Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s the only familiar sight.

Gerard’s back to hers: first as a prince, playing politics at a ball instead of talking with her; then as a partner, sleeping soundly when she could not; and finally as a husband, running from endings more complex than happy ever after.

Elody takes no comfort in Cinderella holding her hand, or in Snow White rubbing her back. Certainly not in Rapunzel’s hair wrapping around her waist, a show of comfort that is too intimate to be anything but intimidating. They lead her back to the castle, but any resemblance to her home is more eerie than nostalgic: this was where the Snow Queen plotted Elody’s own destruction.

Glancing at the Snow Queen’s decapitated head, Elody’s smug that she won that war in the end, then immediately wants to throw up. She does not even recognize herself here; Gerard was her only tether.

At the doors to the castle, Elody looks behind her and, though she does not see Gerard, chokes out his name through her sobs.

“They will be long gone now,” Cinderella says, not cruel, but matter of fact. “We all lose princes on the path to our own story, Elody.”

Elody knows that she should want her own story. She knows that in the one she lived, her husband’s back was to her. She knows that even if they wrote another in this world, she would find his corpse again.

“Gerard.”

Cinderella shushes her.

---

Inside, Rapunzel shows the book, and the princesses explain their plan.

“We’re sorry we didn’t tell you sooner, Elody,” Snow White says. “We could tell you were still attached to part of your story, though I not did realize it was your husband.”

It’s judgmental.

“In my world, he’s dead,” Elody says.

“Grief is often the hardest thing to let go of,” La Bête says.

“But, you’ve been grieving him for a long time, right?” Rapunzel says. “He clearly was not a good husband.”

Elody had not confided in Rapunzel about her martial troubles. Her hair is everywhere, indeed.

“He is good, though.”

All of the princesses turn to Mira, not used to her voice. She does not seem to be used to it either, but Elody’s grateful she’s using it all the same.

“Don’t got me wrong, I find him a bit obnoxious,” Mira says, and Elody wouldn’t trust her if she said anything else. “But he helped me. He brought me here because he thought it was the right thing to do.”

“Thought,” Rapunzel repeats.

“Well, now I’m questioning his judgement. I’m sure Elody is as well.”

Rapunzel’s smile stays on her face, but it shifts. “Mira, I know you are not used to having a voice. I did not use mine for a long time either, so I understand. I will teach you to be careful how you use it, the same way I had to learn.”

“Ok,” Cinderella says. “We need each other, and we have already lost Rosamund. Let us try to get on the same page.”

“I completely agree,” Rapunzel says, smoothing out a page in the book. Elody worries her sharp fingernails will tear the page. “And this is how we do it.”

“Why did you steal that?” Elody asks, though she knows the answer. She is seeking truth, and she’s learned that’s different. “We could’ve tried to work with them.”

“Rosamund was more interested in pina coladas than doing anything meaningful,” Snow White says.

“Timothy is a fool,” Rapunzel adds.

“They tried to trap me in my story,” Cinderella concludes, and Elody knows her anger is as justified as anything she’s feeling. “What do you think they’re fighting for, Elody? They are more aligned to the faeries, to my stepmother, than they are to us.”

“You don’t think Gerard would do the same to you?” Rapunzel asks. “Another happy ever after? How romantic for him. How devastating for you.”

Elody’s conversations with Gerard make her want to believe it’s not true. She needs to read that fucking letter.

“If he really believes we are the villains,” Rapunzel continues. “He left you alone with us. He will not stay with you, at least in any meaningful way, if there’s a chance of anything but happiness.”

Elody catches Snow White glance at her one of her dwarves, and Snow White catches that. She puts a hand on Elody’s shoulder. “We don’t mean to diminish your love story,” she says. “But you know that a love story can still be unkind. All of ours are, and will be in whatever form we take. Our best chance to tell good stories is to start new ones.”

Elody thinks of Ylfa hanging off Gerard’s arm, talking him up. It’s a different kind of love story, but it seems like a good one, and she does not want to deny either of them the continuation of that.

“What about the kids?” Elody tries. Children are always more sympathetic than husbands, anyway.

Cinderella grimaces. “I will take no joy in what this does to them,” she says. “But after my conversation with Pinocchio, I will take solace in it. They have already gone through too much, and they will only go through more. If we have the opportunity to end that and we don’t take it, we are the villains after all.”

“I believe this is the kindest option,” La Bête agrees. “For everyone involved.”

Elody looks at Mira, but she’s taking Rapunzel’s advice to be careful with her voice as a threat.

“You must understand that I am exhausted,” Elody says. Snow White squeezes her shoulder. “I’m going to retire for the night, but we will reconvene in the morning.  

“Oh, of course!” Rapunzel says, bright as her smile shifts again.

She reaches out to hug her, hair wrapping around all the joints that allow Elody to move.

“Sleep well, Elody.”

---

Elody put Gerard’s letter under her pillow, a leftover habit from her marriage.

She hated the performative nature of his notes, but it was different when she read his words in private. When her reaction didn’t have to meet his expectations, she could love Gerard the way she wanted to, which had changed as she got older. It was not the bold, romantic, easy love of their adolescence; it was nuanced, evolving, and persistent. Elody did not love him any less, but she no longer respected the way she loved as a teenager. Gerard needed that from her when they were together, but his words—his sweet, often rambling, occasionally obnoxious words—asked nothing of her.

In her bedroom, she looks under her pillow, and finds nothing but long strands of hair.

Elody remained calm when she lost her parents. She remained calm when she lost her husband, every fucking time that it happened. She had to.

Now, she bites her tongue to silence her scream. When Gerard was dead, it was ok that she had all she ever would from him—it was unfair, and awful, but it was reality and that had to be ok. When she saw him again, hope infected her like a virus: there was a chance for him to give her thoughtful words, intentional actions, meaningful change. It was not that she wanted to be with him again. She just did not want to regret who she loved anymore.

That letter could be the last part of him she ever gets to know. And it was stolen from her.

Elody’s tempted to let go of her scream, but a knock at her door reminds her that she’s never alone here.

“I told you, I’m exhausted,” she says, with all the exasperation of a teenager. She rolls her eyes at herself, annoyed she kept the angst of adolescence and not the stupid, naïve love that makes it survivable.

“It’s Mira.”

Elody hesitates. With Rapunzel’s hair under her pillow, she’s skeptical any conversation they have will remain between them. Still, without the letter, Mira is her last connection to Gerard.  

Elody opens the door, and Mira sits on her bed without invitation. At Elody’s raised eyebrows, she says, “Sorry. It’s my legs.”

Elody nods with compassion but without understanding; she knows very little about Mira, and frankly, is more interested in hearing what she knows about Gerard’s…allies? Friends? It’s not that Elody doesn’t want a friend herself, but she’s lost trust in the ones she made recently.

“You travelled with my husband and his companions,” Elody says. Cinderella’s question rings in her ears: What do you think they’re fighting for, Elody? Gerard had told her he wouldn’t be fighting at all if he wasn’t looking for her, and they did try to trap Cinderella in her book. She did not like the conclusion she was drawing. “Do you know what their goal is?”

“Their goal was to bring me here,” Mira says. “They trusted the princesses. I imagine it helped that you were among them.”

“But what did they think the princesses were going to do?”

Mira eyes her. “What did you think you were doing before you learned about the real plan, Elody? When you killed the Snow Queen? What were you fighting for?”

“Snowhold invaded my kingdom.”

“Ok, sure, but what was the next move?”

It had felt so good to fight with allies instead of alone, and to finally fucking win, that Elody had not thought beyond the fact that she wanted to do it more. She trusted the princesses to set the targets.

“I don’t like who I am here,” Elody admits.

“That’s why I wanted to talk to you,” Mira says. “Because I don’t like who I could become here. I believe that many people still have good stories, and love stories of all kinds. I think there’s a world where you and I could still be among them. But even if we can’t, it’s not our decision to make.”

Elody does not agree, but asks, “What are you proposing?”

“Look, I can’t run on these legs, but we’re smart. We can find a way out, maybe with the book, and we can join Rosamund and Gerard. I don’t think the other princesses can do this without us.”

When Elody let Mira in, she knew there was a chance they’d be listened to. She meant to warn Mira, and she meant to stop her from saying too much, but the urgency of the discussion was stronger than the strategic sense she prided herself on.

She understands why Gerard was flustered in their conversation, and she knows he was right when she sees hair sneak under the door and into her room.

“Girls!” Rapunzel says from the other side of the door, bubbly as ever. “You can’t swap sleepover secrets without me.”

Rapunzel lets herself in, and Elody’s not sure if Mira forgot to lock the door behind or, if Rapunzel’s hair picked the lock. She’s holding Gerard's letter.

“Forgive my manners,” Rapunzel says, and to Elody’s surprise, hands the letter to her. “I took this to protect you, because I know Gerard was not a good husband to you. I worried he was lying about us to get you back, but I was mistaken. Everything in it is true. He just wanted to make you another offer.”

Elody skims the letter, and she’s right: he outlines the plan as the princesses have now outlined it to her. For all his faults, Gerard had never lied to her, and she hates herself for not trusting him when it mattered.

Still, one line sticks out: I think we can find another way. Elody reads the letter again, looking for any details about what that path may be, but all she can infer is that it’s not the one the princesses want to take.

So, what was left? What did he want from her?

“You know, you don’t need to find a clever way out of here,” Rapunzel says, then looks to Mira. “If I’m being honest, it’s hurtful that you believe you’re a prisoner when I’ve worked to make this a welcoming home.”  

“A home where I’m not welcome to speak?” Mira says.

“I only meant to caution you, Mira. You don’t know who may be listening to you.” Rapunzel twirls a strand of hair around her finger. “My point is that both of you are free to accept Gerard’s offer. Go ahead, Elody: join your dead husband and fight—I’m sorry, who again? Is it us now, the evil princesses? Maybe they’ll have already killed Sleeping Beauty before you get to them.”

“Gerard would not do that,” Elody says. It’s all that she’s sure of.

“You’re right. He’ll probably just trap her in her book instead.”

There’s evidence of that, so Elody can’t argue it. Her stomach churns.

“And your plan is to what, destroy everything?” Mira asks. “Is that any more noble?”

“Well, what would you prefer, Elody? You can go back to your miserable marriage, but even that’s best-case scenario. We know the stories only get crueler. Or, we can have an actual ending, a kinder one than anyone else will devise for us.”

When Elody found Gerard’s body, she did not feel the deep sadness she did when her parents died, or the intense anger she did when her subjects were slaughtered for senseless wars. She also did not feel the comfort of a community who came together to mourn, or grateful that she’d loved people in a way worth grieving.

She felt nothing at all, and it destroyed her. She just wanted an end.

Ironically, it was the princesses who brought her out of it. They needed someone, and Elody knew how to be needed. Fighting unlocked her feelings, and as ugly as some of them were, she knew feeling them was worth being alive.

“I don’t know exactly what Gerard is fighting for,” Elody says. “But I know that he is fighting for something and not against everything. If I am free to go, that is the choice I have always made, and will make again.”

Rapunzel’s quiet for a moment, then bites her lip and nods. “Very well, Elody. Though, I would not be a very good friend if I did not explain the consequences of your choice.”

Before she can process what’s happening, there’s a tickle on Elody’s neck, then Rapunzel’s hair is strangling her. She gasps, and Rapunzel smiles at her.

“Remember fighting the Snow Queen, Elody?” Rapunzel asks. “I know that you do, because you were violently brilliant in that fight. But we offered mercy, and she didn’t take it. I think it’s time to pull that offer off the table.”

Rapunzel tugs at her hair like she’s tightening a braid. For a moment, Elody reverts to the girl she was in Elegy, and wants the end again. She does not want to make another fucking choice when the only options are to hurt those she loves, including herself.

But Rapunzel loosens her grip, and that brings Elody’s anger back.  

“Don’t worry, Elody!” Rapunzel says, then giggles. “I would never actually hurt you. Mira’s right: we all need each other here. Gerard, though. That’s different.”

“He does not have to be part of this,” Elody chokes out. “Just leave him alone. Please.”

“Oh, I would honestly love to, but I’m afraid that can’t happen if you leave us for him,” Rapunzel says. “I need a way to show you the consequences of your choice. Unfortunately, he’s already died, so that’s not going to cut it. I will have to recruit La Bête’s help in getting creative. Do you want to see how cruel I can make his story, Elody?”

“This is not my choice,” Elody says. “You are the one choosing to put cruelty in the world. You are creating something you need to destroy. I will never align with that.”

“Me, a monster in the woods, destiny, what difference does it make where the cruelty comes from? If there’s no escape from it, I’m going to control it, and then I’m going to end it. You can help me, or you can wish you had.”

Rapunzel lets go, but Elody feels more trapped than before. She goes to leave, but hesitates at the door.

“You wanted me to kill you,” Rapunzel says. “I could tell, because I have felt the same way. You say you’d never align with me, but you already have. You know this is the kindest option, and I will make sure you remember that.”

After Rapunzel leaves, Mira uses her voice again.

“We still have choices, Elody. Please, I need you to believe that.”

She’s right, and Elody knows what choice she has to make.

How does she want to kill her husband?

Chapter Text

Elody does not make a choice.

If asked, she says there’s no time—but the only person to ask is her conscious, because Mira’s lost her voice again. The sea witch, the other princesses say, and Elody believes them. She knows that a cure for a curse is not permanent.  It dulls any escape plan, and anyway, Elody’s not even sure where they’d go. She doesn’t know where Gerard is.

(But he knows where she is, and he hasn’t come back. He knows he’s left her to be either an accomplice to or victim of a doomsday plan, and he hasn’t come back. Why is she always the one who has to make the fucking decisions?)

It does not feel like Elody’s voice, but it’s in her head, and that’s all Elody has left to trust.

There’s just no time, because the princesses find Scheherazade. She can get them to The Lines Between, she can get them to the ink, and she trusts whatever version of the plan she’s been told.

Elody does not ask questions. She liked Scheherazade when they first met, but she was the one who brought Elody to this world where she had to care about her husband’s life instead of simply mourn his death. It was not easy, but it was also never going to be that easy again. Every time she imagines reuniting with Gerard, she imagines what Rapunzel would do if that happened. She doesn’t want to think about that anymore, she can’t think about that anymore, and an end grows more appealing with each moment.

Like all the years she spent married to Gerard, Elody does not think staying is a choice. It’s just what she has to do.

Before they go to The Lines Between, the princesses prepare. Elody’s a fighter without spells to stock, and for the first time in her life, she’s grateful to be useless. No kingdom to protect, no frog to save, no awful choice to make. Just another pawn on the battlefield, barely aware of what they’re fighting for.

Elody used to hate knights who struck without thought. As ridiculous as Gerard’s sword forms were, at least there was intention behind them. Now, she wonders if she actually envied them. It is a much easier way to live, and a much easier way to accept death.

As Elody waits, for a battle, for an apocalypse, whatever, Mira bursts into her room. Her eyes are wide, pleading, and it’s all she needs to communicate.

“I know,” Elody says. “But what choice do we have?”

Mira opens her mouth, and coughs out a clump of hair.

Elody feels bile rise in her own throat. “Rapunzel did this?”

Mira rolls her eyes as though to say yes, obviously.

“You know, talking behind someone’s back can ruin a friendship.”

Elody freezes. Rapunzel’s voice is in the room with them, but it’s not coming from the room. Mira, still coughing, finds the strength to roll her eyes again and gesture behind Elody’s head.

Elody turns, and Rapunzel has replaced her own reflection in her mirror. Rapunzel wiggles her fingers in a wave.

“I will forgive you,” Rapunzel says. “As long as you forgive me for not visiting in person. If we are headed into battle, I need my hair to be in perfect condition, so I thought I’d give a quick wash.”

Rapunzel dips a section of hair into a basin of water, and Elody does not understand until Mira’s coughing turns to choking.

“Oh I’m sorry, Mira!” Rapunzel says, laughing. “You were a mermaid, weren’t you? I thought you could breathe underwater.”

Mira gasps, spilling water onto the floor. Elody rushes to her, but she doesn’t have magic, she can’t heal—she doesn’t know what to fucking do. She remembers Gerard telling her how he’d hide from predators by going underwater for hours at a time, and the moment he realized he could not do that indefinitely without drowning. He did not have survival instincts, and Elody thinks she does—but this moment is not about survival.

Rapunzel will not kill Mira. It would be easier if she did.

“Stop!” Elody yells. “Please, just stop. We’re here, ok? We are the princesses you need to complete the plan, and we are fucking here, so you don’t need to do this.”

In the mirror, Rapunzel removes her hair from the basin. Mira lets out one last, long gasp, and then she’s coughing again.

“I do apologize. You have been so quiet since our last chat, Elody. You too, Mira,” Rapunzel says with a smirk. “I thought that meant we’d come to an understanding, but when I saw you two meeting without me, I’ll admit I assumed the worst. Just thought I’d give you a gentle reminder of what will happen if we don’t go through with the plan. If I can drown a mermaid, what do you think I can do to a frog?”

Something stirs in Elody, remnants of the girl who snuck out to talk to a frog in the woods, of the woman who led a fucking army despite her advisors and own husband’s protests. She would not let Rapunzel torture Mira, and she would not let Rapunzel’s end be one where she declares herself a hero. She would fight, alone, as she always fucking did, and she would continue to lose, as she always fucking does—

It stirs, and it stops. Because she recognizes she’s talking to Rapunzel through a mirror. Because if Rapunzel could steal Mira’s voice, she could steal Elody’s heart. Because Gerard has not come back for her.

Because if nothing will ever get better, what’s the fucking point of any of it?

“It’s irrelevant,” Elody says. “I’m with you.”

“Well, not totally irrelevant,” Rapunzel says. “If Gerard and his band of monsters do get to The Lines Between, based on their horrendous behaviour in our home, I have no doubt they will fight us there. Now, I could take care of Gerard rather quickly, but my talents are better suited for the more magical among their party. Would you like to be in charge of killing your husband, Elody?”

“If everything is going to end anyway,” Elody says. “We just have to stop them. We do not have to hurt them.”

“How do you think they plan to stop us? Who do you think they’re going to put their fighter up against?”

“They’re not cruel.”

“Your husband, who left you to fight every single battle alone, who left you here with me, is not cruel?”

Elody remembers the frog who dove for her golden ball. Princely chivalry, he called it, but she didn’t listen. She ascribed kindness to it, and she fell in love.

In Elody’s silence, Rapunzel continues.

“My mother kept me locked in a tower because she loved me,” Rapunzel says. “That was how I learned that true love is a trap. This is our chance to walk out of that, Elody. And yes, I do want to hurt the people who put us there. If you want to offer Gerard any kindness in death, I recommend it be at your own hands.”

Rapunzel vanishes. Mira, still coughing, shakes her head and leaves Elody’s room.

Elody feels delirious, and she stares into the mirror, wanting Gerard to appear. He is not magic, but aren’t his companions? Wouldn’t one of them try to reach out to her?

“Gerard,” she says. “I need help, ok? I can’t keep going on my own, and I can’t choose to end everything on my own. I can’t help you live, and everyone knows that I can’t kill you. You are my true love, and that means I am stuck here, unable to commit to a happy ending or the one I actually want. You should be here. You should be living this nightmare too. You should have come back for me. Why aren’t you in the fucking mirror?”

Elody punches the glass and watches herself bleed.

“I love you, truly, and that has tied me to you forever. How dare you do that to me?”

There’s nothing in the mirror. Elody leaves for The Lines Between.

---

It’s all strategy in The Lines Between, and Elody throws herself into what she’s good at. She does not fucking care about the philosophical implications of what they’re doing anymore. She’s a knight ready to strike without thought.

“I am worried Rosamund and her companions might be here already,” Cinderella says, in a small group that Elody notes excludes Scheherazade.

“I have a way to see where they are,” Rapunzel says. “Elody, I may need your help.”

Elody is a knight, so she follows. Rapunzel pulls out a handheld mirror once they’re alone.

“Heard your monologue before we left. Breaking the mirror was a nice touch.”

Elody winces. If her thoughts are going to be as awful as they are, she wishes they were at least private.

“Do you feel better now, Elody?”

“No.”

“Do you feel different?”

“Yes.”

“I cannot tell if you still love Gerard.”  

Elody does not say anything.

“Let’s find out, shall we?” Rapunzel taps the mirror with a long fingernail. “Here is what’s going to happen. Gerard will appear in this mirror, just as you wanted. He will not be able to see you, but he will be able to hear you. Now, I am choosing to trust that you are my ally and will not speak against me. If you do, you know what I did to Mira, and Gerard will watch me do it to you. Understood?”

Elody knows any protest will only result in punishment for herself or Gerard, and she tells herself that’s why she stays silent. She nods.

Gerard appears in the mirror as promised, and Elody instantly knows something is wrong. He is hiding, and then she spots the heron flying overhead. It’s a scene pulled from her nightmares when she couldn’t sneak Gerard into the castle, when she couldn’t protect him. She should be there with him.

(He should be here with her).

“A condition was met that never should’ve been met.”

Rapunzel’s voice is in her head.

“Maybe this is where that fate changes, Elody. Maybe this is where you get to keep your story.”

Elody opens her mouth to explain that, ok, she said that, but that didn’t mean she wanted the alternative. It was just—it was a ridiculous fate they were bound to, and that made their story more complicated than a simple romance. Complexity did not have to be bad, if Gerard would have ever met her in that place.

She does not say anything, because Rapunzel puts a finger with a long strand of hair wrapped around it to Elody’s lips.

“You had your monologue to Gerard, even if he didn’t care enough to try and listen to it. Now, it’s my turn to talk to him.”

“Hello, Gerard. You seem frightened.”

Gerard sees Rapunzel in the lake’s reflection. Rapunzel is right: he is scared, an expression Elody devoted so much effort to never see on anyone’s face again. And where did that get her?

There’s an exchange where Rapunzel confesses that she’s spying, and Gerard tells her to go fuck herself. Despite everything, Elody smiles. She was rebellious before she met Gerard, but cursing was a childish defiance she was never frivolous enough to engage in until he gave her permission to. It felt good to speak to the anger of her emotions instead of wrapping them up in royal niceties.

Why hadn’t she told Rapunzel to go fuck herself?

“That was a nice trick,” Rapunzel says. “Getting the book away from us. How much did it cost?”

“It cost a new friend,” Gerard answers.

Elody snaps out of her memories and into the reality where she and Gerard are on different sides. It was impressive that they got the book, and if Gerard was to be believed, it came at a great cost. If he could do that, if he could sacrifice something as significant as friendship for a book, why hadn’t he put that effort into coming back for her?

Gerard talks of his new friends, and Rapunzel says that Elody has not said a good thing about him. Whether or not that’s true, it feels irrelevant. Even without Rapunzel’s threat, Elody has no desire to speak up now.

“I don’t doubt that,” Gerard says. “But I haven’t seen the Princess Elody in a while, and I think it’s telling that I’m seeing you in this lake and not her or any of the other princesses. I think you’re manipulating people, or not telling them the full truth.”

He’s right. Rapunzel is manipulative; she does not try to hide that she’s manipulative. In a way, that’s easier to trust than Gerard, where Elody still doesn’t know what he’s trying to accomplish beyond stopping them. All Elody knows is that she does not know the full truth, and neither of them will give it to her.

“Truth,” Rapunzel says. “You have a sword that tells the truth, right? Why don’t you take the sword out and ask it of Elody still loves you?”

She is taunting him, but Elody wants the answer too. More than that, she wants Gerard to know the answer.

If it’s no longer true love, another curse has been broken. They will both be free to pursue the endings they want, even if they’re against each other. That reality still does not feel right to her, she still does not want Gerard to be eaten by a heron, but maybe that will change if she can let go of love.

When Gerard asks the sword the question, she wonders if he feels the same way.

“My master,” The sword says. “The Princess Elody cares for you deeply.”

Oh.

Rapunzel laughs like it’s a victory, not quite the same thing is, it?, and it’s not, but that’s—true love was a story written for her. Caring about someone, especially someone others discarded, and doing so deeply, that was a choice Elody made again and again. That was who she wanted to be, that was who she chose to be, and so that was who she was.

What the fuck is she doing?

She does not hear the rest of Rapunzel and Gerard’s conversation, because she is planning. She has to get Mira, and they have to get Scheherazade—that’s their only hope of escape. And if she can’t do that, she has to stop the princesses from getting the ink. If Rapunzel wants a fight, Elody can fucking fight.

When she decides to tell Gerard that she’s still on his side, he disappears from the reflection. Elody yells his name, and she chokes.

The fucking hair.

“What did you do?” she yells at Rapunzel, but quickly realizes that if she’s yelling, she’s not choking like Mira was. “What’s happening? Where did he go?”

“Afraid I can’t take credit for this one.”

Elody tries his name again. It feels like a monster in her throat, fangs and claws tearing out her ability to connect with her husband.

“Frog in your throat, Elody?”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Ah, now I understand why you two ever married. I do have a theory, if you’re interested in hearing it.”

She just has to—she just has to say his name, that’s all. Elody tries to whisper it, to scream it, even to recite it on her own mind, but it’s just static, a fizz that irritates her throat and mind.

“Alright, we can’t have you tire yourself out before battle,” Rapunzel says. Her tone is gentle, and it infuriates Elody. “He was at the Baba Yaga’s home, and she does not make easy deals. Do you recall how we can’t say The Stepmother’s name? How she is just a character in Cinderella’s story?”

“No,” Elody says. “No, he is not a character. He is my husband, and even if I don’t choose to love him, I still choose to care about him. He can make the same choice about me. We get to write our own stories. We always could have.”

“Then say his name, Elody.”

She tries one last time, and it’s not painful anymore. Elody doesn’t feel anything.

“I did not want him to do this.”

“I suppose that’s what happens when people make their own choices.”

They’re interrupted by Snow White, and once again, there’s no time. They rush to the cannonade, and Elody does not try to stop Snow White when she reaches her hand into the ink.

As she does, the frog prince and his friends spill into the room. Elody stares at the frog she fell in love with, finally recognizable to her again.

For once, he was braver than she was.