Beauty (A retelling of Beauty and the Beast) by: Robin McKinley

The Magician came the day of the Princes birth-claim; he was to be 18. 
The Magician knew the queen and he was also in love with her. But the young king took her away from him before he could declare his love for her. As a mere man and has no horse or carriage to travel with, it took him 18 years to travel to the kingdom. And he will be taking his prize he has sought for so long. 
He didn't know about the child though and his growing hatred for the king over the years has built up to be a rambling furnace of the amount of hate. But when he saw the son, he couldn't contain his hatred anymore; and turned the boy to a great beast, a beast so vile and hideous, the queens heart couldn't bear the grief and died. 
The magician later came back to recover the queens body, hoping the last bits of magic he has could revive her. But when he came back the prince-Beast chased him down. The flaw in his sorcery was that he had to give them a task, for the curse to be lifted. So he screeched out to the Beast-prince, "Only a maiden who truly loves you and wishes to marry you can break the bloody curse!"
The magician dropped something out of the many trinkets of magic, while scampering away from the Beast-prince. The Beast-prince only just now saw it.
With a bloodied paw, the Beast-prince picked up a mirror.