Snow Heart (18 page)

The sliding door slid open to a line of chefs with platters that required both their hands. Alric slowly rolled his eyes to them with small relief. It was when the chefs placed the food in front of him that he was actually pleased. He hated large gatherings like this.

“There’s so much,” Nieves whispered to him. “I don’t think I can eat it all.”

He pursed his lips to prevent from smiling. “Don’t worry about it.”

The chefs left, placing three more dishes onto the table. Alric hadn’t noticed that there was a space left for three other people. It wasn’t until Sailles and her family came in that he realized they had been missing.

Sailles gave a weak smile. It was Jeff that looked friendlier of the whole bunch. Their daughter had her head against Sailles’s shoulder, tired with sleep. They sat down at the table, pulled into the conversation Monsun was having with Rusuto.

“Sailles’s daughter.” Aunty gave a smile before turning to Wilhelm next to her. She began to chat away about the cities of Italy and how magnificently ancient they were. Alric couldn’t help but to listen to how she described the Sistine Chapel. The artist she described sounded too splendid to exist and the paintings—yes, when she described the paintings—it sent a chill of coldness along his skin.

He wondered if one day he could visit those cities. He thought of taking Nieves with him to every place the world have to offer. Each continent after the next.

Nieves’s laughter pulled his attention away from Aunty. Angel and Mia were speaking with her about something. They were right next to him but their low voices seemed to smear their words into one single alien word.

Alric turned to his food and ate. He drowned out all conversation and just tried to focus on his food. It didn’t taste as well as he remembered it. For some odd reason it all tasted bland and flavorless. In fact, his entire mind was craving another one of those peanut butter and chocolate candy bars.

A part of him was hoping Nieves had brought more with her.

Earlier she moved her baggage into the room Aunty had given her. Perhaps he could sneak in there while she was distracted and snag a bar for himself. Then he realized he was devising plans to steal from people.

That was utterly low.

The shoji door to the outside slid open by the time Alric was finished eating and trying to relax. Zeit stepped in and made his way to Alric’s side. He leaned down and whispered something lightly.

Everyone was watching—waiting—for some sign of reason.

Alric nodded his head and got to his feet. “I have to leave.”

Nieves nearly followed but he glanced at her, with his eyes telling her to stay. He wasn’t in need of her help and he could handle whatever it was. Nieves obeyed. She felt strange—regretful—to turn her attention to Angel and Mia. There was a large piece of her who wanted to go with Alric but she stayed—just like he had asked.

CHAPTER 24

Aunty gathered the remaining women at the table to gather in another room. Eliza wanted to join the girls, begging to be a part of their group. Jacob, of course, would not leave Eliza’s side to be alone with the others. Instead of gathering in a room, Nieves found that they were all sneaking off to the bathhouse for nice long hot bath. She also discovered that there was a hot spring there.

Angel and Mia undressed like they’d done this all their lives.

Nieves, on the other hand, felt awkward slipping out of her blue jeans and folding them up onto a bench. It shouldn’t have bothered her to chuck her clothes away in front of other women but for some reason it did. Nieves could remember how much she hated getting undressed in PE class in school.

The three of them had already washed off with soap and water by the time they realized Sailles and Aunty had left the dressing room.

“He has such pretty eyes,” Mia was saying while she wrapped a yellow towel around herself. “The deepest black I’d ever seen.”

Nieves thought for a moment that Mia was talking about Alric.

Angel wrapped her dark red towel around herself. “But he’s so much older than you, Mia. He’s… Oh, well I guess a four year difference isn’t so bad.” Angel pulled out a hair band from her jeans pocket on the bench and pulled back her hair.

Nieves was curled up on the bench in a white towel gathering as much warmth from the room as possible. The smooth white tiles and baby blue walls were beautiful looking compared to most locker rooms. The bathhouse looked so elegant.

Angel giggled while heading towards the weaving walk way to the hot spring. “Mia is too afraid to ask him. She barely has enough courage to ask him questions or even talk.”

A seed of envy began to strap itself to Nieves’s heart. For some absurd reasoning, Nieves wanted to ask Alric if he liked Mia. She wanted to know how he felt towards Mia. And a strong part of her wanted him to say no.

Sailles and Aunty were already in the hot spring, the air filled with steam. Nieves’s eyes widened when she realized the hot spring was out in the open with only a tall wooden fence to keep out peepers. She wasn’t ready to strip herself of the safety of the towel just yet.

Angel didn’t mind at all in dropping her towel. It fell to the ground as Angel eased herself into hot fiery water. Mia was a little reluctant. She sat down onto one of the smooth white stones dipping her feet in then quickly pulling them out.

“It’s so hot!” Mia exclaimed.

Angel nodded her head. “I know. It feels amazing.” She caught a glance of the not-so-enthusiastic Nieves. “Come on in. We don’t bite.”

Aunty swam over to the edge of the spring and leaned her arms onto the stone. “Don’t worry Nieves—the water’s clean. It’s just a little hot that’s all.”

“Uh-huh.” Eliza used one hand to hold her towel around her body and the other hand to pull Jacob along. The small little boy didn’t mind being pulled around by Eliza—it looked like they were two best friends.

“Jacob wants to come too,” Eliza informed.

Aunty smiled. “He can come in with us.”

Eliza beamed, eyes sparkling. “Cannon Ball!” She tossed her towel and leapt into the spring as if it were a swimming pool. Water splashed but everyone simply laughed about it—except for Jacob who seemed too shy to show a smile.

Jacob sat down onto the rocks. He was trying to devise a plan on how to get into the water without taking his towel off. Jacob stared into the water then slowly pried off the towel but he’d quickly pulled it around himself if too much skin was seen.

Everyone turned away until they heard a distinct splash of water. Jacob bobbed up to the surface with a small nearly unseen smile. He quickly joined Eliza—splashing and giggling.

Nieves sat down onto a smooth rock only letting her feet touch the water.

“It’s nice to get away from the boys for a while,” Aunty said to the whole group.

Sailles nodded her head in agreement. “Susanne can be a handful at times.” Every now and then Sailles would dart a glance at Nieves who was paying more attention to the steam against the background of the night sky.

“That’s what Louis is always saying,” Angel commented. “I wish you could meet him. I think you two would get along. Then you’d get over your crush with Monsun.” Angel giggled lightly in the open air.

Mia suddenly went quiet.

Mia liked Monsun, Nieves considered. She felt embarrassed about her jealousy over Alric. Had she really been jealous of someone liking the Head Macter? It seemed ridiculous but she remembered the monstrous envy inside of her heart.

Angel sighed. “I wish you could go to my school.” She placed her head onto her arms which were folded onto the rocks of the hot spring. “It’d be so much fun.”

Nieves pulled her feet out of the water and slid them next to her on the rock. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. The city looks big but I’m sure if Angel and I went with you then it won’t seem so big.”

Aunty slid out of the water and sat up on edge of the spring. “Arrhenphobia. Mia has the fear of men. But only men who aren’t a part of the family.”

“I used to love the city,” Mia said, staring at the black nail polish on her toenails. “It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life. Alric had let my family move there—he warned us the curse would follow us there.

“But my parents didn’t believe him. They thought me turning into a fox on some nights could be worked with. They wanted me to be normal as possible—pretend to be just like all the other children.

“So I did. I pretended so well no one would have guessed. But Alric was right about the curse. It followed us to the city—it followed me. I was walking home from the library really late that night. I was working on a project about Ancient Rome.” Mia worked in a small laugh. “I thought Anthony was an idiot for being used so easily by Cleopatra. I was trying to decide if they loved each other or not.”

Angel lowered into the water as if she didn’t want to hear the rest.

Sailles was intrigued like Nieves—because she didn’t know the story either.

“One of them had blue eyes,” Mia said with a weary smile. “Eyes more beautiful than anyone could imagine or think to bring to life. They had white spikes shooting out from the abyss. I stared into those eyes the entire time wishing for sanctuary.”

She placed her head onto her knees and closed her eyes tightly. “I tried to scream but I couldn’t. They wouldn’t take their hand off of my mouth. I wanted to scream—scream until my lungs collapsed.” She shook her head saying, “It hurt. It hurt so much.”

Nieves bit her lips unconsciously. “Oh, Mia.” In a blink of an eye she was at Mia’s side, wrapping her arms around her. At first Mia tried to pull away but Nieves wouldn’t let her. “You don’t have to suffer alone. I’m here. I’ll take your pain.”

Mia clenched her teeth. “I hate them!” Her fingers grabbed a fist full of Nieves’s towel with the thought of those men in her mind. “I hate them for all they did. I wish they were dead.”

Nieves nodded her head. “Me too.”

CHAPTER 25

Nieves made it back to Alric’s room feeling only a little revived. Hot springs were definitely not her thing—the water was far too hot and she liked to think of herself not being cooked alive like a lobster.

She did however like sitting with the girls feeling the cool winter’s night air.

The room was empty when she got there. It plucked a string of worry inside of her chest. Alric had been called away by Zeit earlier that night during dinner and he hadn’t returned yet. Nieves wondered if any of the maids knew where Alric had gone—or if they had seen Zeit.

Not feeling all too comfortable with staying in Alric’s room without his permission or even him knowing about it, she made her way down the hallway back to the room Aunty had given her. She had remembered the way to her room in fear of getting lost.

One right. The second left. Third door on the left.

Nieves was about to take the second left when Dan was passing by. He gave a nod of his head and kept on until Nieves built up the courage to call out his name.