Page 5 of Cheshire's Smile
I arched my brow, head cocked to the side. “You’re not? How do you know?”
The older male’s lips curled up into a knowing grin. “Becauseyouare going to save us.”
“I certainly am not,” I scoffed, crossing my arms. “You’re that bitch queen’s torturer. Even if I knew how to save you, I wouldn’t.”
The older male chuckled. “You do know how to save us. You just refuse to see yourself for what you are.” His dark eyes bore into me until the hair on my arm stood up on end.
I rubbed my hands across them as I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The only way to fix the sickness is for the Tree of Life to grow back which, by the way, it has a fledgling already, so it’s well on its way —”
“Not fast enough.”
I had thought my life was finally going to go back to normal. Or as normal as it was before being imprisoned. Then Hatter disappeared and the sickness started to spread through the Underground.
I wish I could put all the blame on Kat for this mess I was now in. It was her altercation with the shadows that caused the Tree of Life to die in the first place.
Unfortunately, she was just cleaning up the messImade by making the agreement with the Shadow Man in the first place. At least, the Tree of Life was regenerating itself, though, even with the help of me and the Unseelie Queen, it was still just a fragile sapling.
“Yes,” I huffed. “I’m well aware it is not growing fast enough. So while it willeventuallyfix the sickness spreading those who are already infected...” I slowly shook my head. I hesitated to give them the tragic news.
“Will die.” the younger male finished for me. “Yes, we know.”
“But there is another way,” the older male added on, staring me down.
“A high king or queen, I know.” I pulled my curls, annoyance starting to grate at me. “But finding one is the hard part.”
“You’ve already found one,” the older male stated, those eyes trying to tell me something I didn’t want to know.
I backed away a step. “Nope. No. As Kat would say, hell fucking no. I’m not the queen of anything.” My hand grasped my chest. “I’m the villain in this story. Not the hero. No one wants me to be High Queen. They wouldn’t even listen to me if I was.”
“They would.” This time, the four heads were in sequence, the females having pulled themselves together.
My foot stopped on the ground like a petulant child. “I can’t be the queen. I don’t even have all my memories. I’m incomplete. There’s no way I could even handle being the queen, let alone be strong enough.”
“You can. And you will,” the older male crooned with a mysterious tone.
“The only thing I want to do is find Hatter and get him out of here before the sickness takes him. Cheshire already has it, which I can only hope won’t kill him before the Tree of Life grows into maturity. What I’m not going to do is pretend for even a nanosecond that I’m worthy of being the High Queen, even If I wanted to be, which I don’t. So stop telling me to be the hero when I’m not!”
My chest rose and fell as I took large heaving shuddering breaths. A mixture of feelings swirled in my stomach. Anger. Frustration. And above all else, panic.
The thought of me being the only hope to save the Underground scared me to my very core. I wasn’t a hero. I was selfish. Self-centered. I only cared about me and my people. I couldn’t care less what happened to the rest of the Underground.
What had they done for me?
Nothing.
The queens had imprisoned me. The shadows had used me. Everyone else had spurned me, called me names, spat on my very being. I was not going to save their asses now. In fact, I hoped they all died gruesome deaths.
I felt something burn beneath my skin, zipping over me, electrifying every inch of my being. Something glowed in the dark space.
The Bandersnatch reared back, their eyes wide with fear and awe. It took me a moment before I realized the glow wasn’t around me. It was coming from me.
Sucking in air through my nose, I blew it out of my mouth. Each breath calming the buzzing in my veins until the glow faded and it was only me.
“You have more power than you think,” the older male calmly stated. “You can save us all, if you would take the step.”
I growled.
“But, perhaps,” he continued, glancing at the others, “you need to be completed before you can accept your destiny.”
