I break the silence first.
“You promised me an empire. A kingdom you would hand over once I was strong enough to take it.”
“So I did.”
The skirt of her black dress tumbles to the floor. Setting the mug down on the table, I listen to the familiar click of her heels as Maleficent bridges the distance between us.
Her pinched lips and narrow eyes soften as she reaches out and cups my face. Traces the slope of my nose and the jut of my lips with a tender expression.
“My sleeping beauty.”
She touches me with claws sharp enough to cut. Caresses me with the touch of a poisoned heart.
“Those men didn’t know what would happen when you finally woke up, did they?”
A tear slips out and shatters against my cheek.
I thought I would remember the pain. The humiliation and the heartache.
But as I stare at the woman in front of me, all I see is the independence she gave me. The strength she installed and the lessons that taught accountability.
I look at the monster who stole me from my home and I see the woman who spent hours crouched over a drawing board, designing a fairy garden just the way I wanted it.
I see the woman who sent the nurses home so she could patch up my legs herself.
Maleficent Drache was not meant to be a mother.
But she chose to be mine.
“You’ve always had her face.”
The stream of my sorrow flows over the bitter edge of her nails, dampening her hands as she smiles, looking at the daughter she designed.
“But your laugh... that has always been mine.”
My lips tremble beneath her touch, shaking beneath the weight of another loss this evening.
“Goodbye, mother.”
“Goodbye, Calista.” Pride trickles through her voice, “Don’t forget what I taught you.”
“As if I could.”
She gives me a knowing smile that crushes whatever was left of my heart.
“They don’t deserve your tears, your fear or your love. No man who could ever walk this earth.”
It's the mantra she’s given since the first night she took me. The words she made me repeat until her vengeance became my own.
“You’re wrong.” My voice breaks, crumbling as I fail her one last time, “It was me who didn't deserve him.”
She doesn't acknowledge the disappointment. Simply brushes her lips against my forehead.
“That’s what they all say.”
I close my eyes and lean into her touch. Collapse into this moment before I have to throw it all away.
“Wolf Hollow is yours, my child.” Her nails sink into my skin, piercing the flesh to ensure a mark stays behind, “See that it succeeds.”
