11. Verena
Verena
When another servant knocks on the door for the fifth time within the hour, I'm ready for it.
I'm already wearing a veil, wringing my hands, and pacing. I practice what to say as I walk to open the door.
"Hello, there. More food? Thanks, but I'm really not hungry. Instead, please have a bathtub with warm water brought up. If you bring soap and a towel with it, you'll be my new best friend," I recite.
I'm just assuming they actually have bathtubs here. Who knows what the hygiene of this fantasy world is like?
Opening the door, I'm not surprised to see another manservant. So far, I haven't seen a castle maid, and it's starting to bother me.
Do women only work in the kitchen or something? What's up with that?
He bows deeply, offering a covered plate. "Your Majesty, the chef has sent these fresh honeyed cakes for you to enjoy."
Damn. In theory, honeyed cakes sound amazing right about now.
But it doesn't matter. They won't help.
So far, castle servants have tried bringing a table full of breakfast foods, fresh-baked bread with tea, mulled wine with assorted fruits and vegetables, and a cup of warm chicken broth up to the queen's quarters.
When I sent breakfast back barely touched, it scared the castle chef. With Schultz gone, he must be terrified of getting the axe next, because he keeps sending food to the queen in the hopes she'll eat something.
The last manservant who brought the chicken broth said the chef is worried I might be sick, which must be why I have no appetite.
I laughed in that last guy's face. Borderline hysterically, like a crazy woman.
Because oh boy, do I have an appetite. Just not for food or drink.
At least, not a drink I can think about without getting nauseous all over again.
I'm jonesing. It's bad.
Hence why I desperately need the bath as a distraction.
"Why, hello, there," I begin. "More food? Thanks, but—"
"Psst. Fairest," Eris calls from the mirror. "If you're so desperate to take a bath, you might try the queen's enchanted hot spring."
"Her what now?" I exclaim, sure that I misheard him.
Unfortunately, I forgot that most people can't see or hear him. That explains why the manservant is now shuffling uneasily, glancing behind him like he's wondering if he should get a doctor.
"M-my queen? I'm afraid I don't know what…"
I can think of no logical excuse for my outburst, so I just thank him, tell him to please take the cakes to everyone in the kitchen, and ask him not to let the chef send anything else up for a while.
At this point, I'm pretty sure everyone else in the castle is having a royal feast with everything I've sent back.
Locking the double doors, I throw off the veil and stop in front of Eris, folding my arms.
"If you're just teasing and the queen doesn't actually have an enchanted hot spring, I'm going to call you some way worse names than Beetlejuice."
"This would be a pointless thing to lie about," Eris scoffs. He's examining me more than usual, just like he was before he disappeared without a word earlier. "It's through the blue door in her secret passage."
He might be pulling my leg. Who knows? Maybe he just thinks it will be funny when I walk through the blue door, and it turns out to be where the wannabe toilet room empties.
But I don't care. At the very least, this has reminded me that there are three doors I could be exploring in a creepy secret passage instead of pacing this room, trying not to think about blood.
Reaching around the ornate mirror, I search for the latch for the secret passage.
That process presses me against the glass. I know Eris can't feel me, nor can I feel him, but he startles a little.
"What are you doing?" he asks, sounding almost nervous.
"Frisking a mirror ghost," I grumble, snarky because I'm so fucking thirsty. "What do you think?"
Once it clicks open, I slip through and descend the stairs. All the sconces are still lit. I'm assuming it's thanks to the same magic that supposedly keeps anyone else from entering this passage that smells so strangely floral.
Stopping in front of the blue door, I tentatively twist the handle.
If this were a horror movie, I'm sure this is the exact moment the audience would be screaming at me for being too stupid to live.
Luckily, once the door swings open, I'm more than pleasantly surprised.
"Holy shit," I marvel, stepping into the space.
A few yards away, rough-hewn steps drop down into a massive, secluded thermal pool of sparkling blue water. Steam rises lazily from it, dancing in the soft glow of more magic sconces surrounding the room.
The mineral spring takes up most of this natural black stone cavern. There's also a lounging chair and a giant freestanding mirror beside yet another vanity covered in soaps, creams, and folded towels.
The only hot spring I've ever been to in my world stank like rotten eggs, but it smells like nothing in here. It's balmy and private, far away from the rest of this strange world.
In other words, it's heaven.
"I love you," I whisper ardently.
"All because I told you of something you could have easily discovered for yourself?" Eris points out, appearing in the freestanding mirror. "You're certainly easy to please."
"I was talking to the enchanted hot spring. I might marry it. I'll definitely have its little hot spring puddle babies," I declare, already moving toward it.
I start to strip, but I pause. Moving to the freestanding mirror instead, I grip its edges. No matter how I try to turn it, though, it doesn't budge.
Eris watches me curiously the entire time.
"Is there even a way to tilt this thing?" I ask, walking behind it.
"What are you doing back there?"
"Trying to turn you around. I'm sure Rhinestone has forced you to watch her flounce around naked plenty of times, so I want to spare your pretty magic mirror eyeballs."
I try pushing on the mirror's back, but it may as well be part of the cavern.
"You'll just have to wander off to another mirror for a while," I sigh.
"You've said it yourself, I've seen the queen naked plenty of times," Eris grumbles. "I saw you naked in that body, as well, when you first turned up covered in blood."
"Don't remind me. You probably loved that, considering your fetish for filthy women."
He sighs heavily as I come back around the mirror.
"That joke can't be over with soon enough. My point is, I've seen everything already, so why worry about modesty now? I didn't take you for the self-conscious sort."
"I just thought since I'm a woman and you're a…"
Come to think of it, is he a man?
He seems irritated by the jokes I keep making about him looking at women, and he's not making a thing out of me stripping. Maybe he's into men. Or maybe he just looks like an ethereally beautiful human, but he's a totally platonic mirror being with no sexual interests in anyone.
"I'm a what?" Eris prompts, his opalescent eyes searching my face.
Am I making this weird for no reason?
Only one way to find out.
With a shrug, I get completely naked. Eris's gaze drops for a moment, but he meets my eye again quickly.
He starts to speak, clears his throat, and tries again. "I thought you were impatient to bathe. Why are you just standing here on display?"
I'm momentarily distracted, studying my reflection in the mirror. It's like a mirage over Eris's image.
"I will. I'm just still not used to seeing myself like this."
"I imagine it's disorienting to wake up in a different body."
"That's the thing. This is my body, just in another world. Queen Rhinestone and I are perfectly identical down to our beauty spot," I add, pointing at the mark above my lip. "But she doesn't have my tattoos. I miss most of them—and my nipple piercings."
Eris makes a small sound I can't figure out before one sleeve of his poet shirt has his complete attention. He brushes it off, which makes me wonder if dirt exists in the mirror realm.
"I had no idea that people willingly pierce their…nipples."
"Yep. Sexy, right?"
"I really wouldn't know."
Huh. Okay, maybe he is a non-sexual spirit.
Turning, I approach the hot spring. It looks so divine that I'm surprised a chorus of angels doesn't herald my first steps into the hot water.
"Holy fuck," I sigh, quickly sinking down in bliss.
The spring starts at about the depth of a shallow tub, but it only takes a few steps before I can dip my head back so the water encompasses my hair. I can't help but moan, feeling the heat caress my scalp.
"Yesss. God, this is so fucking good."
"Maybe I will go," Eris says, his voice odd.
The pure pleasure of soaking off the last three days in warm water has my full attention, so I absentmindedly hum, "Suit yourself."
A few long, rapturous minutes later, I wade back to the shallowest part of the hot spring where I can sit comfortably while soaking. That's when I notice my mirror ghost is still here, after all.
"I thought you left."
"Momentarily. I noticed earlier that you sent away food, yet you barely ate yesterday. Are you starting to feel ill?"
"Not anymore," I sigh happily. "I'm pretty sure magic hot springs cure anything."
Spying the soap I forgot on the queen's vanity, I decide it's time to scrub-a-dub-dub. The second I stand up, water cascading from my body, Eris abruptly vanishes from the mirror again.
He reappears several minutes later, while I'm lathering up to my chin.
"You're very fickle," I inform him, squinting suspiciously.
He presses on like he never left. "But earlier, you were starting to feel ill from the thirst?"
That gets my attention.
I sit up, peering across the steam at him. "Thirst? You know about…?"
Eris traces something on the glass that I can't make out.
"Reinhilde subsisted primarily on human blood. She could eat food, but it did very little for her. Since you're in her body now, you must be suffering greatly by this point. Cravings, great pain in the stomach, irritability."
Dread pools in my very empty, angry midsection.
I hug myself, looking away. "Meh. Sounds like every period ever. I can handle it."
"Perhaps you can for a little longer, but you need a plan. A way to discreetly access blood without word of the queen's particular appetite getting out. You've disbanded the Favored, which you must know by now was Reinhilde's long-term solution."
A lot of things click into place at once.
I stare at Eris, queasy as it sinks in that all those men weren't just sexual playthings—they were also walking blood bags for the evil queen.
"Reinhilde rarely went without blood for long, but if she did, she fell dangerously ill," he goes on. "The same will happen to you now that you're in her body, so perhaps if you found a way to—"
"Stop. I can't talk about this."
"Verena. You need blood. Since the Huntsman has already sworn his life in your service, I suggest you drink from him—to start, anyway. Reinhilde was far from sated by the blood of one man alone, so—"
"Please stop," I groan, covering my ears. "No B-word for a while. Seriously, I'll puke."
Once I'm sure Eris isn't talking anymore, I uncover my ears. For a long time, he leaves me in peace. At one point, I glance over my shoulder and realize I can't see him in the mirror.
The longer he's absent, the more I slowly decide I'm done hanging out in this lovely-but-lonely enchanted underground hot spring.
I've dried off, redressed, and I'm stepping back into my slippers when Eris speaks, startling me enough that I yelp.
"If you won't drink blood, you ought to try some of the queen's wine, in her lair."
"Again, a little warning next time. And lair? What is she, a witch?" I snort.
"Yes."