“I got the shears.” I patted her shoulder. “Everything’s going to be made right now. You’ll see.” I opened my bag. When the cool metal met my hands, I grabbed the handles and pulled them out. The golden glow radiated around the room.
She shied away. “No.”
“What’s the matter?”
She breathed shallowly, her eyes fixated on the shears. “What if it hurts like the other times?”
“It won’t. These aren’t like the other shears. They’re magic. They’re the only ones ever created that can’t hurt you.”
“I don’t know.”
“Gothel,” Raj interrupted. “Listen.”
Outside, shouts grew closer. The sound of rustling vines came from the window. Raj unsheathed his dagger and crept toward the window.
“I’ll cut the vines,” he said.
I turned back to Rapunzel. “We don’t have time. I’m going to cut your hair now, okay?”
“You’re sure about this?” Her eyes were wide and dark, and they glimmered in the moonlight. The protruding bones in her cheeks made her face look skeletal.
“I’m sure,” I said.
“But what about the magic?”
“What do you mean?”
“The magic in my hair. Will that be gone, too?”
“I don’t understand. There isn’t any magic in your hair. There’s only the spell my mother put on you, and once we cut your hair, the spell will be gone.”
“You’re wrong. There is magic inside my hair. I can feel it inside!” Her voice rose, and I knew I couldn’t sit here talking to her when everyone’s lives were at stake.
“Rapunzel, I’m sorry, but I have to do this. Please, you know I wouldn’t hurt you. Let me do this.”
She nodded, tears brimming in her eyes. She didn’t resist as I opened the shears and attempted to cut the hair, but the tangled masses were too thick, and I had no choice but to separate the strands and cut them in small sections. Rapunzel didn’t flinch as I cut the first sections, and then more.
Behind us, a soldier leapt into the room. He screamed as Raj fought him back. I wished I could cut her hair faster, but I could only cut small chunks at a time. As the hair fell away, a glow emanated around her head in a golden halo.
Was it possible? Did Rapunzel have her own natural magic the same as me?
The glow increased as I cut the last strand. Rapunzel turned toward me. Tears flowed down her face.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked.
“No.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing. I feel like myself again.”
“You do?”
“Yes.” She smiled up at me—a genuine expression of joy. One I hadn’t seen in a very long time. “Gothel, you saved me.”
She hugged me, her bony frame embracing me with more strength than I thought possible. When she pulled away, I grabbed her hand. I knew we didn’t have much time, but I had to tell her the truth.
“Rapunzel, there’s something I need you to know about me. My father isn’t who I thought. He’s the high sorcerer—which makes us half-sisters.”
“Sisters?”
I nodded.
“Is it really true?”
“Yes. My mother told me after I used my magic.”
“You used magic?”
I nodded. “My aunts were hurting someone, and my magic reacted. That’s never happened to me before. I didn’t understand it. But then my mother told me that someone with that kind of magic has to have two magical parents.”
“Yes. I know. I have it, too.”
“You do?”
“Yes. My mother was a sorceress, but she never told anyone. I only recently learned to use my magic. That’s how I was able to break your spell and hide in the well.”
Beside us, the prince stirred. Rubbing his forehead, he moaned as he sat up.
“Where am I?” he asked.
“In my tower,” Rapunzel said. “Don’t you remember? We’ve been sitting in that dreadful well for the last day and a half.”
“A tower—and a well? What?”
“You were under a spell,” I said.
A choked scream came from near the window as Raj defeated the soldier. The limp body of the soldier slumped as Raj turned to face us. His heavy breathing made his broad chest rise and fall as he neared us.
“Prince Merek?” Raj asked.
“Raj?”
“It’s good to see you awake,” Raj said, kneeling beside the prince. They clapped one another’s shoulders.
“Raj, what’s happening? Where am I? The last thing I remember, I was climbing into the tower, and then… oh yes. You.” He looked at Rapunzel. “You’re the princess, aren’t you?”
She nodded, biting her lip. Her hair fell loosely to her shoulders, glowing faintly with a golden light as the shears had done. She looked like a grown woman now—no longer the child she had once been.
Prince Merek got to his feet, holding to the edge of the well as he straightened. “I came to rescue you. Am I too late for that?”
“No,” she said shyly. “You’re not too late.”
Their gazes met, and Rapunzel’s cheeks turned pink. Prince Merek took a step toward her, walking on shaky feet until he got to her side and held out his hand. “Will you allow me to free you from this tower?”
“Yes, of course.” She took his hand.
Prince Merek flashed us a smile. “Well, it seems rescuing the princess from the tower wasn’t nearly as hard as you thought, Raj.”
“That’s because you slept through it,” Raj mumbled.
A roar erupted behind us. I turned around as heat blasted my face. A raging fireball knocked me from my feet. The others screamed as they landed beside me.
A cloaked figure coalesced in front of the window. As his form took shape, I gasped, peering into the familiar blue eyes that conjured memories from my childhood—eyes that looked a lot like my own now that I thought about it.
The high sorcerer. My father.
20
We got to our feet as the high sorcerer approached us. His bootsteps echoed through the tower. A breeze came from the window, making his cloak billow around his muscled frame sheathed in black armor. Like his soldiers, the red emblem of the coiled basilisk had been etched into his breastplate. His silvery white hair appeared blue in the moonlight, and his staff carved with a snake’s head thumped the floor as he
