Read The Witch and the Huntsman for Free Online

earnest, I wondered if he was a Mormon or something.
    “ We get that requested a lot here. It’s some kind of Austrian game delicacy, I think.”
    Duh, I’d thought it was a kind of wine, you know, like Liebfraumilch . He handed me a second tray of rainbow-colored macaroons and told me to follow him to table twelve.
    “ You know, La Chasse isn’t just a ski resort; we’re a hunting lodge, too. Our parent company bags so much wild game around the world that the Jaegers also run their own specialty meat export business—that’s who supplies us when local game is scarce.”
    That explained the van that had almost hit me coming in. “Who are the Jaegers?”
    Kev lowered his voice almost fearfully. “Our employers. You know, the big boss, Regina Jaeger—Mrs. Jaeger—that’s her over by the door.”
    I glanced quickly in that direction—and my gaze froze.
    When you were a kid, did you ever meet an adult who made you feel like you were the lowliest scum on earth? Who made your blood turn cold whenever they walked into the room? Mrs. Roosevelt, my elementary school principal, was like that; she looked like she ate children for breakfast.
    So did Regina Jaeger. The sight of her gave me a real jolt. I guess she was pretty, maybe even beautiful. Most guys would probably think so; she was tall and blonde, and looked like an ex-fashion model or movie starlet. It was pretty obvious that the Slavic bimbo she had on the reception desk had been hired to be her mini-me. But I didn’t like the look of her—and I could tell just in that split-second our eyes met, that she wasn’t crazy about me, either.
    And it wasn’t just physical, either. Or the food stains I’d managed to spill on my shirt. Something passed between us on a psychic level. Something spooky. Because that’s the other thing; as Sam Moon had continued to feed on my blood and my psychic powers grew, I’d become able to see people’s auras. Brittany’s, for example, was clear and bluish, just what you’d expect from an open, honest kind of person. Kev’s was more complicated; there was courage there, but some treacherous yellow strands, too.
    I’d expected something dark and twisted and evil from Regina Jaeger’s aura—maybe even something like the swirling faded crimsons and rotting egg-yolk grays of Mr. Schreich’s—but no. Nothing .
    The woman had no aura at all. How was that possible? Even corpses keep giving them off for a while after death, I’d discovered. Was she one of the undead? Sam didn’t give off an aura. And neither did her werewolf boyfriend. Both immortal. Jesus, did I just say all that? Anyway, I shivered, and when I looked up again, she was gone.
    “ That’s Eric, her stepson,” said Kev’s voice in my ear. It was like being woken from a trance—I’d forgotten his existence completely.
    And what I saw next blotted it out completely. A rugged-looking blonde guy probably just on the south side of thirty had come into the ballroom and was standing in the doorway Mrs. Jaeger had just vacated. He was wearing a classic-notch, black, Western-style tux and a formal Stetson, and was very probably the hottest-looking guy I’d ever seen before in my life.
    Honestly, he was even handsomer than Brad Pitt.
    Instantly, I more or less forgot about all the unpleasant things I’d just been feeling a few seconds before. Okay, I wasn’t exactly mentally naming our firstborn yet, but it did seem like maybe it hadn’t been such a terrible idea to come here, after all, in spite of all my bad feelings and Millicent’s warnings.
    Maybe meeting Eric Jaeger was meant to be...right? Every great love story has to start someplace.

 
    Chapter Six
     
    After most of the diners had left (most seemed headed for the lounge or the bar or a movie in the little theater), Kev and I found Brittany helping the kitchen staff load dishes into the industrial-sized stainless steel Mieles. Blowing her nose, she still looked weepy.
    “ The shrike yelled at me,”