“Oh, there will be, and one day when the stars are not right, she will destroy you for all the harm you have caused in the Many Kingdoms.” The room shook as Circe spoke.

“That is enough!” The Fairy Godmother waved her wand to create a swirling vortex behind the sisters. “I told Nanny years ago we would regret setting you loose on the Many Kingdoms.”

“What do you mean?” asked Lucinda, her head cocked to the side.

“Yes, what do you mean?” asked Circe, raising her hands and causing the room to shake so violently now the walls were starting to crack, and the frozen ladies and gentlemen were toppling over.

“We demand that you tell us what you mean,” said all four sisters with one voice.

“Tell us now or we will destroy you!” Circe added, her eyes filled with rage.

Now it was the Fairy Godmother’s turn to laugh. “Oh, please. This is my domain. You have no power over me here. We are in the princess’s chapter of the story.” She put her hands on her hips and had a satisfied look on her face. “I have had enough of witches. The last thing I need is to contend with the likes of you on this night of all nights. Now leave this place at once, or I will send you to Hades’s domain where you belong!”

“Send us there,” said Lucinda, smiling.

“I think he’d be happy to see us,” said Circe, laughing.

And with that, the Fairy Godmother blasted Circe and her sisters backward into a swirling vortex.

“There!” she said with another twitch of her wand, and the vortex closed. “That was quite enough of them!”

“Where are they? What have you done with them?” cried Lady Tremaine.

The Fairy Godmother smiled. “Never you mind. It’s time to get back to your story now, dear. Let’s forget this ever happened and get my Cinderella married to her prince,” she said, waving her wand. At once, the ballroom sprang back into action. Anastasia and Drizella made their way back to their mother while the music played, people danced, and courtiers continued to announce each eligible maiden to the prince.

Lady Tremaine felt strange, as if she had momentarily fallen asleep. The last thing she remembered was being scolded by her daughters for fidgeting with their dresses and feathers.

“All right, my dears, I’ll stop fussing. I think they are about to announce us,” she said. And like that, as if she had summoned it, their names were called. As Lady Tremaine escorted her daughters to be presented before the prince, she knew this was their last chance at freedom.

The mother and her daughters curtsied before him. But instead of smiling graciously, the prince rolled his eyes, and in that moment Lady Tremaine knew in her heart that she and her daughters would be trapped in the Many Kingdoms forever.