January 10, 1997
10:15 p.m.
Castle Wyvern
Margot breathed a sigh of relief once Xanatos and Mr. Burnett were out of the room. It had taken quite a lot of work to orchestrate The Pack's escape from jail to lure the gargoyles away, and to create a diversion in the castle that would momentarily distract Xanatos and Owen. A spell designed to set off the security system was easy enough to create and deploy. But it was dumb luck that Fox was gone, too, visiting her ailing father.
"Well… that went exactly as planned," she said to the baby in her arms. "Better, even." Her voice had lost the shrillness to it. It was lower, cooler, thick with years of knowledge and confidence. It sounded nothing like the voice she normally used.
Her petite frame changed, shifting from a blond woman with a face that looked like she was constantly smelling something repugnant, to a smooth, ageless face of one of the fae with blue skin and long dark hair.
She knew what she was called behind her back by the trivial, meaningless humans.
The Wicked Witch of the West Side.
Little did they know how close they were to the truth.
In previous ages, she had been known as Morgana le Fae.
But her mother and father, the King and Queen of the Third Race, had simply called her Morgana.
She touched the little boy's wispy, strawberry blond curls.
"You are quite the powerhouse, aren't you, my sweet, little nephew," she said, and a cold smile spread across her face, revealing slightly pointed canines.
Alex looked up at her with something in his eyes that bordered on recognition and understanding, but wariness as well.
"I have something I want to teach you…" Morgana said. "Can you wave your hands like this? She made a swooping gesture, and Alex repeated it. "Yes? Very good."
"Now, think of a hole. A big, dark hole. No, no, it's okay. It's not scary, it's like a magical doorway," she crooned as Alex's lower lip trembled. "Now, when you think of this dark hole—doorway, I want you to move your hands like this. Yes, excellent, Alex!"
Alex waved his chubby hand similarly to the way she had demonstrated, and there was a spark of fae-green light, but nothing else happened.
At that moment, Margot heard footsteps coming up the hallway.
"Don't show or tell anyone else. Got it?" she said before Xanatos and Puck returned. She touched the tip of his nose. "Just keep working on that hand motion and thinking of that doorway I told you about."
Alex babbled as the woman reverted to her former guise. The one she had stolen from a law school student she murdered several years back, assuming her life and identity, including her fiancė, along with her family and her fortune. It was something she did every fifty years or so, that way she could move through life without suspicion of her true nature.
She smiled at her nephew, and caressed his baby-fine golden curls, but it was the smile of a predator, merciless and savage.
"This will be our little secret."