Free Sneaky Snow White (Dark Fairy Tale Queen Series Book 2) by Anita Valle Page A

gets to make me a prisoner. I will find a way to that cottage myself.
    I’ll just have to be sneaky about it.

~*~ 28 ~*~
     
    That night, my dreams are filled with Hunter. I remember the day I met him in The Wood. I released a rabbit that was caught in a trap and I heard someone laugh and say, “That’s my supper you just set free.” I was haughty to him at first, unaccustomed to friends of any kind. But when I left, he said, “Will you come back tomorrow?” And that changed everything.
    A month later he kissed me for the first time. He told me the trees whispered secrets when the wind blew, and if I closed my eyes, I would hear them. To humor him, I closed my eyes. And then I felt his lips. His arms came next, closing us in a tight circle, and when we were through, he said, “The secret is that I love you, Snowy.”
    I wake up with tears sliding into my pillow. Oh my Hunter! I will get you back!
    I rise although the sun has not. I throw a dress over my head and strap on the belt and dagger. It’s a long, dark walk from my tower room to The Mirror’s chamber. But I have a plan that I think will work.
    “Tell me where this cottage is,” I say to The Mirror. “I will go there and stab Cinderella in her sleep. Then I’ll bring Hunter back here with me. That way, both of us are getting what we want. But first I need to know where he lives.”
    The Mirror doesn’t believe me. It can see through the lie, that I’m not really planning on killing Cinderella.
    “I caaan’t!” I whine. “Hunter will never forgive me if I do. I know that for sure. I’m sorry, Mirror! But I love Hunter more than you.”
    A scene opens before me. The Mirror holds me in place and makes me watch. I see my mother, my beautiful mother, standing before this very mirror. She tucks a few stray hairs into place and she is smiling. She wears a gown of garnet red that exposes her throat and shoulders. My father comes into the room behind her.
    “Where is Snow White?” my father asks.
    “Having her lessons,” my mother says, tugging down the sleeves of her dress. Her face and voice have turned cold. “I’m going out for a bit.”
    “Hmm. I’d like you to stay,” my father says. He takes hold of my mother’s waist from behind and kisses the side of her neck. My mother stiffens. “There will be no other child, Edgar. You are wasting your time.”
    My father meets her eyes in the mirror and his face has become strangely calm. “No, my dear. You have wasted your time in not providing a son for me. I have been patient. But I’m afraid your time is up.” His hands lift off my mother’s waist and wrap around her throat.
    I gasp.
    My mother gasps too and her hands fly to her neck. She tries to pry off his fingers, her mouth wide open, then she throws back her hands and claws at his face. My father shifts and bends over her, forcing her to crouch, and they sink to the floor while my mother makes little grunts and gasps, and her face darkens red as her dress. He presses her down, holding her with the weight of his body, while her feet scrape the floor and her hands reach for help with splayed fingers. One flying hand strikes the hard edge of the mirror’s frame and moments later I see blood on her palm. Her whole body jerks and shudders, her face squished up in a soundless scream. My father’s teeth are bared as he struggles to squeeze her throat. Suddenly, my mother turns her head and presses her bloody hand to the mirror. Her lips move like a fish out of water, but I can see she’s mouthing words. Then her hand slips downward, leaving a bloody streak on the glass. Her limbs stop quivering. My father waits another minute before walking away, leaving my dead mother in front of the mirror.

~*~ 29 ~*~
     
    I crawl into a corner and throw up. Still sobbing, still shaking, I return to The Mirror and sit against it, leaning my head on the glass. Oh my poor, poor mother! I never knew! My father told me she died because of trouble with her