Page 56 of Demon Queen
“Your hat is fabulous,” I said, breathlessly, pulling myself to my knees. My arm hurt so bad, but not as much as my heart, seeing my baby collared. “I’m always looking for a new hat maker. Maybe you can recommend yours to me.”
He raised a dark brow. “I am the hatter. But my hats wouldn’t suit you…” He frowned and took another sniff, narrow nostrils flaring. His whole face was jaunt, angular, like he didn’t get enough to eat, or like someone was sucking the life out of him. The Zombie Queen, of course.
I slowly rose into a crouch. “Maybe they would. You never know until you try.”
He smiled slightly. “Like you tried to jump me? You’re not running. Are you still thinking that you can fight me? You don’t look as stupid as you’d need to be to make that assumption.”
I put my hands on my hips. “I’m much stupider than I look. And I don’t look very smart. It’s the panniers. Nobody looks very intelligent in hoops.”
His smile grew wider as he cocked his head. “You are charming. And you still aren’t running. Perhaps if you tried to tackle me again you’d be successful. Perhaps you’re tired of demons and looking for an alternative. Perhaps you don’t trust the demons to be properly representing the Zombie Queen. Perhaps after the Vampire Queen attacked you, you feel, well, attacked on all sides. Perhaps you’re looking for an escape.” He sighed heavily. “But the Zombie Queen is even worse than anyone told you. You really should run.”
I jumped him.
He gasped when I hit him, knocking him back a step, and knocking the leash out of his hand.
“NO!” Wilkie screamed, loud enough to break my ears, and then he grabbed the purple top hat off the Mad Hatter’s head and ran.
He made it two steps before the Hatter was on him, jolting away from me, sending me over into the metal garbage bin.
Wilkie was still screaming as he ran with the hat towards the wall.
An enormous figure dropped from the sky, skin crackling with bubbling magma that popped and flickered like a moving hellscape. Was that really Drigo? He was ten feet tall. At least. And had the most ridiculous horns, curving out of his skull including his king spikes, and fire came out of his eyes and mouth. Yep. Demonic. He roared and a stream of lava shot at the Mad Hatter.
The purple-skinned guy spent a moment looking stunned and then he pulled his hat over himself and Wilkie all the way to the ground. It passed over both of them, swallowing them up, and then the magma bolt hit where they’d been, lighting the tip of the hat on fire before it sank, burning, through the pavement.
The demon picked me up and then launched into the air, enormous wings beating us aloft while I hoped that this was Dorian and not a different demon. He smelled like Dorian, spicy cinnamon bears, only spicier than usual.
I relaxed and curled against him, cradling my monster arm against my chest. It was bleeding from the pavement, and the zombie bite bandage had fallen off. Also my stitches hurt. But nothing hurt more than my heart.
I pressed my face against his neck, ignoring the streaks of magma because that probably wouldn’t hurt me, and if it did, I deserved it for being so stupid. I should have gotten Dorian and then gone after Wilkie. Also, the Mad Hatter was more dangerous than I’d given him credit for. Also, and most devastating than anything in the world, The Mad Hatter had Wilkie, and I hadn’t been able to save him.
seventeen
. . .
“What do you mean,you don’t know what you’re doing here?” Gloria asked, sounding irritable and not her usual mystic self. She was draped over the lime green velvet lounge wearing a matching floral kimono. Her house was currently surrounded by more demons than you could shake a stick at. Although how many times you shook a stick shouldn’t be limited to the number against you. Shake that stick! Or not. Whatever.
Dorian had dropped me on the lounge and then left. Fine, he’d settled me down carefully, pressed the sweetest kiss to my forehead, glared at Gloria for a good five seconds, and then left. It felt like all those times I’d been thrown out of foster homes because I was too weird, too quiet, too afraid.
“I was lying in Dorian’s bed, lacking the will to live, and then he interrupted that moment to dump me here. It’s like old times. But also completely different. There’s actually a Mad Hatter.” My throat tightened up and my tear ducts started filling my eyes. I blinked rapidly so they wouldn’t overflow. Happily, that worked. For now.
Gloria narrowed her eyes at me, making the effort to raise her head on her long neck to peer at me like a vindictive goose. “Purple skin, dark eyes, stupid hat?”
I shrugged. “What am I doing with my life? Why couldn’t I save him? He was right. I should have been working on my knife skills, not biting people and hoping everything would just work out. But I’m an idiot. And weak. And incapable. And so blind.”
Her narrow nose wrinkled like she smelled something bad. “So much self-pity. Where’s the rage?”
I scowled at her. “I told you that I was pathetic. Obviously I’d be whiny if I’m pathetic, but what else can I be? I could offer to trade my life for his, but I’m not sure Wilkie can survive if I’m dead, and I have no idea how to arrange that kind of thing. It’s not like I wouldn’t trade my life for him a million times, it just didn’t work that way. The Mad Hatter got Wilkie, and I got more layers of complexity to my monster arm. I’m not in the right head space to be a good visitor. So why am I here?” I had a sudden thought that had me sitting up and leaning forward. “Are you okay? Did the Zombie Queen do something to you?”
She shuddered, left eye twitching. “Did the Zombie Queen do something to me? Not much unless you consider being possessed as something.”
I held very still while the horror sank in. “How did you get un-possessed?”
She pointed a narrow finger at me. “That’s not a word. Lucy’s husband took care of it, like he de-zombified you.”
I frowned at her. “Also not a word. Does he know the Mad Hatter?”
She peered around the room. “Why is everything so dull?”
