‘I came to the Enchanted Forest when I was three,’ she said, ‘but I didn’t learn my story until years later, when I began looking into it. Before then, what I understood was this: I never knew my father. All I knew of him was that he was the source of all our problems, my mother’s and mine. He had left us destitute, for we never had food, or money, or clothes, or warmth, or anything, really. My mother left one day when I was three and didn’t return, so then I didn’t have her, either.
‘I don’t remember much from that time, just that I waited for her for days, weeks maybe. I remember the hunger and a fear I’d never felt before—I was so afraid. The hunger eventually got so bad that I went in search of food and saw a crop of carrots in someone’s backyard garden. Well, I stuck my hands in the soil to steal one, and when I did, I felt this strange pull.’
A smile played on Xander’s face. ‘Magic.’
‘Precisely. I followed it and ended up in the Enchanted Forest. It wasn’t scary, like it was for the other girls. The Forest didn’t frighten me at all. I was just following the magic, and it led me there. I passed through the fog, and, once I did, I felt safe, at home.’
The memory warmed her, then brought a harsh pain to her chest as she thought of the stark difference between then and now. Tears pricked her eyes, and she blinked against them.
‘The Enchanted Forest doesn’t feel like home anymore, not when it’s so empty,’ she said.
‘Did you ever find out what happened to your parents?’ Xander asked.
‘My mother was hanged,’ she said. ‘My father had apparently drunk himself into an early grave, leaving my mother and me penniless. She turned to crime for cash: theft, prostitution, and a long list of other crimes. Apparently, it was well known she was bad news, but she was never directly caught—well, until she was. It was only a matter of time, really.’
‘What was the final crime?’
‘She killed someone,’ Bisma said. ‘Apparently she had stolen a lady’s purse and when she was caught, she tried to fight her way out with a knife and ended up killing the lady, who was rich and important enough for the authorities to have my mother hanged for it.’
‘God,’ Xander breathed.
‘It’s why … well, it’s why I can’t be good, no matter how I try. I’m just like my parents; I have their blood in my veins after all. My mother didn’t mean to kill the lady; all accounts said it was never her intention. But what could she do? It’s why I don’t mind making poisons, being the monster. Someone has to do it.
‘Even my sisters—they all have their demons to battle, and I don’t have any of my own, so I want to fight theirs for them. It feels like I owe them somehow, for coming to the Enchanted Forest so easily. Not everyone survives the Forest, you know; it chooses who to keep.’
She stopped. ‘I don’t know why I’m going on and on,’ she said, sighing. She didn’t want him to say anything, though she could tell there was a lot he wished to say. ‘I’m tired. I should go.’
She stood, but he squeezed her hand as she was about to leave.
‘Don’t go,’ he said. ‘Your home is here, too.’
He gestured to where her sisters lay asleep on their cots, but she felt the deeper meaning in his words as he pulled her closer to him.
‘Please stay,’ he whispered, looking up at her.
She yearned to, desperately, and she couldn’t think of a reason why not. She reached for his face, and he closed his eyes, leaning into the touch.
‘Alright,’ she whispered. Her gaze went to his rumpled bed, where he had been sleeping not long ago.
‘I’ll go into the main house,’ he said, swallowing. His eyes were dark. ‘You sleep here.’
This time, it was Bisma who grabbed his hand as he made to leave.
‘No,’ she said, voice quiet. ‘Stay.’
His eyelids fluttered.
They went to his bed, slipping in on opposite sides but facing one another.
She stared at him, feeling unsure.
‘Close your eyes,’ he whispered, touching her cheek.
She did.
Finally, Bisma slept.
The next morning, she woke with her limbs entwined with Xander’s.
