“What do you want?” the Wicked Queen said as she climbed to her feet.
After a long and painful moment, Mirror released him and stalked back to the Wicked Queen. “I want you to use your considerable magical talents to make me real. I want—”
Suddenly, there was a tremendous rocking sensation. Everything was shaking—the ground, the air, even the colors of objects scattered around the room. Sabrina felt like she was inside a snow globe in the hands of a hyperactive child.
“What was that?” Mirror said.
“I told you this story is unstable,” the Queen said. “It can’t take any more revision. It’s all going to fall apart.”
“Then we better get crackin’,” Mirror said, pulling the Queen across the room.
“I can’t make you real,” the Queen stammered.
“Tsk tsk,” he said. “You are the Wicked Queen, or at least a version of her. You possess her magic and her knowledge. If the real Queen knew how to create me, then so do you. This task should be effortless.”
While they were arguing, Henry ran forward again. This time Mirror hit him with a blast of electricity and he flew across the room, crumpling to the ground against a stone wall. Veronica and Daphne rushed to his side.
“Bunny, we’re all waiting,” Mirror said.
The Wicked Queen looked around as if hoping a hero on a white horse might charge through the door and save her, but then her shoulders slumped in surrender. She crossed the room to where a dozen empty frames leaned against a table covered in a tarp. She removed the covering to reveal several jars filled with slithering blobs of black glop. Whatever it was, it seemed to be alive. “You don’t understand, Mirror. When I create a magical looking glass, I’m not creating a life. You are an enchantment, a spell—nothing more than a few rare ingredients and an ancient incantation. Once you appeared, I placed you into an empty vessel and then shaped you into whatever form I needed. I’ll show you.”
The Wicked Queen opened one of the jars and removed the black glob. It slithered around her arm like a snake but she wrangled it back into her palms. At once her hand turned a bright, hot red and the creature shimmied and twisted like melting glass.
She spoke a few unintelligible words and one of the empty picture frames began to brighten like a television screen. Once it was bright white, she introduced the blob onto its surface. It sank in like she had dropped it into a bathtub. Then she placed her hand over the reflection. She uttered a few more words in an ancient language and then removed her hand. A scarlet handprint remained on the surface.
Mirror smiled. “That red handprint was the first thing I saw when I was born. I’ve seen it in my dreams ever since. It’s quite a unique symbol—intimidating, powerful. Don’t you agree, Relda? You must have seen it popping up all over Ferryport Landing.”
Granny shook her head in disgust.
The red print faded and a face appeared in the frame. It was that of a burly man with short gray hair, a full beard, and a sweater. “Awaiting your instructions,” it said in a gruff, almost salty tone.
Mirror gestured to the jars. “If you can put that energy into something you can take it out, correct?” Mirror said. “You could take it out of my body?”
The Queen’s eyes grew wide. “I suppose I could, but I would need a vessel to place it into. I don’t see the point of just putting you back into a mirror.”
“Oh, no, I’ve done the mirror thing. Allow me to introduce my vessel,” Mirror said. He snatched the baby Grimm off the floor and held him in his arms. “I want you to put me into him. He will give me my freedom not only from the magical cage you trapped me in, but also from the town of Ferryport Landing. I will be both Everafter and human at the same time.”
“You want to possess him?” Mirror’s storybook double cried.
Mirror nodded. “He is still a child. Whatever soul he has cannot be strong, so he will not fight me. Can you do it?”
The Wicked Queen nodded. “Yes, but—”
“No!” Veronica cried. “If you want a body, you can take mine!”
Mirror shook his head. “No offense, Veronica, but I’d like to live a long, full life. I want the boy.”
Granny Relda growled. Sabrina had never seen her so angry. “None of this had to happen, Mirror. You could have come to me. I would have done everything in my power to set you free.”
“Relda, that is kind of you to say. But you would have failed. One day you would have died and I would have had to start all over with a new owner. Your family has shown me great kindness, but who knows where I might have landed? I could be in the hands of tyrants someday. No, the time is now. I can’t wait another day.” He turned back to the Wicked Queen. “All right, Mom. It’s time you finally gave me a birthday present.”