It was supposed to be the happiest day of my life. On paper at least.

Reality was a little different.

“Darling,” I whirled around from the balcony and came face to face with the man I was about to marry. Chestnut brown hair, a jaw that could cut glass, and vibrant blue eyes. No one could fault Prince Jerome on looks. His character on the other hand…

I’d learned how to fake a smile a long time ago. As I fluttered towards him I put on my doe eyes.

“Jerome! What are you doing here? It’s bad luck for the bride and groom to see each other before the wedding.” I fluttered eyelashes for all I was worth. I could see the guards positioned outside my door. His soldiers.

He laughed. “Oh my sweet Snow. Luck favors the bold, and I’m one of the boldest you’ll ever find.” He took my hand and pressed a kiss into it. I suppressed a shiver. “By tonight we’ll be wed, and tomorrow is the coronation, followed by a week of celebration. Is there any better way to celebrate your liveliness and the wicked queen’s death?”

You could give me back my kingdom without the damn wedding. I smiled again. “Oh, Jerome.” I pulled my hand away from him, pretending to be shy. “What of the dwarves? Have they responded to our invitation?”

He frowned. “Unfortunately not my dear. It’s best to put them out of your mind. They must be keeping to themselves again.”

Liar. I remembered back when I first learned of Jerome’s true nature. The dwarves had given me a special crystal so I could always find their home. When I returned to invite them to the wedding, the house had been ransacked, the dwarves nowhere to be found. I used what the huntsman taught me of tracking, and found they’d been taken to the dungeons of the very castle I was in.

Jerome, who came to take the kingdom back from the wicked queen with an army. Whose soldiers seized the castle the moment we stepped in.

I first thought he was my salvation. But now I knew better. He was just another trap. At least I knew how to deal with Queen Alicia. Stay low, stay out of sight. Jerome was trickier. The moment I dropped my act he wouldn’t hesitate to behead me. His kingdom had coveted mine long before any wicked queen came to rule.

If I could just run away I would. But the dwarves. They were like family to me, the first I ever had. I couldn’t abandon them.

I didn’t have to fake my distress. “Oh…”

Jerome smiled and gave me a brief hug. “Its alright my dear. You have me now. I’ll always protect you.”

I struggled to keep my breakfast down and hugged him back. “Thank you Jerome, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Yes, perhaps then I’d actually be happy for once in my life.

Jerome left, and the door closed again, shutting me into the room. I tugged at my wedding dress as I sat down.

The ceremony would begin soon. What could I do?

I thought back to Queen Alicia. She’d made my life a living hell. Now as soon as she was gone, someone even worse comes along.

Queen Alicia… the apple. Poison. Her workshop. What if she has some poison left in her workshop?

My mind began spinning. I swallowed harshly as a plan formed in my mind.

Was I going to stoop so low? To poison someone? Someone who saved my life?

A memory of the huntsman sprang to mind. We sat behind a snow bank one cold December morning. I pulled back my bow, and the arrow whistled through the air, finding it’s target in the heart of a doe.

The tears started as it hit the ground. The huntsman let me cry as he dressed the deer.

“It’s not right.” I wailed. “It just wanted to live.”

The huntsman sighed, and sat down next to me. “Of course it wanted to live. Everything wants to live. But for some things to live, others must die.”

“Its not fair.”

He shook his head. “Its not.” He looked at the rapidly cooling deer. “You can feel bad Snow, but don’t feel ashamed. You should never feel ashamed for surviving. Even if you have to do terrible things for it.”

The memory left a sour taste in my mouth. He was a liar too. A year later, he was ordered to kill me, but he let me go. Even if he knew what that meant, returning to the queen with the heart of a pig.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I pushed away from the vanity, and the terribly beautiful face that did nothing but cause me problems.

I made my decision. I could feel bad for Jerome and as guilty as I wanted to, but I wouldn’t feel ashamed. Not for protecting those I cared about and my own life.

I eyed the door to my room. Now for the difficult part.

I knocked on my door. I almost laughed at the ludicrous nature of it. A princess asking permission to leave her room. I had more freedom when I was basically a servant here.

The guard opened the door, and I did my best to look melancholy and innocent.

“Mr. Guard? There’s somewhere I need to go. Can you accompany me?”

The guard hesitated. “Your Highness, the ceremony will start soon. I’m not sure-“

I pleaded with my eyes. “Please. I won’t be able to get married if I don’t properly say goodbye. I need to see the Queen’s chambers to know she’s truly gone.” C’mon, fall for the innocent girl routine, aren’t I just the most pitiful thing ever?

I saw him soften. “Very well Your Highness. But we’ll have to make it quick.”

“Thank you!” He and his partner took up positions in front of me and behind me. Normally guards stayed at your side. But they weren’t here to guard me. They were making sure I couldn’t get away.

I found my footsteps faltering as we approached the place I was forbidden to go near for my entire life. I never actually saw the inside of her chambers. It was probably the one place I never saw. I do remember sneaking into my father’s rooms once, just to try and feel close to him.

We stood outside the door, and guard gave it an unceremonious shove that was the opposite to how I felt.

I flinched as the stale air in the room rushed out. I almost expected the wrathful witch to come out and scream at us for disturbing her. But the room remained quiet.

One of the guards stayed outside the open door, while the other took up positions by the door to the King’s rooms.

I looked around, dazed. These were… her rooms. The sitting room I was in looked exactly like every other sitting room in the castle. But it was hers. And somehow, that made the room far more insidious than it really was.

I swallowed my rising bile. I couldn’t waste time like this. I had to find the workshop. She had to have a place to work her curses somewhere around here.

I steadied myself and took a deep breath. Then I approached the bedroom door and turned the handle.

A large canopy bed, a luxurious vanity, and a small table and chair out on the balcony. The entrance was probably somewhere in this room.

My first instinct was the bookcase. I pulled on every book, hoping to find a secret passage.

Next, I tried tugging at the candleholders on the wall. Then looking for a button in the moulding. I even looked under the bed.

Once I exhausted every hiding place, I sat at the vanity table, crushed. It wasn’t here. It just… wasn’t. But that meant I was cursed to a marriage worse than the apple she gave me.

“Why?” I whispered, my voice clouded with grief. Why was I born with this face? It was just a combination of my mother and my father’s faces. But it cursed my life. I’ve been reviled for it, and now that I was loved for it, it was even worse.

On the vanity was a letter opener. I instinctually grabbed it, and tested it with my thumb. Not very sharp. But my determination could make up the rest.

I turned it towards me. A nice scar, right down the middle of my face. I shouldn’t put out an eye. I should aim for the nose. Jerome always said I had the cutest button nose.

As the knife flashed towards me, I heard a voice cry out.

“No! Stop!” A hand reached out from in front of me, and grabbed the knife.

I watched a very distraught reflection of me pulled the knife through the mirror. She was breathing heavily, and standing up. I was still sitting down.

“What are you thinking! Ruining a face like that.” My reflection rippled in the pane, angry with me. “Don’t you know it's a blessing to be born beautiful? You’re ruining your parents hard work! They would cry if they saw you mangle your own face.”

I licked my suddenly dry lips. I’d known Queen Alicia was a sorceress, but seeing the proof of it in front of me… “What are you?”

The reflection gave me an annoyed look. “I’m you. Can’t you tell?”

I felt like I was being tricked. “You must be some magical beast. You can’t be me.”

Her laugh, a mirror to my own, pealed through the air. “Of course I’m you! Just look at me. Hair dark as a raven’s, lips red as blood, and skin as soft and white as snow. I’m you!”

I shook my head. “You just look like me. You’re not really me.”

She laughed again. “As if anything other than looks matter. If it looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, then it obviously is a duck.” A cruel sneer marred her features. “I can see why the Queen didn’t like you. You don’t have too much going on upstairs do you?”

The mention of the queen made me feel weak, and I was happy I was already sitting down. “The Queen? How do you know her?”

“She’s my stepmother of course! And she died as the ugly, spiteful old hag she was!” She sounded proud, but I just felt sick.

A knocking from the bedroom door. “Your Highness? We should be getting back now.” The guards. My refection noticed the look of panic on my face.

“Oh, you’re in real trouble aren’t you.” She sneered again as I looked around the room again, desperate to find any poison, magic, or anything I could use against Prince Jerome.

She watched me for another minute as the knocking grew more insistent and louder. “I can help you know.”

I froze and looked at her. The look on my face disturbed me. Wickedness, and anticipation.

“How?” She twirled the knife between her fingers. The knife. The one she pulled through the mirror.

I pushed my hand against the hard pane and she laughed. “You can’t get in unless I let you!” She sang in a deranged tone.

The other side of the glass must be where the queen kept her workshop. I needed to get in. “What do you want?”

She smiled. “I’m curious about the other side of the mirror. Three days. Let me spend three days as you, and then we’ll switch back.”

“Your Highness! If you do not let us in we will break down the door!” The thumping at the door grew to panicking heights. I swallowed.

“Deal.” My reflection stretched out her hand, and it poked through the glass. I mirrored her pose, taking her hand. And we shook on it.

The knocking at the door grew muffled, and she withdrew her hand, as did I confused.

“Hold your horses! I’m coming!” She stood up and walked out of view in the window. I heard the sound of the door opening, but the conversation faded away.

In front of me, on the vanity, sat the letter opener. I picked it up, recognizing it didn’t have a reflection in the mirror. Neither did I. I whirled around and looked at the room, flipped from how it was before.

I’d entered the mirror.