“Stop being a puss in a boot,” Loki said.
“You’re pathetic, Axel,” Lucy said with disdain as she finally entered the castle. “So where is our nasty blood-sucking princess?” Lucy looked around. “Knock, knock?” her high heels echoed on the marble floor. “Mirror, mirror?” she summoned with a grin on her face. “Who’s the scariest of them all?” Lucy enjoyed mocking the vampire princess. “Coochie, coochie!”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to coochie-coochie her,” Axel took a step back.
“Shut up, son of a woodcutter,” Lucy shushed him.
Loki was curious to see Lucy’s reaction after she met badass Snow White. He doubted she’d stick with the snobby attitude.
“Shhh!” Fable hushed them, pointing at the dim lit staircase.
Loki looked up and saw Show White. She was in her white dress, floating at the top of the stairs, watching them. Everyone held their breath, but when Snow White’s dress waved in the usual cold breeze, Axel let out a muffled whimper.
“See? The mirror trick always works,” Lucy said. She was the only one continuously capable of offending the living… and the dead. Loki couldn’t help but notice that girls in Sorrow were much stronger willed than boys.
Snow White stepped forward into the light. Her dress began dripping blood, which clutched at her small feet before she glided down, just hovering over the third step. Again, she looked like a marionette, hung with invisible threads from her hands by a vicious puppeteer—and he finally understood why. The Schloss was Snow White’s prison of pearls. It controlled her. The big question was, ‘Why had she been imprisoned for a hundred years, and by whom?’
Loki gripped his stake as she glided down over the last step. Although he knew she was a prisoner, it wasn’t easy to trust her when he saw her veins snaking up her arms and neck, reaching her pale face. Her eyes had turned into two holes filled with black oil, and for the first time, she had tears rolling down her cheeks—black tears.
“What a freak,” Lucy blurted.
Snow White’s bloody feet landed on the floor. She began walking toward Loki, leaving red footprints behind. She showed no anger or intentions of hostility. Something watery dripped onto the floor behind Loki. It was Axel; he was drooling.
Loki could almost hear Fable’s heart pounding as if it was his. She watched her favorite vampire princess with appalling eyes. Snow White had always been Fable’s idol.
“Don’t you dare come near me wicked princess!” Lucy grunted. “I just manicured my fingernails, and had my hair styled.”
Snow White snarled at Lucy, only once. She did it over Loki’s shoulder, and Lucy stumbled back into Axel’s arms. Even Axel, who’d normally want to save Lucy, wasn’t happy about it. Sometimes fear is so paralyzing that love can’t save it—that’s if what Axel felt for Lucy was considered love.
“You don’t have to be rude about it,” Lucy snapped back. “I know you’re sweet on the champ. He’s all yours,” she pointed at Loki. “Just don’t bite him on the first date.”
Snow White—the very dead version of her—was an inch away from Loki, and she uttered words for the second time.
“Are you here to kill me?” she said.
Loki wished she hadn’t talked, because she did it in her innocent sixteen-year-old teenage voice, which was smooth and lively with a hint of adventure. It confused him, trying to match the voice with her gruesome look. He hesitated before replying. After all, he still didn’t know why he was here in front of her. Was he here to kill her or help her, go back home or stay in Sorrow?
Fable, although shocked, managed to wave her hands at Loki behind Snow White’s back, suggesting he should tell her that he wasn’t there to kill her.
“Are you here to kill me, Loki?” Snow White repeated without the slightest hint of anger. She was just a sweet girl his age. For all he knew, she could have been asking him if he liked pink or yellow cotton-candy. In another world, another lifetime, Loki would have asked her out and they would have watched a movie together, had a little popcorn, and snuck in a few kisses in the darkness of a theatre. When she spoke his name, he felt so… so close to her… as if he’d known her for a very long time.