Perfectly still.
Her eyes were open.
But she wasn't looking at anything.
The prince smiled at me.
“There you are.”
I stepped outside.
Rhode secretly followed behind me.
Prince Adrian held out his hand.
“One final dance?”
I accepted.
The palace ballroom was empty.
No musicians.
No guests.
Only hundreds of mirrors surrounding us.
As Adrian danced with me, I saw reflections moving behind us.
Girls.
Dozens of them.
Women wearing beautiful dresses.
Women with terrified faces.
The missing princesses.
Their memories were trapped inside the mirrors.
Adrian leaned close.
“You saw something you shouldn't have.”
“I saw you murder the Chancellor.”
He smiled.
“No.”
The mirrors suddenly shattered.
Rhode burst into the ballroom with armed royal guards.
Adrian laughed.
“You still believe the Chancellor was innocent?”
Then the memories appeared.
I saw the truth.
Chancellor Graves had discovered the curse decades ago.
He had helped the royal family sacrifice innocent women.
But recently, he tried to expose them.
Prince Adrian killed him before he could speak.
Adrian looked at me.
“The curse requires a witness.”
I understood.
Every girl who saw the truth became part of the curse.
The prince needed me to wear the second slipper.
Then I would become another trapped memory.
I looked down.
I was already wearing it.
Adrian smiled.
Too late.
Then Rhode fired the ancient palace bell mechanism above us.
The massive bell crashed through the ceiling.
Not onto Adrian.
Onto the glass throne behind him.
Every mirror exploded.
The trapped women were released.
The ballroom filled with screaming voices.
Adrian fell to his knees.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
The women he had sacrificed surrounded him.
Their reflections appeared in every broken piece of glass.
Then the palace went dark.
When the guards found me the next morning, Prince Adrian was gone.
There was no body.
Only one cracked glass slipper on the floor.
I never became a princess.
Anna survived, but she never spoke again.
My stepmother abandoned the kingdom.
Rhode became the new royal protector.
As for me, I left the palace forever.
Or at least, I tried.
Because last night, someone knocked on my door.
Three times.
When I looked through the window, there was no one there.
Only a glass slipper.
And written inside it, in fresh red letters, were four words:
ONE FINAL DANCE, CINDERELLA.