Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy (Villains #4)

by Serena Valentino

Ursula had been a wild and charismatic character. She had been Circe’s sisters’ dearest friend and like an aunt to Circe—a great witch who had brought Circe bobbles and had told her stories of the sea. This creature, the thing she’d become, wasn’t the Ursula Circe loved. Ursula had become someone else, someone consumed by grief, anger, and the desire for power. A woman who had been driven to the depths of despair by a brother who loathed her. Circe remembered going to Ursula that day; she remembered thinking someone else—no, something else—was looking at her from behind Ursula’s eyes. It was chilling to remember.

Circe just hadn’t wanted to see it then. She had denied her fear, pushed it aside, and willed herself to see the woman she loved. And that was how she had allowed herself to be captured by the dreaded sea witch. How Ursula had been able to use her as a pawn to manipulate her sisters. The woman she loved had betrayed her.

It had ripped at Circe’s heart, as it surely must have done to Ursula’s. Maybe one day Circe would throw Triton’s words back at him. But she wouldn’t do it now. Not while her hate for him was still strong in her heart. The pain was too fresh.

Justice will come to all evil doers, but when someone other than God tries to take it into their own hands, it is no longer justice, justvan evil act committed by that person.

Family was true heartbreak. They could rip out your heart like no one else. They could destroy your spirit and leave you alone in the tangled depths of despair. Family could ruin you, more than a lover might, and surely more than even the dearest of friends could. Family could hold its power over you.

I absolutely disagree with this sentiment! Whoever knows you best hurts you most. In this story it was the character's sisters, but i have heard of some who were hurt most by their spouse, friends, coworkers, etc. Sometimes, family members don't try to know you enough to truly hurt you, which can certainly hurt in a different way, but its still not the worse way.

How do you honor a witch who betrayed you? “We put her to rest,” Nanny said gently, wrapping her arm around Circe’s shoulders. “And we cleanse the land. Come, my sweet one, I will help you.”

Maleficent had been born in the Fairylands, in the hollow of a tree filled with screeching crows. She was little and defenseless, and she seemed to be made up entirely of sharp edges. Her features were pointy and her skin had a milky-green pallor. Terrible nubby horns were starting to emerge from her bony little head. Nothing about her was right. Nothing at all. All the fairies feared her, because they found her appearance disturbing. They’d left her there in that tree, alone, for no one knew who had abandoned her there. If her parents hadn’t wanted her, then surely the fairies didn’t, either. For all they knew, she was actually an ogre. Or something too vile for even the likes of ogres. Besides, she didn’t have wings or pleasant features. And there was a distinct air of evil about her, so clearly she couldn’t be a fairy. No, she wasn’t a fairy at all. At least, that was what the fairies told themselves, to console themselves when they stayed up late at night, wondering if they’d done the right thing by leaving the defenseless little creature in the hollow of an old tree. Whatever her origins, she belonged to the crows. The crows will care for her, the fairies told themselves. She must have been born of their magic. After all, everyone knew crows were evil. The fairies called her Maleficent. They had named her after Saturn, because of its unfavorable influence, and after Mars, a malicious god known to cause destruction and war. For that was what the fairies saw in her futu...

“Spellbound!” the old queen gasped. The thought sent chills through Snow. “If that is true, then no one will be able to protect those sisters from my vengeance! I’ve long accepted that I chose my own path down the road of regret. But if it was all designed by those sisters, if it was written by them, and I was simply their puppet, then there will be Hades to pay!”

“You know it was a mistake,” Nanny insisted. “You know it was my fault. If you have to hold someone accountable, punish me.”

Oberon chuckled. “You have punished yourself far too much already, my dear one. There is nothing I can do to you that you have not already done to yourself.”