This is not one of my memories, not Pitch's. Unless he was there that night. We stand in the shadows of a bedroom.

Gothel creeps into the darkened room. A shawl covers her wrinkled face and tangled gray hair.

She no longer looks innocent. At last I see who she really is: a dangerous, selfish monster.

She stands over a regal cradle. A tiny, golden-haired baby girl lies peacefully among the royal purple blankets. She sucks on her tiny thumb, her eyes closed in sleep.

Gothel's withered hands stroke the little girl's head. The child turns, her chubby legs tangling in the blankets. Her large, beautiful green eyes open. Why does she look familiar? How could I possibly know her?

Gothel sings quietly. The hair of the little girl glows in the darkness.

The wrinkles of Gothel's hands smooth and disappear. Her hair darkens like it did when she pricked her finger and became the Snow Queen.

I gasp and press my hand over my mouth. But then I remember that she can't see me. No one can.

Except for Pitch.

A sudden, horrifying thought slices through my mind. What if I never wake up? What if I am trapped forever in this world of dreams and memories? What if I never go home? What if I never see Anna again? And what about Jack?

Pitch's heavy hand rests on my shoulder. "Watch."

I bury my thoughts, my worries. Time will tell if they are true.

Gothel snips off a piece of the little girl's hair. The glow fades from that piece of hair. It changes from golden yellow to dark brown.

She whispers, "No, no!" Her smooth hands wrinkle. She digs her nails into her hand angrily. Her bright, vengeful eyes look over the room.

I take a step back, as if she could somehow see me. "Take me away from here, Pitch. I don't want to see this."

As soon as the words leave my lips, darkness closes over scene. I stand in the suffocating black.

Pitch whispers. "I will tell you what happened next. Gothel was to give the young princess ice powers. And yet she needed the little one in order to remain young, so she had to find another princess for me. The pregnant sister of the queen had come to visit because the queen had been very sick. Gothel saw this as her chance. Instead of cursing the little one with glowing hair, she cursed the unborn baby. You were that unborn princess."

I never knew why I had my powers. I thought that I was just born that way. But now I know that I was simply another part of Gothel's plan. I wasn't ever supposed to have ice powers.

That would make Rapunzel the one with the glowing hair. How could she have stayed in my castle for weeks yet I never found time to ask about her past? If I had, maybe things would be different. Maybe I would have suspected the old woman in the tower.

But I doubt that anyone could have foreseen that. Not even Pitch. He didn't know what her plan was. He thought that she was trying to help him.

The darkness fades until we find ourselves sitting once again in my childhood bedroom.

"Your parents did not know this, but you were cursed with ice powers before you were ever born. Gothel chose you to be my little Snow Queen. I have waited all your life. I have always been there watching from the outside." Pitch shifts beside me. "I needed you. Darkness is easily forgotten. It can be destroyed by the light of a single candle. But darkness combined with ice. Now that is something too powerful to ignore."

"You wanted to use me so that you could control my kingdom?" I glare at him. My eyes harden. All traces of sympathy disappear from my voice.

Pitch shrugs, oblivious of my darkening mood. "Not just your kingdom, but the world. I wanted the entire world to know and fear me."

"I don't fear you. I hate you." I fling the words at him, and yet I don't stand up. I don't push away from him and stalk out of the room.

Maybe it is because I am tired of running. Or maybe my words are not as convincing as they should be.

How can I hate someone who is this broken?

**

"You should." His quiet words breaking the silence.

"What?"

Pitch looks away from me. "You should hate me."

"I..." I close my eyes. "Pitch, I shouldn't have said that. My father taught me not to hate anyone."

"Would he say the same if he knew that you were cursed because of me?"

I don't hesitate. "Yes, he would. My father was a just, wise king, but he was more than that. He loved us. He was a kind father. He taught me that it is always worth it to do the right thing."

Pitch does not say anything.

I wrap my arms around my middle. "Why did you tell me all this, Pitch? I mean? Why tell me about curse?"

"You asked me to."

"I did, but still, why did you tell me this?"

Pitch lifts his gray, drawn face. "Because there is no one else to tell."

Realization sinks through me. "We are stuck, aren't we?"

"Until that witch releases us from the cell."

"She is the ruler with a frozen heart, like in the prophecy." I recite the prophecy under my breath, pausing on the last line. "What is a sword of sacrifice? Maybe there is still a way to break the spell. According to the prophecy, the sword of sacrifice can free us."