Page 64 of Demon Queen
“Wow. I am completely creeped out. Good job.” I patted Dorian’s head. “He’s so creepy. Do you think we can trust anything he says?”
“It would be no trouble to walk through those bars and eat him,” Dorian rumbled.
The White rabbit flinched back, but his white manacles held him in place. “That sounds fair. Once you defeat the Mad Hatter and retake the demon lands, if you arrange my release from the Grand master, I will happily serve as your executioner.”
I patted Dorian’s lava cinnamon bear head. “What do you think, sweetie? Does that seem like a good plan?”
“It seems reasonable. You’ll have to find out what the White Rabbit intends to do with the Queen’s blood before you give it to him, but that should be hundreds of years in the future.”
That much time didn’t mean anything to me. “Okay. It’s a deal.”
Dorian-bear turned around and padded away from the cell. Once we got in the hall a flame erupted from the ground, which we walked into before I could properly freak out.
Hopefully the whole war would be like that. Over before I could properly freak out.
nineteen
. . .
We steppedthrough the portal and into a small alcove of a cave palace, right outside the doors of a ball. The music was jarring, even through the stone. I straightened my panniers and smoothed down my bodice while I tried to stay calm. We were really here, in Demonland, where someone might off with my head at any second.
The portal of flames went out, leaving me alone with Dorian.
I looked up at him and then flinched back. He looked so much like the Mad Hatter or the White Rabbit, all pointed features, enormous eyes, wide smile, only his skin had stripes like a cat. Was he really my demon king?
He looked down at me, cold, amused, diabolical. “Get used to me like this before we join the other dancers. You should gaze at me as though you’re under my spell.” He was finally looking at me. He looked at me so coldly, so different from my beautiful cinnamon bear.
I leaned closer to whisper, “You’ve done this a lot. Is this how you broke Wilkie out of the dungeon?”
“No,” he whispered back to me, his pale lavender eyes so unnatural, but somehow still so beautiful. “I broke him out inthe middle of the night. I keep my distractions and my liberating separate.”
I stepped back, wanting nothing more than to fall into him. Of course, I was supposed to be under his spell. “Where’s everybody? Are they coming through a different way?”
He gave me a wide smile that made me think of Cheshire cats. “Do you know how many times I’ve wanted to dance with you? You were always the most exquisite dancer I’ve ever had, but I couldn’t dance with you the way I wanted, not as Dorian. But now…” His smile grew to creepier proportions. “Now we will dance.”
I placed my hand carefully over his. I was wearing sheer gloves with sparkly gems attached, so I looked like I’d glued gems all over my arms. “And if someone interrupts us, you’ll just turn into a cinnamon bear and eat them.”
His eyes twinkled as he covered my hand with his and swept me out of the room and into the throngs of madness.
The music was bad. Out of tune, out of time, with sudden starts and stops that had me bumping against Dorian and the other guests. It was a claustrophobic press with the heavy scent of talcum covering the underlying rotting flesh.
I kept my eyes on Dorian, but it was impossible not to notice the other bodies, zombies, with their wide smiles and mad eyes, hysterical laughter, and tense whispers. Were they really zombies? They had weird casts to their skin, but zombies shouldn’t be so alive.
“She summoned the Walrus to war,” was a whisper on my left. On my right it was, “I heard that the White Rabbit refuses his summons. Of course, he’s in the Grand Master’s care, but he should have escaped by now. Have you seen the hors de’ouvres?”
I saw them. Mini-chocolate cakes with blood sauce, eyeballs on a bed of seaweed…I mean, I’d eaten Regis, but none of this was appetizing in the slightest. And them. All of them were asrevolting to me as Dorian was tempting. Not that he smelled good to me while he wore his creepy cat zombie face.
I beamed up at him as we twirled around and around. We ignored the music, which made the dancing much better. It was so good, in fact, that I had a hard time remembering that we were there as a distraction for Regis, wherever he was.
“Chesh!” someone cried, and then there was the Mad Hatter with his enormous hat, bearing down on us. He’d stolen my baby! I was going to kill him! That is, I was going to smile at Dorian like I was free of my own will.
“Madd,” Dorian said with a smirk. “I’d heard you were going to war.”
The Mad Hatter shrugged and grabbed an eyeball from a passing tray. “I was. I am, if the Queen should ask, but how could I miss the ball? It’s been going on since April, you know. Perhaps you didn’t know. You’ve been positively absent. I’m jealous. The Queen wants her favorite warlord to take back the White Rabbit. It’s so exciting.” He sounded the opposite of excited.
“The White Rabbit should take back himself. Such a bother,” Dorian said smoothly, dropping my arm and walking towards him like he’d forgotten about me. I grabbed a glass of something sparkling and pink and pretended to sip it.
“You think he’s choosing captivity over serving the Queen?” the Madd Hatter asked before popping another eyeball into his mouth. “That’s a serious accusation.”
