“I’m not going to destroy the world, kiddo. Where would I live? No, I’m just going to put it back the way it was meant to be. Everafters ruling everything. We’re stronger and smarter than humans. You think I’m arrogant. But shouldn’t the most powerful be in charge? Would you stay silent if you woke up one day to find dogs controlled the world?”
“Is this the part where the villain tries to explain his stupid way of thinking?” Daphne shouted.
“That’s a rookie move,” Puck said.
“Then let me explain something that you can relate to,” Mirror said as he floated up to the peak and set himself down before them. “Anger. Betrayal. Abandonment. These are things you know. These are things that have made you want to strike out and smash and destroy.”
“I don’t know them,” Daphne said.
“Because she protected you from them, but your sister knows them all too well,” Mirror said, turning to Sabrina. “You know what it’s like to have people you care about turn their backs on you.”
“I’m not angry anymore,” Sabrina said shakily.
“Then let me remind you what it’s like,” he said, and with a wave of his hand, Daphne was sent sailing into the air over the edge of the cliff.
“Daphne!” Sabrina cried.
“I’m on it,” Puck said, sprinting to the cliff’s edge and leaping off the side.
“Now you know what it’s like to be alone,” he said.
Sabrina stared into her grandmother’s eyes, knowing that it was not Granny looking back at her. What she saw was hundreds of years of pain and uncertainty. The look reminded her of the day she arrived at Granny Relda’s house. She had looked into a mirror and seen that same expression on her own face, and she remembered what it was like to wonder if she would ever feel loved again. But in the months that followed she had felt love: from her sister, from her grandmother, from her uncle, and from Puck. She felt it when her parents were found and from the dozens of new friends that had become part of her family. It had saved her and she knew that her father had given her excellent advice some days before. Look for your enemy’s weaknesses.
She grabbed Mirror around the shoulders and hugged him. “I’m done fighting you, Mirror. I understand how you feel and I’m sorry that you didn’t get the love that I did. But I am not like you. Let me show you.”
She placed her hands on her grandmother’s face and let loose all of her magic, but it wasn’t an attack or an act of destruction and hostility. It was love—the love she had been given—and it was pure and brilliant and strong. She sent him every moment of kindness and concern she had ever received. She gave him her memories with her friends. She gave him the feelings she had for Mr. Canis and Red and her uncle. She gave him her father reading a bedtime story and her mother giving her a wink. She gave him her grandmother’s hugs and the tiny, almost imperceptible smiles Mr. Canis sent her that let her know he cared. She gave him the softness of her baby brother’s cheek nuzzling into her shoulder. She gave him Elvis’s happy kisses. She gave him the love that she had once felt for him—all of it opening like an overstuffed jewelry box into his heart—and then she gave him the surprise of Puck’s first kiss, and then her want for another, and the odd, fluttering feeling inside her whenever he talked about their future together, even when he was teasing. And then she gave him Daphne—sweet, loving, hilarious Daphne. She gave him her sister’s warm hand in her own and the joy she felt when Daphne laughed. She gave him their nights asleep together, their many escapes and daring rescues. She gave him every meal with Daphne stuffing her face. She gave him her sister’s frustrating and yet miraculous sense of right and wrong, and how the little girl could see the good in everyone. She gave him every day that her sister made Sabrina feel stronger, braver, and happier. She gave him an hour of Daphne brushing her hair. She gave him their secrets and inside jokes and silly giggles. She gave him every single new word Daphne ever invented. She gave him what had saved her own life—her sister’s love. She wrapped it all up and slipped it into whatever Mirror called a heart.
And then the mountain was sinking back into the earth, twisting back into the land it once was. The mirror men dripped back into the soil and the wind disappeared. With the last of her magic, Sabrina created a cushion of air that caught her friends before they collided with the ground.
When it was over, Sabrina was still hugging Mirror, and he was hugging her back.
Mirror looked down into her face. Granny was more present, just beneath the surface. He was letting her go. “I didn’t know it was like that.”
Mirror and Sabrina stood silently for a long moment.
Bunny approached, and Mirror’s eyes lit up with happiness. “Hello, Mother,” he said, without scorn and rage.
Bunny flashed Sabrina an uncomfortable look, but Sabrina just nodded.
“Meet your son,” Sabrina said.
Bunny hugged him tightly. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s time to give me back my grandmother. I love her very much,” Sabrina said.
Mirror nodded. “Sabrina, would you do me a favor? I know that you have no reason to, but . . .”