The Fall Of Snow: Guard Your Heart

6. Six

Six

Madam Evangeline

Madam Evangeline walks to her chambers in a flurry, her emerald cape billowing in her wake. She's headed for her dressing room where her beloved looking glass resides, gifted to her by her mother. Every day since her daughter escaped the manor, she's been on the hunt to track her down and end her for the trouble she has caused. Evangeline knew ingesting that apple while with child was a risk, but it was a risk she was willing to take. Little did she know, it would be the thing that nearly broke her.

With her maternal instincts running high, Evangeline wanted her offspring to be strong and powerful, to follow in her footsteps as the Lady of the Orchard. But she couldn't have predicted what that apple would do to her child, she couldn't have predicted that her daughter would not only carry her power within her veins, but beauty in her soul. She couldn't have known that her daughter would surpass her in divinity and steal the love meant for her, which was vital in upholding the lie she preserved. For Evangeline needed the world to believe she loved her husband and no other. She could not allow even the slightest of notions that she may hold space in her heart for another.

"Looking glass, my sweet, awaken from your slumber.

Your ruler seeks your charm.

Crack it open, break the veil.

At my behest, reveal the world asunder."

Evangeline's voice is sharp and cold, just as it always has been. As if the mirror has a direct connection to Evangeline's deepest desires, it begins to glow and a metallic scent fills the air. The clear reflection of the glass begins to move like molten lava, swirling into itself and creating spiraled rings like a pebble dropped in a pond. The center of the looking glass opens on a scene of dark forest and a hole in the base of a mighty oak. Evangeline notes the small tells that Snow has been living there: the dream-trap hanging inside the tree, the perfectly placed twigs and leaves cradling the entrance of the hole, and the quiver leaning against the interior of the trunk.

Snow returns to her makeshift home to find one of Evangeline’s hired huntsmen in her territory, sniffing around the tree like a hungry animal. Evangeline cringes as Snow detects the threat before he even flinches at her movements. Snow ends the sorry excuse for a huntsman before he even leaves a scratch on her, driving a dagger through the huntsman's neck. Idiot. He didn't even put up a fight. A sorry excuse for a huntsman, and a wasted gift from the Mother. Not that Evangeline had much hope in the man. As soon as she hired him, she could tell he was just too eager for his payment without a damned clue as to how to use his gifts. Lucky for her, there are plenty of eager men to complete her task. If it weren't for her ledgers, she would have lost track by now of the number of men she has sent out on her quest.

Huntsmen have been coming to the manor from near and far since she put the word out of her request with the promise of something in return. The people of Roselaria know the Lady of the Orchard and they know what she is capable of. Keeping it under the radar of the Royal Crown, Evangeline has managed to get plenty of huntsman willing to sign her contract and do her dirty work. Some come back with their tail between their legs, some she’s watched perish within the looking glass, but the truth of the matter is, Evangeline doesn’t care for the wellbeing of any of them. She just wants her prize: her daughter's frozen heart.

The looking glass shimmers to a close, once again becoming nothing but an ordinary mirror, showing only the perfect reflection of the madam's face.

"Insufferable fool," Evangeline scolds into the mirror. "Is there anyone left on this earth who can complete a simple task?" She turns her back on the gold-framed oval and glides over to the black velvet chaise lounge, throwing herself onto the cushioned seat in a dramatic display of despair. She picks up her gold chalice of plum wine and gulps it down greedily, her various rings clinking against her cup.

As she contemplates her next moves, Evangeline struggles to find a solution more suitable than the one she already has in place. Although her ties with the royal family are strong, even she isn't deranged enough to ask for such a favor. They would never understand the severity of her request. It would only draw unwanted attention to the empire she worked so hard to build.

No matter how many huntsmen she sends out to find Snow, they never seem to find their prize. So much so, that Evangeline has started promising payments of absurd requests in hopes that she may test her fate and one day hold Snow's bloody heart in the palm of her hand.

Instead, her extravagant contracts have only brought her the most desperate and delusional of huntsman at her door. Not only does her daughter keep slipping through their fingers, but even the looking glass is faltering to pinpoint her whereabouts the longer she is away, all because of that blasted frost apple.

When Snow was first born, Evangeline knew the apple did its job when the tiny infant opened her eyes for the first time, staring up at her mother with irises that glowed a metallic bronze. As a youth, Evangeline didn't show signs of her magic until she was well into her early childhood, but Snow entered the world with power shooting through her tiny angelic eyes. Evangeline and her husband were delighted her potion had worked. Never had she been successful with a magic as strong as this—never had she ever experimented with altering the unborn, but her will to create a life as powerful as hers was just what she needed. She would stop at nothing to get what she desired.

Evangeline was eager to see how Snow's powers would manifest through the years and how her power would grow with her, as did her beauty. When Evangeline deemed her old enough, she began teaching her craft to her daughter. She taught Snow how to wield her magic and turn it into something tangible, something profitable and powerful. Passing down her knowledge through lessons may just have been the happiest times as a mother.

But when Snow began to exhibit traits that surpassed her own, Evangeline started to panic. Her husband became infatuated with their beautiful daughter, completely ignoring Evangeline altogether, threatening her perfectly constructed plan to present this facade to the world. It was as if she were invisible in her own home, a shadow walking through the halls of the manor.

Slowly, Evangeline began to resent her little creation.

One night when her husband was putting Snow to bed, Evangeline heard him speaking in a low voice after reading her a story. He said, "You are my world. My sun, my moon, and all that's in between." As Evangeline watched her husband tuck their daughter into her bed, she sensed a threat and her body tensed. She felt as though she had been punched in the gut without warning. Her husband was the only man she ever loved. He was her best friend and confidant. He was her security, and now instead of looking at Evangeline like she made the sun rise each morning, he looked at Snow instead .

When Evangeline remarried, she made sure her new husband wouldn't become more in love with her daughter than her. She would not be ignored or surpassed, and she would not let a fool destroy her cover that she sacrificed everything to create. Never again would she be looked down upon as she once was. She would not feel shame and she would not be outshined.

At that point, Snow knew to keep her powers stifled. Less and less would she find Snow's eyes aglow with magic, but that didn't matter. Her new husband found himself infatuated with her daughter's beauty, his eyes always lingering on Snow a little too long. Hanging around near her room for no reason at all. Evangeline's envy grew alongside her hatred for her offspring. She no longer viewed Snow as a success, but rather a grave mistake. One she couldn't take back.

Or could she?