Circe sighed. “I am your friend, Lady Tremaine. I have been protecting you all along. I am the one who made sure your husband found the brooch in that little shop, and I stayed by your side doing what I could to keep you safe. Didn’t I have my sisters bring the tonic of your salvation, and am I not here now offering my help once again?” She tried to reach out for Lady Tremaine’s hand, but Lady Tremaine recoiled from her in anger.

“Keep your hands off me, witch! I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you and your bloody book! You are the authors of my demise! You did this!”

The four Odd Sisters laughed so hard the chandeliers swayed overhead.

“We only write what prophecy tells us, Lady Tremaine,” said Circe. “We can’t change what’s written, but we have made it our business to try to help those who get caught in the book’s tangled web. That’s all we’ve ever wanted to do, is to help. Won’t you let us now? Maybe with our magic, we can rewrite your story, but we can’t do it without your permission.”

It was strange for Lady Tremaine to be talking to this woman she thought was Rebecca who now looked completely different, but there was still something about Circe that felt like her old friend. For some reason she felt she could trust her even if she was just as odd as her dark-haired sisters.

“You can trust me, Lady Tremaine, I promise you,” Circe said. Her sisters, Lucinda, Ruby, and Martha, smiled behind her.

“I don’t know who to trust. Nanny said you cursed my brooch, is that true?”

Lucinda shook her head. “Witch and fairy magic are very different from each other. Fairies have long mistrusted witches’ magic. Like you, Nanny has her own story in the book of fairy tales, and it tells us that soon she will grow to distrust the fairy magic and embrace the way of witches. But that is another story for another time.”

“All of you speak in riddles! It’s so confounding. Nanny said she thought you were trying to help me, but I don’t understand why you would bring me here, setting all this in motion, and then offer to help me! None of it makes sense.” Circe reached out for Lady Tremaine’s hand once again, and this time she let the witch take it.