Page 46 of Blood of the Fairest

"I've no idea, but you may as well check while sipping some wine. Meet me in Reinhilde's lair. Red door," he adds before vanishing.

Blowing one final kiss at my favorite part of this world so far, I leave the hot spring room and hurry down the secret passage.

Turning the handle of the red door so it swings open, I stop to gawk.

So this is why the entire passageway smells the way it does.

In the center of this spacious cave looms an enormous, ghostly apple tree. Its pale trunk rises high from the ground, branches thriving with both apple blossoms and dozens of glistening apples—all the purest white. It almost looks like it's glowing, thanks to cold blue daylight pouring down from an unseen height through a hole at the top of this cave.

The walls of this lair are lined with wooden racks filled with leather-bound books, jars, and bottles.

Glass vials, magically lit flickering candles, and little silver instruments litter a wooden table to my right. Bundles of herbs, an iron cauldron, a goblet, and a handheld mirror occupy a table to the left.

Everything looks ancient, but smells as clean and crisp as an orchard.

I circle around the tree, fascinated. I almost reach for one of the lower-hanging apples, but I pause.

"Oh, shit. If these are the evil queen's infamous poisoned apples, I probably shouldn't eat one, huh?"

"Why would they be poisonous? They can't satisfy your true appetite, but they're perfectly safe to eat," Eris replies from the hand mirror on the table. Then he hums. "Although, come to think of it, the queen did stain those apples with her own blood from time to time, to gift to enemies. There was no telling what one bite would do to someone, given the terrible magic in her blood."

Right. That terrible magic killed the Three Stooges…but somehow didn't affect Wulf.

Repressing a shudder at the idea of the queen painting an apple with her blood to give Snow White, I pick the apple and bite into it.

He's right. Just like regular food now, this doesn't taste like much to me.

Which sucks, because I fucking love apples. They've always been my favorite fruit.

"Try over there instead," Eris suggests.

Wandering to the table to pick up the mirror, I see that he's pointing to a shelf full of wine bottles.

I tip my head. "I thought the queen kept you trapped in the mirror upstairs. Why does she have all these other mirrors, if it wasn't to talk to you down here?"

"At times, she did summon me to these mirrors. But mostly, they were to admire herself. She was vainer than Ayna."

"So I've heard. But can you really blame her, with a face like ours?" I joke.

Taking the mirror with me, I scan the dozens of unlabeled bottles of wine.

"Hey, if I'm a witch, does that mean there's a broom I can fly around on?" I ask idly.

He makes a face. "Witches fly about on brooms in your world? How bizarre."

Selecting a bottle, I bring it to the wooden table with the very convenient goblet. I'm just about to pull out the stopper when I go still, my attention settling a little too hard on the red liquid sloshing inside.

My stomach is suddenly screaming with need.

I prop the mirror up on the table and glower at Eris. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Only if you think it's wine."

It's not fair that I want to believe him just because he's so pretty.

"Are you lying to trick me into drinking you-know-what so I don't get sick?"

"It's wine, Verena. If you don't trust the redness of it, try the apple wine in another bottle." When I continue to side-eye him, he throws his hands in the air. "For Crones' sakes, why would I lie to you? There's not a drop of blood in it!"