Mirror stood in her prison of crystal and enchanted glass and tried to remember. There was a time, she knew, when she'd gone by a different name. A time when the forest, green and dense and full of life, had been her home. A face swam in her foggy memory, of a man handsome and strong. His eyes were as blue as a cloudless summer sky, his hair as richly colored as corn silk. 

But he had betrayed her, this man she loved.

Her last memory, before the Queen had sent her into the enchanted glass, was of those beautiful eyes, twisted with cold cruelty and rage. Black threads of dark magic had been wrapped around his wrists like ebony shackles.

She struggled against the pressing, consuming fog of her enchanted prison, raged against that magic that kept her mind and heart locked in darkness. But to fight was futile. The tears soon flowed freely down Mirror's glass cheeks until she finally wept herself into a fitful sleep.

~*~

"My magic mirror on the wall, I bid you wake and show me all."

Mirror's eyes opened and met the Queen's identical gaze.

Though the Queen's eyes matched Mirror's in color, the women shared little else, for the Queen's black magic had unnaturally augmented her beauty.

The Queen studied the glass face trapped in the mirror with a satisfied smirk. "If only you had obeyed me, sister, you could be standing by my side, helping me to rule. Do you see what your disobedience has cost you?"

Mirror looked out at the Queen and remembered. Sisters, yes. Twins.

But other memories surged forward unbidden. Her sister crowned queen. The King murdered in the dead of night. And again, that man with cerulean eyes, staring down at her with an undisguised hatred that broke her heart.

"My husband." Mirror breathed the word as the truth settled in her heart.

The Queen laughed, a low and dangerous purr. With a snap of her ruby adorned fingers the door opened and the man from Mirror's memory stepped over the threshold. "Your handsome husband serves me now, sister."

The Queen held out a fair hand to her husband, who came forward and took it in his own. "He is bound to me," the Queen explained, gesturing towards the black threads around his wrists. "He is much more than the Huntsman now." Green eyes slid to Mirror with predatory intent.

Mirror felt her glass heart shatter in her fragile chest. She was powerless. She couldn't save her husband from her sister's evil heart. She couldn't even remember her own true name. "Why have you done this?"

The Queen waved the Huntsman away and crossed to her. "You are the last Wood's Witch, sister. You inherited our mother's power, though I was forced to gather my magic in other ways. Your gifts are the only power strong enough to threaten me. You see, my twin, what I've done is a mercy. You are trapped in the mirror, yes, but you still live. My only other choice was to kill you, and that is one thing I could never bear to do."

"This mirror is powerful, sister. It will strengthen your gifts but keep you bound to me. Magic to magic. Blood to blood. The mirror will allow you to see what I command you to see."

Mirror could feel the truth in the Queen's words. The fog that swirled within her glass prison was laced with silver threads of an ancient, powerful magic. "And what, my sister, do you wish me to see?"

The Queen stood, her green eyes suddenly troubled as she pressed her palm to the glass. When she spoke, her words poured forth in an agitated torrent. "I have ended the coven of Wood's Witches. You are the last of their order and the only one I've allowed to live. But are there others, sister? Others with power enough to threaten my reign?"

Mirror's eyes closed as vertigo washed over her. The fog of her prison swirled around her in a magical tempest. When the winds finally quieted, the fog drifted away. The sight that met her eyes was no longer the Queen's chamber. She found herself looking out at a forest clearing. She could hear the song of a starling and the babble of a distant broke. But an even more familiar sound cut through the air. It was a feminine laugh, as clear and as beautiful as the peal of silver bells.

A young woman suddenly came into sight, her skirts gathered in a hand, revealing bare feet which ran across the open meadow. A young man burst from the trees behind her, hot on her heels. Within a moment she was in his arms, his face buried in her long ebony hair. The girl's laughing face was revealed, and Mirror's heart tightened in her chest. There was no mistaking those ruby red lips and the fair, flawless skin.

The girl's joyful smile widened. With a wave of her hand the dew from the grass around them floated up until it hovered in the air like thousands of raindrops suspended in time. With another slight motion of her wrist, the water shimmered and danced, twisting and turning, joining together until hundreds of butterflies fluttered through the clearing.

The girl watched the growing awe on the young man's face with a smile full of love. Then, with a mischievous gleam in her eyes, she gave another small movement of her delicate fingers, sending the water butterflies flying straight for him. A moment later the young man was soaked. He howled with laughter then took off after the girl, who also squealed with glee.

Mirror could not help but smile as she watched the innocent joy of young love.

But the fog gathered around her again and Mirror found herself eye to eye with her twin sister's demanding gaze.

The words came unbidden to Mirror's lips. "A Wood's Witch still lives, born with the gifts of my own coven in her veins."

The Queen's features darkened. "Name her."

Mirror tried to fight the magic of her prison but failed. "Snow White."

The Queen stumbled back, and the Huntsman rushed forward to steady her. "No," she gasped. "She is my daughter. She should have my gifts. Not yours!" She turned an accusing finger towards Mirror.

Mirror remembered secret mornings spent in the woods with the young princess, teaching her the craft she knew would one day protect her from her mother's darkness. Had she signed her niece's death warrant in doing so?

The Queen pushed away from the Huntsman and paced the room. With a deep breath, she turned back to Mirror. "Will she be queen?"

An image filled Mirror's mind. "Soon she will be crowned with silver and enchanted glass."

The Queen's eyes narrowed into thin slits as her fingers pushed into her hair, tightening at the roots. She let loose a feral scream that continued until the very stone of the castle shook as her dark power threatened to erupt.

The Huntsman rushed forward and grasped the Queen as only a lover could.

Mirror turned away in disgust.

"Let me remove this obstacle," Mirror's husband begged the Queen. "The child will not stand between you and your throne."

The Queen calmed, her eyes glued to the spellbound Huntsman. With a wave of her hand, Mirror was again plunged into fog and darkness.

~*~

Snow White followed a few paces behind her uncle as he led her deeper into the heart of the forest.

"How much farther, uncle? I thought you said we were traveling to the forest edge, but we've been walking for hours."

The Huntsman lifted a curtain of ivy to allow the young princess to pass. Snow White's eyes caught on the strange band of black threads that circled his wrist. Despite the warmth of the day, gooseflesh prickled her skin.

"Patience, princess. We will reach our destination soon enough."

Snow White kept her silence, but she couldn't help the unease that grew within her. They were deep in the woods and growing dangerously close to the border of her mother's kingdom and Vardinon, the kingdom of her secret prince. If anyone they passed should recognize her. . . but that was a silly worry. Her uncle was someone she could trust.

~*~

Mirror watched, powerless, as the Huntsman led Snow White deep into the forest. Try as she might to scream out to her niece, to fight the magic that kept her locked helplessly away, soon the image of Snow White faded.

Mirror searched her mind for some way she could help the princess. With sudden clarity, the Queen's words came back to her. What her sister had said was true. She was a Wood's Witch and the strongest of her order.

Mirror closed her eyes and focused her magic until she felt the fog swirl around her in answer. "Help," she whispered desperately. "I need to find help."

When she opened her eyes the interior of a small cottage was before her. She pressed her palm against the glass, marveling that the Queen's mirror was not the only window into her prison. She hoped against hope that whoever owned the twin to the Queen's enchanted looking glass could help release her from the mirror before it was too late.

"Hello," she called out, voice thick with desperation. "Can anyone hear me?"

A face popped up into view. Mirror had disturbed the man working at the small table beneath the looking glass. But he wasn't a man. Not a human man, anyway.

"It is you!" The Dwarf waved an accusing finger before her face, his cheeks turning as red as his unkempt hair and unruly beard. "You are the witch who stole the sacred glass!"

"Not I Master Dwarf! But another of my kind. My sister, the Queen. You may know her by word of her beauty."

The Dwarf cursed soundly in the old language of the forest. "Oh, aye. Beauty and cunning and cruelty."

"Then help me," she begged. "I am bound to her through blood and magic. Help me defeat her and you will have your mirror."

The Dwarf studied her a moment with shrewd dark eyes. "What would you have me do, witch?"

Mirror's mind turned back to her niece who still traveled deeper and deeper into the forest. She prayed it was not too late to stop her husband. "There is someone who needs protection. Keep her safe and I will keep my word."

The Dwarf's eyes narrowed. "How will I know her?"

"You may have seen her before, Master Dwarf. She meets a young man in a clearing near the heart of the forest."

The Dwarf scratched at his beard. "A lass with hair like ebony and lips as red as blood? Aye, I know her. She meets the Prince of Vardinon there."

"Yes, that is she. A Huntsman is with her. Do not harm him if it can be avoided, for he is spellbound and knows not what he does."

The Dwarf studied her with a measuring gaze, then nodded. "It will be done."

Mirror thanked him and began to remove her hand from the glass but paused when the Dwarf called to her. "A word of advice, witch. The mirror is crafted from silver threads. It is a balance of dark and light magic. Master that power and little will be out of your reach."

Mirror stared in confusion as the fog engulfed the hovel, leaving her alone in her prison of glass.

The silver threads. Mirror searched her prison for what seemed like ages for a sign of the elusive magic. She had felt the power of her enchanted prison but hadn't thought it possible to wield its magic for herself until the Dwarf's words.

Her frustration and fear grew. Would the Dwarf and his men get there in time? Could they stop her husband without hurting him?

She knew the threads were there, she could sense them, but they were just out of her reach.

Breath, she told herself, think. The Queen had ordered the mirror to work with words. What had they been?

"My magic mirror on the wall, I bid you wake and show me all."

The fog rose in answer to her words and Mirror's eyes once again searched her prison. Like translucent spider's silk, there was a shimmering silver thread. Mirror reached for it, wrapping it around her hands and tying the first knot of a summoning spell. "Show me, Snow White."

Her prison obeyed.

Snow White lay concealed in the forest underbrush, her eyes wide with terror. Mirror turned to where those brown eyes focused. Her husband walked slowly forward, a hunter stalking his prey. She had to stop him. She had to save him from her sister's twisted will.

Snow White's breath caught in fear. The sound, almost imperceptible, was enough for the hunter. Within moments, he was upon her, pulling her up by her long dark hair. Mirror twisted the silver threads of the glass's strange magic. But someone else was faster.

A hiss of air then a hard thunk sounded. The Huntsman, face distorted in shock and rage, staggered back as an arrow embedded in his shoulder.

Snow White stumbled a few feet away as both her and Mirror's eyes turned to find seven dwarves standing in the middle of the clearing. Seven dwarves and Snow White's Prince, a hunting bow still clutched in his hands.

The newcomers raced for Snow White, who tried to limp towards them. Mirror turned to her husband as he yanked the arrow from his shoulder with little more than a grimace and readied his next knife.

They wouldn't reach her fast enough.

Mirror gathered the silver threads, binding herself to Snow White. Within a moment, she was there. Her corporeal body had left her glass prison to form a shield between Snow White and her husband's dagger. No sooner had she wrapped her arms protectively around her niece's body then she felt that blow land.

Her arms, suddenly so weak, slid from around Snow White's shoulders as she fell to the ground. Snow White's frightened eyes found her as the Prince and the dwarves rushed to stop the Huntsman.

"Don't hurt him," Mirror begged as her strength faded.

Snow White stood over her, staring down at her in shocked silence.

"No!" The Huntsman's anguished cry sounded as the leader of the dwarves cut the last of the black threads from his wrist. "Oh, gods! What have I done?"

Mirror turned to the sound of her husband's voice. The Dwarf looked between them, his old eyes full of sorrow. "Foul magic," he said in disgust, throwing the dark binding spell into the dirt at his feet. "We will make her pay for this, witch, I promise you that."

Mirror managed a nod of thanks as she reached out a shaking hand to her husband. The Prince, who had held him at sword point, released him. The Huntsman rushed to her side and pulled the dagger from her shoulder. "Stay with me my love, the wound is not grievous."

But Mirror knew that it wasn't the wound that was taking such a toll on her. "Poisoned," she said with a choked cough as she tried to fight against the growing darkness. "The Queen cursed the blade."

She took a moment of comfort from her husband's strong embrace, then knew no more

~*~

Mirror dreamt of being held once again by her husband, who was free of her sister's curse, and when she awoke to the feeling of his lips pressed against her own, she smiled sleepily. "Tell me it was all just a dream," she said in a voice thick from long disuse.

Her husband held her close as he trembled beside her. She opened her eyes, concerned, and found him looking down at her with eyes full of relief and love. After another kiss, she pushed herself up to sit. The chamber she found herself in was foreign to her, bright and airy. It was nothing like the cold darkness of the Queen's castle.

At the foot of her bed stood Snow White, her head resting against the Prince's chest. She was crowned with a tiara of silver and glass. "Welcome back, aunt." The Princess smiled through her tears.

Mirror looked about her, trying to make sense of the strange scene that met her still sleep-addled mind, and gasped. On the opposite wall hung a mirror framed in a mosaic of colorful glass. For a moment, she thought the reflection there was the glass face she had worn in her prison. But this face, while not her own, was no less familiar.

The Huntsman followed the direction of his wife's gaze. "Much has happened, my love. It took a very long time for the Queen's sleeping curse to be broken."

Snow White turned and frowned at the malicious face in the mirror before turning back to the woman who had saved her life. "She thought I was dead. She was summoned to Vardinon, thinking the King meant to offer up his throne. In her arrogance, she thought her dark power made her invincible. As you can see, she has finally met with justice for her crimes. A fitting end to her story, don't you think?"

Mirror struggled to her feet, managing to walk on shaky legs until she stood before the glass image of her twin sister.

"This won't hold me forever, you know." The Queen promised. "I'll find a way to step through this glass."

The woman who had once been Mirror ran her fingers over a heavy candlestick that sat on the table before her. "I know," she said to her sister. "But I'm not going to let that happen."

She picked up the candlestick and smashed the mirror over and over again until the glass, and the Queen, were nothing more than dust. 

Congratulations and thank you for a great read Edenrose11