Bad Apple by Wren Michaels

even know? She would have told me. She lived
like a commoner. Why?”
    “ I removed her mother's memories of royalty as
punishment. They lived as they deserved, like animals among the animals.” The
aloofness in her words brings me one step closer to making them her last.
    I
dash across the room and slam her against the wall. “You did this with magic.
Her body still glows in a faint purple hue. Evidence of Hestor . You can reverse this!”
    More
laughter chokes from her throat as I wrap my hand around it. “I dare you,
Darien. Show me what you're made of. Prove to me that you're worthy to run this
kingdom.”
    My
fingertips press into her flesh, and her windpipe flexes in my palm. With just
a little more pressure I can snap it. Tremors rumble through me as I hold her
there, gasping for breath. Even though the love of my life lays in a coffin at her hands, I will not have my mother's blood on mine. I release
her, and she drops to the floor.
    I
slide down the edge of Snow's coffin with my back and bury my face in my hands. The hands that nearly killed my mother. Who am I? What
have I become?
    Her
choking laughter continues to ring in my ears. “This is why I turned Marcus into
a bear. He failed me as well.”
    “ You? You did that to Marcus? And killed my sister?” Rose chokes out. My head snaps
up, and I stare at Rose and my brother as they run into the room. Rose drapes
her body over the coffin and convulses in sobs.
    “ I should have killed you when I had the chance. But
since Marcus gave up the throne, I let you live. I'm rethinking that decision.”
Mother raises her hand and a ball of glowing purple sizzles in her palm.
    “ Where my brother may have failed to kill you, I will
not. Mother.” Marcus leaps into the tiny room and
grips mother by the throat, snapping her neck like a twig.
    Mother's
body slacks as her last breath leaves her lips in a puff of purple mist. Ashes
that were once bones crumble in Marcus' fingertips and fall to the floor.
    “ I'm sorry, brother.” Marcus says as he places a
comforting hand on my shoulder. “Had I but known earlier.”
    My
jaws clench as the pain ricochets through my heart. “None of us knew. She's
taken away years of your life, and the love of mine.” I stare back at Snow,
hoping that somehow now that Mother's gone perhaps she would arise. That maybe
it was only a spell.
    Marcus
pulls Rose from the coffin, and she collapses in his arms a weeping mess. I
fight to remain strong in their presence, but in my soul I weep even more than
Rose.
    “ May I....have a moment alone...with Snow?” I choke
out, begging for my brother to leave before my own tears wash me away.
    “ Of course, brother. If you need anything...” He
turns back. Worry floods his eyes.
    I
nod. “Thank you.”
    Marcus
sweeps Rose into his arms and carries her from the room. Her soft wails trail
behind them. As the moonlight drapes Snow in her glass case, I succumb to the
emotions welling in me, and my tears plunk against the coffin.
    Draping
myself over it as Rose did, I stroke the glass as if it were her face. “I'm so
sorry, Snow. I promised to protect you. To love you. And I failed.”
    The
case beneath me rumbles, jiggling against my body as if there were an
earthquake. The glass lining thins and shatters beneath my fingertips and face.
I plummet against Snow's body. Where there should be shards of glass there is
only air.
    Snow's
cold body lies beneath mine. I scramble to touch her lifeless face. With a
gentle stroke, I trace her porcelain cheek and ruby red lips.
    “ I love you, Snow. Even in death, I will love you
forever.” I sift my hands through her raven locks and crush my mouth to hers
for one last lover's kiss.
    The
minute my lips touch hers, warmth flows through her skin. Her body, once cold
to my touch, heats beneath my fingertips. A thump beats against my chest,
echoing my own. Her eyes flutter open, and the stunning brown eyes I've ached
to look into stare back at me.
    She
is