Heartless Epilogue….

Cath stared at the unrecognizable being in the misted looking glass. The creature's dark upswept hair had been replaced with a static mess, her beautiful eyes now swollen and bulging. As she touched the smooth panel looking glass her reflection disappeared into a long-lost memory. Her old self.

It had healed her in a way that hurt her more than she could put into words. She touched the glass, trying to fight the coursing emotions and battling thoughts. She looked up starting when lemon tarts gleamed back at her, reflecting her sorrow her pain.

"Jest," she whispered as she held a delicate finger against his cheekbone. Stroking it as if it would bring him back to life.

His hologram walked closer from the mirrors distance, leaving them only a bells distance apart. He kissed her on the forehead as she imagined his cooling breath sweeping against her face, savoring the flavor.

Tears flew down the bridge of her nose, licking her lips she trapped ones who had been too frightened to flee. "Jest, why did fate choose for you to die?"

He placed his palm so it matched hers on the face of reality. She could almost hear his voice ringing in her ear. "Hatta used to tell me, fate can't be denied. How is he and Raven?"

Catherine fidgeted, looking away. "Why do I get the feeling you already know, they have turned exactly like the drawing the three sisters made. They have become fools, being what they will be, but not what they can be."

Jest looked at her as if he had never seen her in this light before. "But I know what you can be."

Cath's eyebrow lifted, resisting the urged to mess up his curly impeccable hair knotting her fists and laying them at her side. Knowing it was an impossible task.

"You can be with me." She froze when she heard the answer, her face giving away to temptation. "But how?"
Jest gave a painful smile before he faded, "You know what you have to do."

Hope filled the empty hole she had ripped out years ago, she heard a forlorn sound that thumped like a drum in her body. Suddenly, she understood everything. She headed back.

The King was a mix of shock and happiness when the beauty came in the chestnut framed door. The Cath he had fallen in love with in the beginning had come back. But his delight was quickly replaced with horror and repulsion when she placed an extricate carefully designed heel, followed by the other onto the white marble roof.

His majesty twirled his mustache nervously a habit he had been trying to get rid of for years. Squeaking he faced Cath, looking at her billowing dark hair as she walked to the edge, sweat ran down his matted hair. "What are you doing, my love?!"

S he glared at him, somehow, she was more beautiful than ever. "Doing what I have to do, and I never loved you." She turned, and she jumped.

As she peered through the bright haze she saw the black silk glove in front of her. She took it kissed it softly on each of its fingers, clinging on like it was her sanity smiling. "Jest."

He smiled back. "Cath"

The End