Mirror, Mirr- A Twisted Tale (Disney Twisted Tales) - Jen Calonita Page 0,40

want to take care of you the way you took care of me.”

Ingrid’s face soured. “I don’t need caring for.”

“I know that,” Katherine said quickly. “But I still do. There’s so much I have to learn and do, and I can’t do it without you. You know that. Please say yes.”

Say yes. She heard the voice in her head clearly. Go and ask for the rest. You know which title will be best.

Which title. Yes . . . “Okay,” Ingrid said. “I’ll come.” Katherine began to clap her hands excitedly. “But I want to be your lady-in-waiting.”

“Oh.” Katherine paused. “I was already assigned one of those.”

“Then give that person another position,” Ingrid insisted. If she was Katherine’s lady-in-waiting, she could be the voice of reason in her sister’s head. And if she was the voice of reason in Katherine’s head, she’d be the one in Georg’s, too.

You alone can infilitrate the head and the heart. Together, our wisdom you shall impart.

Katherine smiled. “Okay, I will. You’re my new lady-in-waiting. Come right now and leave all this behind.” She looked around the small shop in dismay.

“I need to gather my things,” Ingrid told her. “I’ll come tomorrow.” She had to find a way to get the mirror out of the shop without her master seeing. It wasn’t like he ever went looking for it or even remembered it. The old man was so senile he probably didn’t even realize it was there.

“Okay,” Katherine said again. She held out her hand. “Tomorrow, Sister, you’ll be mine again.”

Ingrid gave Katherine’s hand a squeeze. “Yes,” she said, even though both she and the mirror were thinking exactly the opposite.

Katherine did listen—on some things. But not the things that mattered. Ingrid would have her ear until she was interrupted for something inane like another garden party with the silly subjects. Moreover, Katherine wanted Ingrid to smile more at the servants in the castle. She expected Ingrid to be friendly and kind. Katherine still insisted pricing be fair for crops. She wouldn’t allow Georg to go to war with other kingdoms, as much as Ingrid wanted her to. Ingrid had hoped Georg would get himself killed so Katherine would become the sole ruler.

But it was moving the mirror into the castle that had come at the highest price by far. It had taken her weeks to find a way to smuggle it into the castle without Katherine knowing of its existence, but she eventually devised a plan: under cover of darkness, with the aid of two palace guards whom she would pay off (and threaten with their lives if they ever spoke of the outing), she would have the mirror moved to her chambers, putting it in a large dressing closet off her own room. She would keep it locked at all times and refuse to allow any servant in her room, even to dust. “I’m fine taking care of my own affairs,” she’d say. Who cared about cobwebs anyway? She had more important matters on her mind.

But when the night arrived and she led the guards to her master’s shop, she didn’t expect him to be waiting there for her.

“Master.” Ingrid had bowed in his presence, something she still did out of habit as much as she loathed it.

“I know why you are here,” he said, “and you cannot have what is not yours.”

“Master?” she said, her heart quickening. He couldn’t mean the mirror. She had been so careful with it, hiding it painstakingly whenever he wasn’t around. There was no way he could know she was communing with it. He probably didn’t even know he still possessed such an object. After all, when she’d first found it, it was among the broken relics he was preparing to dispose of.

“I am no fool, Ingrid.” Her master’s voice vibrated with anger. “You think I don’t know what you’ve been up to under my roof? Do you think my eyes have failed me?”

“I am not sure what you mean,” she tried again. What if he thought she was coming to steal from him? But she wasn’t stealing. The mirror was hers. She had cared for it. She had fixed it. She had given herself over to it. It was part of her now. She wasn’t leaving without it. She stepped forward to enter the shop. Her master blocked her path.

Enough was enough. “Let me through, old man. I have things to collect.” Ingrid pushed past him.

Her master followed. So did the guards. “That mirror is not yours!