Page 14 of Blood of the Fairest

Verena

I scream, slap my hands over my tits, and whirl around, ready to kick the gorgeous intruder's balls to kingdom come.

But there's no one else in the room.

"What in Eidengrau are you shrieking ab—" the mirror ghost begins.

Someone pounds on the double doors I just locked.

"Your Majesty?" a man's voice calls. "Is something amiss? I heard a scream from my station down the hall."

"N-no, I'm good," I call back, not wanting another guy in this room. "Go back to your post."

It makes sense that the queen has guards, but it's not a comfort to have a strange man standing guard down the hall when I know the queen has already been poisoned in her own castle once before.

I spin back to face the first guy. Snatching up the ratty blanket, I cover myself again so I can stare unabashedly at this…

"Holy shit. It is a magic mirror," I realize out loud. "Holy fucking shit."

"My, how your language has cheapened since your Favored tried to kill you," he murmurs.

His gaze has narrowed into something like suspicion as he examines me, but he's not the only one examining.

How is it possible for anyone to be this beautiful and otherworldly? From his killer bone structure to his lips to his multicolored, opalescent eyes…and my god, his hair. It's like something from a L'Oreal commercial, falling in luscious silver waves with prism colors dancing throughout it.

Mesmerizing. That's what he is.

The loose poet-style white shirt he's wearing gives a delicious glimpse of his toned chest. I only realize I've been staring at it when he taps on the glass between us, startling me and confirming that he's inside the mirror.

"Enough. You know how I loathe it whenever you ogle me."

"Sorry, but wow. Just…wow," I repeat stupidly. "This will sound crazy, but I feel like I've seen you somewhere before. Like in a super sexy movie or once upon a fever dream or—wait. You know about those guys trying to kill her—me? How?"

"I was here when it happened, of course," he says, air-drawing his fingers in a rectangle to indicate the mirror around him.

"So you just watched while they poisoned the queen? That's fucked up."

"What else was I to do? I can't leave, as you've ensured. And it seems you survived as you always do, red-haired cockroach that you are, so what does it matter?"

The detestation in his voice is clear. If the queen has somehow been keeping him captive in a mirror, I guess it makes sense that he wanted her dead.

"If you say so, Michael Jackson," I shrug, since it doesn't have anything to do with me, anyway.

He's perplexed. "Michael…?"

"You know, he sang Man in the—" I start to explain before cutting off with a groan. "I just realized I'm the only person in this entire world who knows who that is, and now I just pity all of you. I can't wait to go home. Speaking of which—since you're the magic mirror, you should have answers. How do I get back to my world?"

He tilts his head, the colors in his iridescent hair shifting slightly. "Your world?"

"Yes. Can't you spy it with your pretty magic mirror eyes? I'm not the real Queen Rhinestone."

"Reinhilde."

“Gesundheit. No, I’m Verena. Vera, for short. I'm just your average thirty-year-old remote freelance fashion designer who leads a quiet, comfy life that I'd love to get back to. Not that your fairytale world isn't completely fascinating," I add. "Odds are, this place is probably way easier to stomach than my hot mess of a world—and if I woke up as anyone else, I might've been tempted to stay. But I'd rather not die horribly as the evil queen or keep paying for how much of a bitch she is. So, tell me. How do I go back?"

While I've been rambling, the Adonis's opalescent eyes have been mapping my features as if he's seeing me for the first time. The detestation on his face softens slightly as he weighs my words.

Finally, he lifts his chin. "Prove it."