body, turning into a burning sensation that came from within. She remembered feeling that way when she was younger, before she had learned to teleport to her tree house, before she had learned how to control her anger. But this time—this time it felt different. This time she was different.
“Maleficent, no!” Nanny screamed.
Everything in Maleficent’s world went black as she became unbearably hot. It felt as if the raging heat burning uncontrollably inside her would consume her. But just when she was sure the heat would make her burst, she felt herself expanding, becoming larger and more imposing, as if her body was making room for her anger. The heat that had been growing within her was creating space for the pain, the heartache, and the betrayal she felt at hearing that Nanny had seen she would become evil. How could she have lied to her all that time? How could she have kept that from her? This awful thing inside her now raged like a beast. It was like a hungry
serpent eating away at her insides, devouring her. She screamed in pain, her cries mingling with her mother’s screams until she could no longer tell the difference between the two. She couldn’t bear it. It was the most terrible thing she’d ever experienced. She lost all sense of herself as a blinding green fire exploded from within her, destroying everything in her path.
And all she could think was they had all been right.
She was evil.
The room was eerily quiet. There were tears in everyone’s eyes except Maleficent’s. After a moment, she broke the silence. “But you didn’t die. None of you did. I thought I had killed my mother and everyone I had ever known. I didn’t find out until later that you had survived.”
“If it hadn’t been for the odd sisters’ spiriting us away, we would have died,” Nanny said softly.
“I suppose they knew what happened was a possibility. I suppose you all did. Everything the odd sisters said the night before my birthday about the stars not aligning made sense after that. I fulfilled my destiny that day.”
“Yes, we knew it was possible something disastrous might happen.…”
“Did you know I would turn into a dragon and destroy the Fairylands? Is that what you and your sister saw when you found me in that tree?”
“No! I never saw that, I swear! I knew you were capable of great evil, but I had faith you would take another path. I always saw the good within you, Maleficent,” Nanny insisted.
Maleficent turned her steely gaze to Circe. “You’ve been awfully quiet, listening from your sisters’ enchanted mirror, Circe. Have you nothing to say?”
Circe hesitated before replying. “I was a child, Maleficent. I don’t even recall visiting the Fairylands. I don’t remember meeting you, the three good fairies, or the Fairy Godmother. I’m sorry for whatever part I might have played in what happened, I really am, but it sounds as if I was trying to defend you.”
Maleficent contemplated Circe’s words. “You truly don’t remember?”
