Excerpt:

She had a habit of looking at the stars and pointing out constellations. She thought about the stories of those characters that have been put upon the canvas of night by the very God. She wondered whether she would ever have her constellation. It might be called the Forgotten Princess That Never Got Saved.

That night, however, she couldn’t see the stars. They were veiled by dark clouds and there was no silver glow of the moon to light the way. The transformation would come soon now, and so Leann shut her eyes very tightly, trying to decipher whether it had happened already or whether it was only coming. Even after all these years she could never guess, it just happened, without any sign. Reaching her hands up to her face, she let out a soft gasp upon touching soft young skin, delicate and without warts.

Standing from the bed, Leann reached for a candle on her bedside table. The candle flickered, illuminating the room with a faint glow. Leann walked to the mirror, holding the candle firmly in her hand. She could already see the outline of her body through the silken cloth, but once again she took hold of it and pulled it down. There was her other self, staring back at her, a beautiful young woman with full red cheeks and soft red lips. Her nose was smaller, slightly pointed. Her eyebrows weren’t overgrown, but elegantly slanted.

Leann held the candle closer as she inspected herself, just like every month, repeating this ritual as the self-torture she was convinced she had to go through. This was far more difficult that looking at herself when she was ugly, the way she looked every normal day, the way she was. Her curse was this night, moonless and dark, with only candle showing her the image of what she could be. It was the miserable knowledge of her beauty being so close and yet so out of reach, never enduring the first ray of sunshine on a fresh or cold morning, it never mattered.

Her lip trembled, but she stared unblinkingly at her reflection, until she let out a scream. Piercing through the stillness, it startled the birds nestled in the trees around her lonely tower and awoke more than one restless mind with a light sleep.

With a wailing cry, Leann turned from the mirror, throwing the candle in the corner of the room, making the light go out. She never could help the scream that tore from her lips, etched deeply with the desperation she felt whenever she looked upon herself resembling a human being and not a monster or a rather disfigured old woman.

It was torture beyond compare in her eyes, and she could take no more. Swinging herself at the mirror, she pounded her fist into it, feeling the glass cracking. The shards fell upon the floor, tinkling against each other as they did so. Her hand was bloody as she cast her eyes down on it and she brought it to her lips, tasting the red blood mingled with the salt of her tears.

No use breaking it, she thought miserably to herself, it would be well and repaired the next day, as always. She could no longer understand the magic in her life, taking over her and grappling her to the ground each time she attempted any form of escape. She no longer wanted to understand this magic, she had to take it all her life, unquestioning and obeying the rules they’ve set for her. No one ever gave her a single explanation, no one had ever told her why things were the way she had to take and bear them.

The parents were gone now, probably dead or ignoring her existence as the remedy to the curse their descendant was struck by was nowhere in sight, Leann didn’t know. Maybe she didn’t even want to know, maybe she didn’t care about the people who’ve locked her up, robbed her of all opportunity to live significantly and fully, sentenced her to a lifetime of futile waiting and wondering what and who she could be beyond the stone and enchanted walls.

She would put an end to this. Tonight or never.