Blood, Milk, and Chocolate - Part One (The Grimm Diaries, #3)
Cameron Jace
"Love is like death, it must come to us all, but to each his own unique way and time, sometimes it will be avoided, but never can it be cheated, and never will it be forgotten." ― Jacob Grimm
Prologue
Candy House,
a few minutes after Loki, controlled by the Queen of Sorrow via his Fleece, ran off to kill Shew.
Right after the incident at Candy House, Lucy Rumpelstein couldn't stop thinking about the Queen of Sorrow. She sat on her chair in the kitchen, not quite believing she was looking at the one and only Queen. This was her in the flesh, Lucy thought—Carmilla Karnstein, wrongfully known as the Evil Snow White Queen to all those giddy girls in love with those misleading Disney movies. This was the woman who devoted her life to eating her own daughter's heart. What a story!
Lucy hadn't even cared when Axel and Fable ran out after Loki, trying to stop him from killing Snow White—or whatever that obnoxious vampire girl's name was. None of those annoying teenagers mattered to Lucy. All this talk about True Love between Loki and Shew irritated her. She never believed True Love was possible. She had never encountered it or seen it or felt it, except in teenage movies. Lucy, although sixteen, known as Rumpelstein's high queen bee, always wanted to feel older and more mature. True Love was for kiddos who wanted to feed on an illusionary lie. She didn't think the legends like the Queen of Sorrow ever believed in True Love.
Lucy's eyes were still glued to the beautiful Queen. Carmilla sat with her chin up, the tips of her fingers lightly tapping the table's wooden surface. She wore modern clothes, trying to pose as a school principal. But she still looked like a queen: elegant, powerful, and feared, as if she were sitting in her glass throne in the Kingdom of Sorrow.
Never had Lucy been infatuated by someone more powerful than the Queen of Sorrow. She was her idol. A figure to look up to and learn from. Lucy would have sold her soul to the devil to learn from this woman.
It fascinated her how Carmilla was so unapologetically evil, so majestically cunning and deceptive. If one trait amused Lucy the most, it was how the Queen never sugarcoated her evildoing. She never claimed she wanted to kill her daughter for the good of the world—although she had tricked Loki into thinking that. She just said, "Hey, I am the Queen of Sorrow; bend before me or I'll eat your heart with a slice of liver and chalice of bloody wine on the side." The Queen had always been proud of her utter evil, and Lucy adored her.
Lucy inhaled the sight of the Queen of Sorrow with her eyes, memorizing every detail of the European beauty. This beautiful, slightly hard-edged face. Those curvy blonde curls of thick hair, only missing the thin silver crown that was usually threaded through them. Those intimidating blue eyes with that tinge of gold shining every now and then. Those thin, heart-shaped lips, and those long, fine fingernails. Such a scary beauty was all that Lucy wished to be when she grew older.
Please look at me, Carmilla. Please notice me. Here I am, daughter of the owner of Rumpelstein High, queen bee of a small, and lost, American town residing on top of a whale; a town that can only be accessed through hell. Here I am, willing to do anything you ask me to. You have awakened the evil in me. The delicious evil of a lonely, spoiled, and bored teenager. I am as classy as you only in a mundane world of absurd reality. Take me to the Dreamworld, and honor me with a piece of your daughter's heart. I swear I will bite into it like a hungry zombie.
Lucy shrugged. Was this the effect of the Queen's presence, or had Lucy always been ready for evil without her quite knowing it?
"What are you staring at?" Carmilla said, still tapping her fingernails softly and leaning back in her chair.
"I'm sorry, My Majesty." Lucy lowered her head, aware of the silliness of calling her "Majesty." This was the real world, the Waking World, almost two centuries ahead of the Queen's time. No one called anyone Majesty anymore.
"Sorry for what?" Carmilla grimaced.
"For staring at you, My Queen," Lucy said. "I'm not holding anything against you. In fact, I deeply sympathize with Your Majesty." Lucy shrugged. "You sacrificed your life for the little princess. You've tolerated a bad marriage and inherited a kingdom of evil. I don't consider you evil. You are my hero."
The Queen's grimace tightened, but she said nothing. Lucy wondered if she liked what she had said.
"I wish you'd take me on your side," Lucy said with pleading eyes. "I wish to serve you. I wish to learn from you. Is there anything I can do for you?"