Closed Doors and Broken Mirrors Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: The Best of a Bad Choice

  Chapter 2: Life After Death

  Chapter 3: What Makes You Fight?

  Chapter 4: The Dangers of Fashion

  Chapter 5: How am I Supposed to Respond?

  Chapter 6: Bringing a Man Home

  Chapter 7: Ceasing Hostilities

  Chapter 8: An Apple a Day...

  Chapter 9: If that Girl "Dies" on Me Again, I Swear…

  Chapter 10: What a Riot!

  Chapter 11: Prepare for Battle

  Chapter 12: Hurry Up and Wait

  Chapter 13: Giving You a Reason to Fear Aging

  Chapter 14: Cleaning Up

  Chapter 15: Out of my Comfort Zone

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Closed Doors and Broken Mirrors:

  A Retelling of Snow White and Blue Beard

  By: S.R. Nulton

  COPYRIGHT

  COPYRIGHT © 2019 S.R. Nulton

  All rights reserved.

  This story is a work of fiction based off of works of fiction.

  No character, place, circumstance or relationship is intended to resemble anyone/thing, living, dead, undead, mostly dead, or anywhere in-between.

  The author humbly requests that you suspend disbelief for a short while and enjoy this story for what it is…

  Whatever that may happen to be.

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  PROLOGUE

  CAILLTE LYNN

  When you’re seventeen, you think about things differently. You don’t know much about the world around you because you haven’t lived long enough, seen enough to really understand. And how could you? Time hasn’t spread out behind you yet. You haven’t had to look back at your mistakes and seen how they changed things. You don’t understand pretty much anything beyond what you can see and feel, but you think that you do. It limits you, makes you reckless and selfish.

  And when something bad happens to you, you don’t really know what to do about it except to hope that someone can come and save you.

  But what if they don’t? And what if your difficulties aren’t because of your own stupidity? What if there wasn’t a good choice or if you were too afraid to find another option?

  And, what if you stop looking for a way to escape?

  Does that make you a bad person, or just scared?

  ~

  It happened slowly.

  Well, no. Not really. Actually, I’d felt something happening for a bit before everything snapped back into place. It was sort of like when you smell rain coming and see the clouds creeping in, but nothing really happens until the first drop breaks through. After all, you can’t say it’s raining before the rain shows up. Not that I was truly aware of what was happening, so I suppose that wasn’t a very good analogy.

  Anyway, everything snapped back into place. Well, that snap was… me, I guess because all of a sudden I’m here again. Not here, like this room, but here like present.

  Actually, where am I?

  I looked around the space and realized that I was in my bedroom. In my defense, the place looked very different than the last time I’d seen it. Well, the last time I was aware of seeing it. For one, it was covered in overly fancy gowns that had been thrown around the room with absolutely no care for the expensive fabrics. For another, someone had decided to redecorate it in an… odd style.

  As in, if there was a bright color available, it was living somewhere in my room.

  What made it worse was that everything seemed to be covered in dust, as if it hadn't been cleaned in a year or so. I wouldn’t have left it that way, not before…

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember how long it had looked like that. I couldn’t remember much of anything.

  I glanced out the window, hoping the garden would give me a bit of solace, and blinked. There were two people racing through the rows of vegetables! And one of them was wearing a blue dress covered in magic. It looked familiar somehow.

  Something clicked. “The Spinner’s welp and his assistant?” And I remembered. I remembered breaking through the haze I lived in so I could warn them. I remembered telling them about the other wives, trying to tell them that Bekins was going to call my husband back, and just ten minutes before telling them to use the secret door at the end of the lettuce row. The one that they slipped through half a moment before I remembered them.

  A horse galloped up the front drive, and I felt my stomach drop.

  “He’s here. What am I going to do?” I whispered, biting my lower lip.

  The door to my room banged open, revealing Bekins in his disheveled uniform and a malicious smirk.

  “Come with me, your highness,” he sneered, grabbing me by my arm and dragging me out of the room. “The king wishes to speak with you about our guests.”

  My heart felt like it was about to take up boxing as it beat my chest. There was really only one option. I would have to pretend that nothing had changed. No one could know that my affliction had been lifted, most definitely not my husband.

  It wasn’t as if I didn’t know how to fake insanity. Despite what people thought, I’d never completely gone mad. It had always faded in and out. During my moments of lucidity, I’d made sure to keep speaking like a crazy person so that my husband would think his plan had worked. Still, the stakes had never been so high. There were other lives on the line now.

  And as I walked into the entryway, all I could think was, How am I going to survive this? No one else ever has.

  CHAPTER 1: THE BEST OF A BAD CHOICE

  CAILLTE LYNN

  I opened my eyes and looked around in confusion. Everything was so dark! The walls were a deep burgundy with gold-leaf on the crown moulding and the chair rail. The only reason it didn’t look like a cave was because of the sun pouring in through the massive windows and reflecting off of the gold made the room glow slightly.

  I didn’t know where I was. At all.

  Laying there, I tried to remember back. I had been out of the mountain for the first time in ages, gathering herbs for the local healer. Then everything went dark and I woke up in the darkest room I’d ever seen. My community loved whites and bright colors, so I knew that I wasn't there. Not to mention, we didn’t have much in the way of high ceilings or sunlight.

  What's going on?

  “Are you my new mama?” asked a little voice from beside me.

  I blinked and turned my head to see who had spoken.

  There, sitting in a burgundy and cream embroidered chair, sat one of the most beautiful children I’d ever seen. Her skin was the same pale cream as the walls, but with just a hint of pink in her cheeks. Her lips were a red so brilliant that, despite it being completely natural, it looked like she’d either gotten into a pot of rouge or painted them with blood. Then there was her hair. It was black. Not dark brown, like most human’s. No, this was a black as dark as the heart of the mountains, but with undertones of blue, purple, and a little bit of burgundy when the sun hit it just right. Or maybe that’s just the wall color reflecting in her hair.

  She also had the biggest brown eyes of anyone I’d ever seen.

  And they were staring right at me, expecting an answer.

  I cleared my throat and tried to remember what she’d asked me. “I’m sorry, little one. What did you say?”


  “Are you my new mama? I asked Father for a new mama and he told me he had one picked out, but that was a while ago. I thought he’d forgot. Then he brought you. So are you my new mama?”

  Blinking, I let what she’d said sink in as I sat up. “I don’t think so. I’ve never met your daddy before.” It was odd though. I’d never heard someone so young speak so clearly and intelligently…

  “Oh, don’t call him that,” she whispered, her eyes wide as she glanced around the room. “He doesn’t like to be called that. You have to be careful. You don’t want to make him mad.”

  That put a whole new dimension on the situation. The girl was only about 4 or 5 years old and she was terrified of her father. What’s more, she was scared that I’d be punished for referring to the man familiarly. Who would get angry at their own child for not referring to them informally? How does that even make sense?

  “Okay,” I reassured her. “It’s okay. I won’t do it again. Can you tell me where we are, though?”

  She let out a big breath and settled back in her chair again, though her posture was just as rigid as ever. “This is the Summer Palace. Well, everyone else calls it the Queen’s Castle, but not around Father. Of course, they don’t usually talk much around him.” She shrugged.

  I wracked my brain to remember my geography. I hadn’t been a faithful student of the human countries, seeing as I wasn’t going to spend much time there, and I was now regretting it. Then it clicked. “Fretche? I’m in Fretche?” She nodded and I let out a sigh of relief. I wasn’t far from home! Maybe I could still escape. Or it might just be a misunderstanding…

  The door to my room (also burgundy and gold, because these people don’t have an imagination) swung open to reveal a strange man with dark hair. His sharp eyes were muddy brown and oddly ugly, considering I actually like the color of mud, and they seemed to access the room and find it lacking.

  He spotted the little girl and frowned as he looked down his hooked nose at her. “Snow White, what are you doing in here?”

  Odd name for someone. Fitting, but odd. I thought only Lettelach gave children names like that.

  The little girl seemed to shrink. The wild eyed look from earlier was back with a vengeance but she seemed to refuse to show any more fear than that. She didn’t tremble, didn’t cry, and didn’t let her voice waver as she spoke. It was impressive, to be honest.

  “Meeting my new mother,” she replied in her most polite voice.

  The man scowled at her, his black hair catching the light and showing off the same tones as Snow White’s. It was her father! How a man so average looking could bring such a beautiful little girl into the world… she must have had a stunning mother! Honestly, the only thing that really stood out about him was his beard, which was blue. Not blue-black. Blue. Like a blue-jay.

  “Leave the room. Now.” He turned away from his daughter without seeing if she would obey his order and turned his mud-colored eyes on me. Snow White didn’t need to be monitored though. She stood up and walked out of the room with remarkable aplomb. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the same way.

  “Stand up, girl. I need to look at you.”

  Now, I know what you’re thinking: why would you do what he said?

  Because I was seventeen and terrified and I wanted to feel like I could defend myself if I needed to. Don’t judge, please. I don’t think that you can ever know what you would have done unless you were in my situation. And I dearly hope that you never find yourself in such a place.

  So, I stood and watched him carefully. On the bright side, I didn’t feel as helpless as I had when I had been lying down. On the downside, he was still taller than me, though not by as much as I’d originally thought. I’d been around much taller humans before so his height wasn’t all that scary.

  No, the scary part was the look in his eyes.

  Honestly, I’d met bears just out of hibernation with a less hungry expression. He wasn’t staring at my body though. I could have dealt with that. No, he was watching me with eyes that were unfocused, like he wasn’t really looking at me so much as something that was… I don’t know, around me maybe?

  His gaze sharpened again, reminding me that he wasn't a madman. He was clever and cruel and couldn't hide the cold sharpness of his eyes. “You are a special one, aren’t you? A perfect bride.”

  My head jerked back like he’d slapped me. Up until that point, I’d hoped that the little girl was wrong, that her father had just picked me up after I’d fallen and hit my head. “What do you mean, bride?”

  “I should have thought that was obvious. We will be married this afternoon.” His voice was dry, bored really, like he’d had this conversation before and couldn’t be bothered to have it again.

  “B-but, why? I mean, you don’t even know me! I’m only seventeen and you’ve got to be at least forty.” No one in my community married until they were at least thirty. It was actually against our laws because you were still considered a child before that. We aged too slowly to marry early. For us, 40 was considered young, but I knew that humans were different. It was much larger for them, almost like a man of 150 demanding my hand! Completely inappropriate.

  He laughed. “At least. But that doesn’t matter. I need a wife and my daughter needs someone to take care of her. In return, you will become the queen. Don’t you want to be queen?”

  “Not really.” The man clearly didn’t know who I was or he would have expected that answer. My second cousin’s sister-in-law was a queen and she was always complaining about the amount of stupid political things she had to do every day. One of her jobs, as queen, was to travel around and explain just what it took to rule the mountain. That way, if anyone decided that they wanted the job, they would be well informed and wouldn’t complain when the king gave it to them without a fight. Dwarves were very practical.

  But the human king in front of me clearly didn’t do things the same way as my people did. Humans were funny that way, always obsessed with power. “You are one of a very small group to respond that way, and the first to ever say it so succinctly. Unfortunately, I can’t take no for an answer.”

  I frowned. “You can’t make me marry you.”

  “No, I suppose I couldn’t. Well, that’s a lie. I could but I won’t this time.” He paused, letting me relax for a moment. I wasn’t sure what he meant about his ways of forcing the marriage, but I was glad I wouldn’t have to experience them. Also, the remark about ‘this time’ seemed off somehow. He continued speaking before I could explore the thought, though. “Of course, there will be consequences if you refuse me.”

  “Consequences?”

  He nodded. “Yes, my dear. Consequences. For instance, I might discover a plot by your kingdom to attack and take over the human lands. It isn’t completely unexpected, after all. The Wraiths have been fighting the Fey for years now. Who’s to say that the dwarves won’t be the next to attack? I must protect my people, after all.” The king’s expression was one of regret but his eyes shone with excitement.

  It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when you realize that your entire people will die if you don’t give in to a power-hungry crazy person. It was like finding yourself on the top of the mountain in wintertime without a coat. You just start shivering inside and can’t stop it.

  Then, it hit me. I hadn’t been picked up by accident or at random. The only way he could know I was part-dwarf was if he’d been watching me for a while, and even then it would have taken effort to connect me with my people. I mean, I am only part dwarf but at that moment I didn’t look like one at all. Generally I’m considered short for a human but tall for a dwarf, reaching about 5’1”. Well, when I’m not in disguise. At that moment I was 5’5”. I had some Wraith blood, so I could change my appearance a bit. I never left the mountain without putting on my human features and I knew for a fact that I could hold onto them while unconscious. Really, the only way for him to know I was a dwarf was to follow me, and I didn’t leave the mountain much.

  “Why me?�
�� I asked, not even realizing it was aloud at first.

  He smiled at me. It was entirely too pleasant for a kidnapper and blackmailer. “I’m always on the lookout for young women with magic like yours. But that’s beside the point right now. The choice is your hand or your people. What will it be?”

  When I sat there in silence too long, he decided to up the ante.

  “Who knows what might happen to my daughter, all alone in the woods with no one to protect her except a few aging servants. Dwarves are such powerful warriors, after all. And it isn’t like she’s an heir,” he mused. His satisfied expression gave me the impression that he would be happy either way.

  He was willing to use my decision as an excuse to get rid of his daughter!

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll marry you.” I paused for a moment more, than asked, “What’s your name? I can’t marry someone if I don’t even know their name.”

  He laughed again, mocking the false front I’d put up while asking my question. “Just call me Blue Beard.”

  ~

  I’m constantly amazed by how life works out. I was kidnapped and threatened with the loss of my entire people if I didn’t marry a stranger, and as soon as the ceremony finished, he left.

  I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that. I was left feeling grateful, relieved, and very confused. Plus, I still didn’t know what the man wanted from me.

  And that was how I came to live in a castle made out of logs in the middle of the forest. I never figured out how someone managed to build an entire castle, complete with a square shaped tower, entirely out of logs, but they did. And if that doesn't seem odd enough, there were two levels of wrap around porches. Again, a very strange place to live.