“Yes.”
His expression was puzzled and he only had a moment to regard her before he was thrown across the room to crash into the full length mirror, glass shards covering him. Other objects rose and flew, pummelling him further, her makeup jars, her journal, the chair. When he stopped swinging his arms in defence, she let the magic go, straightened her skirts, and trotted to the front of the Fortress. She had to find Tabitha and her mother.
Pandora fell to her knees next to the broken bodies of the familiar. She wept over Magnificent's corpse, overcome with grief. So taken was she, that the prince's hands in her hair were a complete surprise.
“That was unkind, wife. I think perhaps we need to reach an understanding. I am your husband, and I am in command.” He tossed her to the ground, his foot pinning her skirt, but narrowly missing her leg. He was still coated in the blood of her friends, bruises and wounds over his whole face. He was hideous, a monster.
Pandora ripped the cloth free, grabbing for the briars that were on the edge of the path. The cruel thorns bit into her skin and her blood coated their tips, igniting the spell she cast through it. Throwing it onto the path at his feet, a wall of briars grew between them, and Pandora took pleasure in his cursing.She whispered goodbye to her friends and then cast the first spell she had been taught by Tabitha. The fortress faded from view, moving over the mountain peaks to rest somewhere else. She'd always cast it from inside, hiding themselves, but this time, she prayed the prince was taken with it. Anywhere that wasn't here.
The briars remained and she worried that he was still on the other side. Carefully pulling a few of the barbed branches apart, she peeped through and found only a cliff behind them. Relief took her feet from under her and Pandora sat on her rump crying in grief and triumph - hysterical, nonsensical tears mixed with laughter.
