Linda Williams knew her daughter was safe.

It had been the one thing that had kept her sane through the long years, looking back on her life, wondering where her small family was now, how her husband was coping, how her daughter was getting on in school and in life, how Robert and Sarah thought of her now. Linda would be near tears, fully ready to despair, but then she'd remember that whatever the consequences, Sarah was safe. No matter what happened to Linda, he couldn't touch Sarah anymore.

This she knew. It came as quite a surprise to find that it wasn't true at all.

When Sarah began the dance that Linda had never left, when mother saw daughter robed in the sparkling gown and jewels that were twins of the ones that Linda herself wore, the design stolen from the music box that had been the only thing Linda had been able to leave for Sarah and Sarah alone, her heart broke right in two. She sought him out in the crowd, the gentleman with the thistle-down hair, the Goblin King. She had it in her mind to tell him off, to lecture him, to shout at him, to break up the party and make him see the error of his ways. But she didn't find him. She knew he was there, could feel his insidious presence like a worm at the heart of the tower, but she couldn't see him.

And when he finally let her find him, they were dancing. The Goblin King and Sarah. Her daughter.

Linda wanted to scream. But all she could do was laugh.

But maybe Sarah noticed her presence somehow. Maybe she heard her mother's silent screams. Or maybe the girl was just smart. Whatever the case, Sarah somehow broke away from the Goblin King's embrace, somehow fought her way through the crowd and somehow, impossibly, broke through the spell.

Linda tried to follow, but, for her, the fight was over and the ballroom was an unsolvable labyrinth in itself. She didn't find the place where Sarah had broken through until it was too late. The wall and the spell were sealed, and no chair thrown by Linda would break through them again.

She sought him out again. This time, the dance was done, the fun was over, and she found him easily, sprawled on a couch with pretty, masked, possibly illusory girls swarming around him. She wanted to shout, to spit in his eye, to hit him square in the face, to sweep aside his harem and beat him black and blue. But she couldn't. She'd lost that power years ago.

So, instead, she gently shunted aside a rather plump specimen of goblin royalty and took her place on the couch, beside him. When she spoke, Linda's tones were modulated and almost adoring, although the message was full of venom. "I thought we had a bargain. One Williams girl for another."

The Goblin King absentmindedly ran a few strands of her hair through his black-gloved fingers. "Linda, Linda, Linda," he sighed. "You know I'm a liar. Besides, your daughter has a mind all her own. She's fair game."

"We had a bargain."

"No, you had a bargain. Now I have you. And soon, I'll have your daughter and her blushing baby brother to decorate the place with as well." He gazed around the beautiful crystal prison with a look of disdain.

"Bouncing. Babies are bouncing. Brides are blushing," Linda corrected him. Inside, her anger had been shunted aside by a more pressing problem. What baby brother?

"Well, it won't matter. In a little under an hour, they'll both be my subjects."

"No, they won't. Sarah's already - " Linda began, then bit off the rest of the sentence. She would not be responsible for sabotaging what could be her daughter's only chance for escape. " – fifteen," she finished. "To old for you to take unless she makes a bargain or bows to you."

"Which she'll do." His thin, handsome lips curled into something resembling a frown. "I'll admit, she's been a bit of a nuisance, but she's just like you at heart." He sneered, contorting his normally very handsome face into an ugly mask. "A fairy-tale princess. She doesn't stand a chance."

"You're wrong," Linda said softly, before she even realized she'd said anything. "You're so wrong. She's got a core of solid steel. No, iron. She'll put paid to you and your fairy magic."

The Goblin King really looked at her for the first time. "You actually believe that, don't you? Why? What proof do you have?"

Linda swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat. "She's already broken out of your spell."

"Straight into another. Let me assure you, your daughter will not be troubling me."

Linda's heart plummeted. Without another traitorous word, she got up off the sofa and began to walk sedately away.

Behind her, she heard the Goblin King sigh heavily, as if in disappointment. She turned just in time to see him vanish in a shower of sparkles.

Linda wanted to stamp her foot in anger, or, better yet, fracture the wall and break out of this cotton-candy world, run off to chase something that wasn't a dream. But, instead, she kept walking until she collided softly with a handsome masked man, who turned and asked her to dance.

As always, Linda Williams said yes.

A/N - Please bear with me. Don't worry, it will all make sense in the end.