Mirror Mirror, Me

By Julia Skinner

The face in the crystalline mirror is nothing like what I remember. Cold eyes, a crown of perfectly pressed hair, expression like fine stone glazed in ice.

No one told me becoming the fae Queen would be like… this.

I strain to catch even the slightest glimpse of fire in the depths of her eyes. The spark I always used to have. But the face in the mirror doesn’t answer.

With every passing day, it grows harder and harder to picture the girl I used to be. I think… I think she had wild hair, tangled and matted and free. And once, someone I can’t remember told me my eyes sparkled.

Not anymore.

“Please.” I press my hand against the chilled glass, and my reflection does the same. “Give me a reason not to follow through with this. Just one. Show me that I’m… I’m still here.”

Doesn’t this kingdom need me?

They do not need you, the queen whispers in my head. No one ever needed you.

I squeeze my eyes closed.

You only ever messed things up.

The girl stirs in the back of my memory, faint wisps of an image that has almost fully faded away.

You killed her. I look back at the mirror—at the queen I’ve become. She died the day you took the throne.

The queen in the mirror doesn’t even flinch. She doesn’t care about the past she left behind.

Or the girl she had to kill to be who she is now.

To be who I am now.

After today, there’s no going back. Ice weaves through my veins, my power slowly slipping through.

“I’m sorry,” I finally whisper, the last memory of me slipping from my fingers. “I am the Queen. Not a weak, foolish child. Not… not anymore.”

This is for the best, I tell myself as I turn from the face in the mirror.

My grandly built room is empty—a looming box lined with colorless, chilled walls. I loosen my fisted hands and feel my shivering power flood through the castle like a silent winter storm. It reaches invisible frozen fingers over every servant and soldier in the castle, creeping out across the land. Across my land.

Striding through the door, I throw my head back and straighten my shoulders like the monarch the kingdom knows me as. Before I became queen, we were a broken people. Lost. Forgotten by all of our supposed allies. Turned into slaves by the Darkness my power now holds at bay.

Never again, I promise.

The world will be ours, starting today.

I pause in the doorway of the throne room. The black suited soldiers stand a little straighter, and the servants turn to me—except for one. One who looks far too much like a memory I’ve already forgotten. The maid swirls across the white floor as she sweeps. Her hair tangles around her tanned face with every move, flaring and curling and dancing. She’s like fire. A single spark in my kingdom of ice.

Still watching her, I beckon to the Captain of the Guard. He approaches and kneels stiffly, gripping the hilt of his polished sword. I can feel my power filling his veins, chilling away the warmth that used to flow through him. I knew his name, once upon a time.

“That girl,” I say. “Lock her away.”

He doesn’t move, but his face remains as blank as the walls of this castle. Finally—finally—he speaks, his voice barely audible. “In…  the dungeons?”

There is a flicker of rebellion in his question.

Leaning down, I grip his shoulder in my cold hand, smothering his emotions with my powers. “Yes.”

Without another word, he moves to obey. The perfect soldier of stone.

I will remove everyone who could ever stand in my way, I think, until all that is left are those who have forgotten every trace of the people they used to be.

I snap my fingers and a servant scrambles over.

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Send out a message to the kingdom for every mirror to be destroyed.”

My people will not see what they are becoming until it is too late.

Stone glazed in ice.

Just like their queen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julia Skinner is a eighteen year old writer, blogger, and ice cream enthusiast. When she’s not working on one of her (many) Fantasy novels or flash fictions, she can be found playing video games, happy-ranting about one of Brandon Sanderson’s books, or wondering just how many germs are on the door handle (probably A LOT). Julia strives to bring glory to her Savior, Jesus Christ, and if any good comes from her journey, it’s because of Him.

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