A strange look came to the Enchantress’s face as she thought on the spell’s ingredients. She looked to the spot where Alex had been standing when she was blasted into the sky. To
everyone’s surprise, a giant smile suddenly appeared on Conner’s face.
“What’s the matter, Ezmia?” Conner said. “Did a little girl take away your
pride
?”
The Enchantress jerked her head toward him like a hawk finding its prey. “What did you just say?” Ezmia said sharply.
“Conner, what are you doing?”
Froggy whispered to him.
“Don’t make her angrier!”
Jack said.
Conner ignored them. “I said, a
little girl
took away
Ezmia the Enchantress’s
pride!” he called out so everyone in the coliseum could hear him. “That’s why you can’t complete your spell!”
A whispered murmur spread through the coliseum between the kings and queens. Was Conner just taunting her or was there truth to what he said?
“Silence!” Ezmia ordered them. “If you think my pride could be taken from me you’re all insulting your own intelligence! Bring the boy to me!”
The vines lifted Red back against the wall and placed Conner in front of the fire.
“No!”
Charlotte yelled.
“Don’t you dare hurt him!”
“Butterboy!”
Trollbella yelled.
Conner wasn’t afraid. “Are you going to kill me, too?” he asked.
“As a matter of fact, I am,” the Enchantress said.
“Oh, good one!” Conner said spitefully. “Way to make yourself feel better, Ezmia! Killing another innocent child
really shows how
prideful
you are! What are you going to do next—club a couple baby seals?”
The Enchantress had had enough of him. “Any
final
words?” she said.
Conner had to think about it, wanting to make whatever he said count. “You’re ugly and you smell bad,” he said. “And where I come from, everyone thinks you’re green with horns!”
Ezmia raised her hand in his direction. Conner braced himself.
“Ezmia! Look!”
Rumpelstiltskin yelled and pointed to the sky.
Flying toward the coliseum was a large white horse with massive wings. As it flew closer everyone in the coliseum gasped when they saw who was steering it.
“Alex!”
Conner screamed.
“You’re alive!”
Charlotte screamed from the cage.
The horse landed in the center of the coliseum and Alex jumped off its back. She commandingly raised the Wand of Wonderment and pointed it at the Enchantress.
“Miss me?” Alex said.
The Enchantress couldn’t believe what she was seeing—as if her day could get any worse. She waved her hands and the vines dragged Conner back against the wall.
“Alex, don’t waste any time!” Conner yelled as he was dragged off.
“Just zap her! Strike her dead—”
Ezmia waved her hand again and the vines covered Conner’s mouth.
The Enchantress glanced sideways at Charlotte in the cage
and it all suddenly dawned on her—she wasn’t the Fairy Godmother’s granddaughter after all. Ezmia slowly strode over to Alex, looking her up and down like she was an interesting piece of art.
“So, you’re the Fairy Godmother’s real granddaughter, I take it?” Ezmia said, and began circling her. Alex never lowered the Wand; she was ready to strike if Ezmia showed any sign of doing the same.
“It’s interesting that we have so much in common,” Ezmia said. “We’re both from the same place, we both have magic in our blood, and we both possess extraordinary ability.…”
“We’re nothing alike,” Alex snapped. “I could never do all the horrible things you’ve done.”
A smile appeared on Ezmia’s face. “That’s where you’re wrong,” she said. “You see, I came into this world just like I’m assuming you did—full of excitement and promise. I wanted to do so much good work, help so many people, and give as much as I could to those who needed me. But then I learned a very harsh lesson—
the world doesn’t always give back.
“I am not a tragic case of the world; I
am
the world—cruel, unfair, and
not a fairy tale
. People are not born heroes or villains; they’re created by the people around them. And one day when your bright-eyed and bushy-tailed view of life gets its first taste of reality, when bitterness and anger first run through your veins, you’ll discover that you are
just like me
—and it’ll scare you to death.”
Alex shook her head and gripped the Wand even tighter. “No, Ezmia, I’ll never be like you,” she said. “Because I would
rather have nothing and a big heart than everything and no heart at all.”
Everything went quiet in the coliseum. Ezmia’s hair was flowing above her, out of control.
“Oh, snap!”
Conner yelled.
“You need some ointment for that burn, Ezmia?”
Ezmia waved her hand and the vines covered Conner’s mouth again.
“You’re brave with that Wand in your hand,” Ezmia said to Alex. “But I’d like to see you cross me with it out of reach.”
Alex knew this was her moment—if she wanted to defeat the Enchantress for good, this might be her only chance.
“Fine,” Alex said, and tossed the Wand to the ground. “I don’t need it.”
The entire coliseum gasped.
“Alex, are you crazy?!”
Conner yelled through the vines covering his mouth.
“Pick it back up! Pick it back up!”
The Enchantress roared with laughter at Alex’s carelessness. “You stupid girl!” she said. “You must have a death wish!”
“I don’t need a wand to defeat you, Ezmia,” Alex said. “Whether I have magic in my blood or not, I’ll always have the most powerful magic of all inside me—
compassion
. And I have enough inside of me even for you.”
“What?” the Enchantress said, amused by her foolishness.
Alex took a deep breath, praying what she was about to say would strip Ezmia of her powers forever.
“Ezmia, on behalf of everyone in this room, I
apologize
for
what the world put you through, and I
forgive
you for all the havoc you caused trying to heal,” Alex said. “I’m sorry your family was killed when you were a little girl. I’m sorry no one was there to comfort you when you had your heart broken over and over again. I’m sorry the fairies never showed you the kindness they showed everyone else. And I’m sorry you felt
revenge
was the only way you could piece yourself together again.”
Everyone was looking back and forth between Alex and Ezmia like they were at a tennis match. Conner covered his eyes, afraid he was about to watch his sister be killed for real this time.
The Enchantress was taken aback by what Alex had to say—it had been the last thing she expected to come out of the girl’s mouth. Ezmia didn’t know what to do but laugh. She threw her head back a number of times and let a malicious laugh erupt and grow from inside of her.
“Apology not accepted,” Ezmia said. She pointed her finger at Alex to blast her into the heavens again—but nothing happened. She pointed her finger again—still, nothing was happening. Ezmia tried with her other hand but only got the same result.
Ezmia’s hair gradually lost its magenta color and faded to gray, falling in her face one strand at a time. The fire in the crater diminished more and more by the second, until there was nothing left but skulls. The vines around the coliseum squirmed like dying snakes, loosening their grip and releasing the people they held against the wall.
“No!”
Ezmia screamed.
“No—this is impossible!”
The room watched in astonishment as magic slowly left the Enchantress’s body and Ezmia faded into an elderly and decrepit woman, too weak to stand on her own feet.
The Enchantress had lost her power.
Alex closed her eyes and, possibly for the first time all day, exhaled. She turned back to her brother as he brushed the limp vines off his body. He, along with everyone else in the coliseum, stared at her with enough pride to knock off the ceiling had there been one. A thirteen-year-old girl in a headband had been able to do what none of the crowned monarchs could.
As Ezmia withered away, she fell to the floor and crawled on her hands and knees. A small cackle came from her as she grabbed hold of the Wand of Wonderment left on the floor.
“Alex, behind you!”
Conner screamed.
Alex turned to see Ezmia pointing the Wand directly at her. As she held the Wand, her body and her magic were restored. Her hair flowed above her head, the fire in the crater ignited again, and the vines began to vibrate with life and started dragging people back onto the walls.
Without time to think, Conner grabbed hold of Goldilocks’s sword and ran toward his sister, slicing the vines as they tried seizing him.
Ezmia glared at Alex with an evil smile on her face and in her eyes. “Maybe I was wrong,” the Enchantress said. “Maybe I will have my own happily-ever-after, after all!”
Alex froze where she stood, petrified to her core. She couldn’t believe how quickly the situation had changed—in a matter of seconds she had gone from victory to defeat. A
bright blast shot out of the Wand and toward her. Alex closed her eyes, knowing it was the end—
this was how she was going to die.
“Nooo!”
Rumpelstiltskin yelled. He came out of nowhere and jumped in front of Alex. The blast hit him in the chest and he fell to the ground.
Ezmia watched in shock as the fatal blast meant for Alex had hit the only person she had ever considered a friend. Conner arrived at the Enchantress’s side and sliced the Wand of Wonderment in half. The Wand was destroyed; the magic drained from Ezmia’s body and the enchantments around the coliseum faded once again.
Alex went to the floor and held Rumpelstiltskin’s head up in her lap. Conner dropped down next to her, but there was nothing either of them could do.
“You saved my life!”
Alex said to the little man in her arms.
“Why would you do that for me?”
Rumpelstiltskin was gasping and his eyes grew heavier by the second. “I just wanted my brothers to have something to be proud of,” he grunted weakly. He smiled up at the twins, closed his eyes for the last time, and died in Alex’s arms.
“Oh no,” Conner said. “Poor little guy.”
A heavy wheezing came from nearby. The twins looked across the floor to see Ezmia crawling toward them. Her body was decaying and wilting at a speedy rate.
“Looks like you’ve won,”
Ezmia wheezed with difficulty.
Alex and Conner looked at each other, disgusted. Even as they held the body of her only acquaintance, all Ezmia cared
about was her legacy. They looked down at her with the most pitying eyes she had ever been viewed with.
“No, Ezmia,” Alex said. “No one wins when there is loss.”
Ezmia rolled onto her back and stared up at the smoky sky. With one last rattling breath, her body rotted away until there was nothing left of her but the memory of what she had been. With nothing to validate the anger that powered her livelihood, the Enchantress’s body and soul disappeared—a casualty to compassion.
The kings and queens and fairies brushed the vines off their bodies again and happily embraced one another. The nightmare was over and their kingdoms were safe once again.
King Chance and Cinderella held Princess Hope, and Cinderella wiped away tears of joy from her exhausted eyes. Sleeping Beauty wouldn’t let go of King Chase; it was the first time in weeks that they had seen each other. Snow White and King Chandler helped Rapunzel brush all the leaves out of her hair, which was a several-person effort.
Red kissed Froggy repeatedly all over his big frog head. Jack tried dipping Goldilocks for a romantic kiss, but her fugitive reflexes caused her to flip him over her shoulder by accident.
Trollbella walked over to Conner.
“Hey, listen, Trollbella, I’m very flattered but I’m not really interested in—” he started, but the Troll Queen silenced him again with an index finger pressed to his mouth.
“No, Butterboy, let me do all the talking,” she said. “I understand this day has been hard on you—watching the Squishygirl almost die and then narrowly escaping death yourself. I just
wanted to let you know I’m in no rush for our wedding; whether it’s in two days or two weeks, I’ll be waiting for you.”
“Thanks?” Conner said. Trollbella winked at him and walked away, leaving him even more confused than before.
The Fairy Council went to the glass jars in front of the golden chair and one by one opened the lids and released the souls trapped inside. The twins watched as the souls of the Baker, the Locksmith, and the Soldier happily flew from the jars and disappeared into the sky above—free at last. The spirits of the King and the Musician hovered in the air behind the others, though, waiting to join the other spirits.
The ghosts of Old Queen Beauty and Gloria floated into the coliseum and up to their long-lost loves. They flew around, over, under, and through each other, finally reunited after centuries.
Gloria and the Musician looked to the twins and bowed thankfully to them before disappearing into the sky with the other spirits. The ghost of the King and Old Queen Beauty looked lovingly down and waved at Sleeping Beauty and King Chase before disappearing as well.
“Who was that?” Sleeping Beauty asked her husband.
King Chase looked up to the sky and smiled. “Well, I suppose they’re our guardian angels now.”
Jack chopped through the lock on Charlotte’s cage and she ran to her children, throwing her arms around them.
“Mom!” the twins said in unison.
“I have never been so proud of you in my life,” she tearfully exclaimed.
“That makes two of us,” said a voice behind them.
The twins turned to see their grandmother. She had just been released from the jar and was back to being her old solid self. The twins got to their feet and gave their grandmother an enormous hug, feeling so grateful they finally could.
Grandma leaned over and looked proudly into Alex’s and Conner’s eyes. “You two amaze me more and more as you get older,” she said lovingly to them. “Your father would be so proud of you.”