Page 30 of Cheshire's Smile
“What do we do now?” I sighed and plopped down on one of the two chairs behind the desk. “Not only can we not get into the Shadow Realm, but even the door to the Human Realm is locked.” I lowered my face down to the surface of the desk. “This is hopeless.”
“It’s not hopeless.” Cheshire rounded the table and placed a hand on my back, rubbing it in soothing circles. “We will find a way to save them. I promise.”
My head lifted, eyes narrowed. “Fae can’t lie. So you’re either extremely confident, or you’ve picked up a new skill in the last hundred years.”
“No.” Chuckling, Cheshire sat in the other chair and pulled my chair so my legs were between his. “I’m afraid lying is still not one of my skills. But I do have faith.”
He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, his fingers caressing my face. “Faith in you. If anyone can save us, it will be the woman who didn’t settle for a bad marriage. The woman who found a way to become fae when no one else thought it was even possible.” His hands clasped mine and held them to his chest. “The woman who would burn down the world for us without a second thought. That’s the woman who will figure this out and save us.” He kissed my knuckles softly.
My gaze softened on him as my heart swelled with emotion. Then I grimaced, withdrawing my hands from his grasp. “You shouldn’t. I’m just going to disappoint you. I don’t even know what I’m doing. I’m making this all up as I go along.”
“And look how far we’ve come.” Cheshire leaned forward, his hands on my knees. “You got us to the Between. You faced your fear of the Hall of Mirrors. You can do anything, Alice.”
“Anything but unlock a door.” I leaned my elbow on the table, smacking the keyboard of the computer. “Maybe Kat has an idea of how to unlock the magic around the—” I trailed off my eyes, moving to the monitor that had come to life. “What’s this?”
The background of the screen was a still frame of a dark-haired, shirtless man with scraggly hair and a beard. They looked familiar to me for some reason. I could have sworn I’d seen them on the television at one point or another. Unfortunately, the name of the show eluded me now.
“Perhaps Type and Gripe have something on their device to help us?” Cheshire offered helpfully.
I highly doubted someone would leave the answer to unlocking the Shadow Realm’s door just sitting nilly willy here on a computer. It almost seemed too easy. Still, I squinted at the screen.
“It needs a password.”
Cheshire eyed the computer over my shoulder. “Perhaps Underground?”
I snorted. “Would it be that easy?” I typed the letters into the keyboard and hit enter. “Wrong. And we only have ten guesses left.”
“Well, there can’t be that many options.” Cheshire tried to reassure me once more, but he hadn’t been around computers the way that I had.
Kat had gone into extensive detail about the nuances of computers and all about cyber security. She’d almost strangled me when I tried to set my own password as simply that, password. Knowing the two-headed dodo bird, they wouldn’t have made such a moronic decision.
I leaned back in my chair, allowing Cheshire’s scent to fill my lungs while I chewed on my thumb. If I could only remember where those men on the background were from, then I would have some starting point at least.
Shoving my hand into my pocket, I pulled out the compact mirror.
“What are you doing?”
I opened it and stared hard into the surface. “Trying to will Kat to call me with my mind.”
“Can you do that?” Cheshire’s brow rose.
“No,” I huffed, “but it’s worth a shot. Unless we figure out this password, we have nowhere else to go. Not unless you want to go back out there.” I threw a hand toward the white void.
Cheshire shook his head.
“So, then, we wait.”
Cheshire hummed and brushed my hair away from my neck. “Well, if we have nothing but time on our hands right now...” His lips traced a hot pathway up my neck, where he nipped at my ear sending a hot bolt of desire through me. “I know a thing or two we can do to pass the time.”
My lips tugged up at the corners. “I don’t think here is the best place to be engaging in our baser instincts.”
His claw hooked under the neck of my dress and pulled it down, exposing his mark on my breast. “I think now is the perfect time. It will help you relax while we wait.”
He slipped his hand into my bodice and cupped the flesh, fingers twisting around my nipple. My back arched into his touch not caring that my mind had protested.
I couldn’t argue with his sound reasoning. We’d been through such a stressful few hours, and my mind was so cluttered with worry about Hatter and the Tweedles, I couldn’t remember the character on the computer’s background.
“Fine,” I moaned, leaning my head back to brush my nose against his. “I suppose I could use a bit of a distraction.”
