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Circe, Hazel, and Primrose had gone to the library to find some of Manea’s old spell books, hoping to discover a spell that could help them, while Snow searched the books she had brought with her from the odd sisters’ house. It was starting to get dark, and Snow glanced out the windows, hoping Circe and her new friends would return soon. She opened an old journal and was met with pages of cryptic notes that she soon realized belonged to the odd sisters themselves.
Snow slammed the book closed and set it down next to her. She was starting to get nervous. Where was Circe? Fidgety, she opened the book again and flipped back to the page she wanted to show her cousin. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. What did Lucinda mean by using Circe to destroy her bond with her mother? Was all this part of the odd sisters’ plan, then? Were they all just puppets in some play the odd sisters had written, as her mother had once said?
The feeling of nervousness came over Snow White again, and she started to feel like the walls were closing in on her. It was the same feeling she’d had when she was alone in the odd sisters’ house. She stood up and was about to leave the room when the candles started to flicker and fade. The room was cold and oppressive, making Snow White shiver.
I told you never to trust a witch, my daughter.
Snow White jumped, looking around the room, but couldn’t find where her mother’s voice was coming from. The candlelight danced to the sound, throwing shadows across the walls.
Over here, my bird. Over here.
Snow followed the sound of her mother’s voice; it was frightening to hear it in this strange dead place. A place for witches. Then she found her. Her mother’s face was reflected in an oval mirror.
The mirror was situated on the far wall among portraits of the dead queens who had once ruled the dead woods. It was eerie seeing her mother among them. When Snow got closer to the altar, she realized the mirror was cracked, distorting her mother’s grim face.
Look what that witch has done to me!
“Who did this to you?” Snow White was horrified to see her mother so altered.
Circe! She’s broken my cup. I’m barely holding on, my bird. Don’t trust her, Snow! Circe is being used by her mothers to destroy you. It was always you they hated. Always you they wanted dead. They used me to get to you, and when that didn’t work, they used their own daughter.
“I don’t believe you!”
I am being forced from my mirror, Snow! I will never see you again! Please get out of here while you can! They’re coming.
“Circe didn’t know breaking your cup would hurt you! She was angry with her mothers when she did it! She didn’t know that would happen!”
Oh, didn’t she? She’s been trying to keep you from me since you went to Morningstar! She tells herself she is protecting you from me when she should be protecting herself from her own mothers! Vile hags, meddling, plotting, and ruining lives! You’d do well to leave this place before they rain terror on all your heads! They hate you, my bird, hate you because they foresaw how Circe would come to love you.
“None of this makes sense, Mother. You say they wanted me dead because of my friendship with Circe, yet you’re telling me they’ve thrust us together? It’s all madness!”
The odd sisters are mad. They are trapped in promises they can’t escape. Now go. Go before they get here. I can’t keep them back much longer. They’re coming, my bird. They’re coming….
Before Snow could answer, the mirror started to shatter; her mother’s screams were filled with terror and pain, mingling with the sound of breaking glass.
The glass exploded all over the room, slicing the arm Snow White was using to shield her face. When she raised her head from the crook of her arm, she saw her mother’s body on the floor. She was covered with a pattern of gashes that looked like cracks in a mirror. “Mother! No!” screamed Snow, panicked by her mother’s ghastly wounds.
Circe, Primrose, and Hazel rushed into the room. Snow saw the looks of horror on their faces when they spotted Grimhilde.
“Circe! Please help my mother! Quickly!”
Circe appeared to be frozen with fear and revulsion. “Circe! Please!” But Circe wasn’t looking at Snow or her mother. She was looking past them, at the empty frame that had held the broken mirror. Something was crawling out of the frame, contorting its body like a sickening insect, horrific and monstrous. They heard the cracking of bones and the groans of more creatures coming forth from the mirror. Snow White and the witches watched in horror as they unfolded their bodies, straightening themselves to their full natural statures.
It was the odd sisters, lurid, vile, and wicked as ever.
“Oh dear. It looks like we’ve stumbled upon a witch’s nest. Whatever shall we do?” The odd sisters laughed as Lucinda waved her hand, sending Hazel, Primrose, and Circe careering out of the room, and slamming the door after them.
“Excuse us, dears. We want to be alone with Snow White and her mother.”
The odd sisters stood there, laughing at Snow White. They looked like strange creatures out of a nightmare. They were as hideous and unnatural as she remembered them.
Snow couldn’t help feeling like she was dreaming. These witches had plagued her sleep since she was a small child, and now she was standing before them while her mother lay dying on the floor. She’d dreaded the day she might have to face the odd sisters again, and she’d always wondered what she would do if she did. But she found her voice somewhere within her, in a place she hadn’t known existed. A place of strength and fortitude.
“Shut up, you harpies! What have you done to my mother?” Snow screamed.
The odd sisters sneered at Snow White. “Oh, so brave, so strong! Thank Circe for that, dear! Without her you would still be under your mother’s dominion and hiding behind Verona’s skirts!” Lucinda said, laughing at Snow White.
“Oh, you’re a witch’s daughter, all right. Just look at the way you glare at us. I thought you would be more afraid. I thought you would cower and cry like you did when you were a little girl,” said Martha before Lucinda took over.
