Page 65 of Demon Queen
Dorian waved his hand absently. “I would never be serious at a ball. That’s just bad manners. Of course, I wouldn’t point out anyone’s inability to perform the most basic orders, particularly your strange inability to capture the demon queen no matter how many times you had the opportunity.” He gestured to a wall that I hadn’t really noticed, but now I saw a figure stuck to the wall, wings stretched out, pinned like a bug, with shiny barbs stuck through his wings and his body.
Wilkie? I couldn’t breathe. Wilkie was stuck to the wall? Why would someone do that to someone? I get that these people were crazy, but were they really that evil? I had to get him down. If he was here instead of wherever Regis thought he was, how were we supposed to save him?
There was a blur on the wall, barely anything but enough to give me hope. Someone was up there, waiting for the right moment. The distraction.
The Madd Hatter gave a harsh laugh. “Your manners are nothing but bad. Just for that, I’m stealing your dance partner.”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me into a dance position, implacable grip on my wrist. I stared at him while he blinked at me, actually seeing me for the first time.
“You…”
I threw the contents of my glass in the Madd Hatter’s face. He jerked back, blinking and sputtering until the acid really registered. Then he was screaming.
He released me to claw at his face while I turned and ran.
Chaos spun around me, and the Madd Hatter was screeching making everyone turn to look at him, and then at me. The crowds gave me space, like they weren’t sure if I was poisonous to the touch.
I made it to the opposite side of the ballroom and dashed into the hall. A wall of fire roared up right in front of me before I could stop. I stumbled out of the flames on the other side, back in the first coatroom we’d come in, with Dorian leaning on the wall in his creepy Cheshire cat face.
He captured me in his arms and inhaled deeply. “We didn’t dance enough.”
“Agreed.” I kissed him, the feel of that wide mouth strange, but not entirely unpleasant. “I love you.”
He stared at me, his eyes going stranger than before. Too big. Too stunned. “What?”
I traced his face. “I love you. I always have. I missed you so much when you chased me away. And having Wilkie alone was so hard, but the most difficult thing was existing without you. You’re the warmth in my soul that keeps me alive. The spark that burns forever. Wilkie’s pinned to the wall. How can Regis rescue him? He was supposed to be in the dungeon.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead that burned hot until it consumed all of me. When he pulled away, I clung to him, but it wasn’t the Cheshire cat, but Drigo-Dorian, the demon king with wings and fire, and everything terrifying. Not the fire bear, though.
We weren’t in the underground palace anymore. Instead, we were in a dark tunnel, dimly lit by glowing veins in the surrounding earth. Regis was running down the tunnel, a limp figure over his shoulder.
He reached us and slipped behind Dorian, staring into the darkness he’d come from. “I couldn’t get the scepter. The Madd Hatter shattered it into pieces. He used those pieces to pin Mixl to the wall.”
“The scepter is there, in the wall?” Dorian asked while I touched Mixl. He wasn’t breathing.
“He’s dead?” I whispered while my whole body went cold. I’d failed him. I wanted to lie down and die there. How could I waste time dancing with Dorian when my baby was suffering? No. Dead.
“Without the scepter, you can’t be here,” Regis said, focused on the wrong thing.
“No.” I looked carefully touched the soft, relaxed face of my perfect baby. “The Queen wanted war. The Madd Hatter is her warlord. Not anymore.”
I looked up at Regis while my whole body turned to ice. “Demons are technology. Why would I need a scepter when Ihave demons?” I looked back down at Wilkie and stroked his hair, matted with blood. “I’ll hold him as long as we fight.”
“You’re going to transform him into a scepter?” Dorian asked, but there was something in the way he said it, like it wasn’t crazy.
I grabbed his arm, unable to feel my legs. “Yes. Or something even better.”
He stared at me while his eyes flickered with infinite flames. “Eat him. Remake him into the strength and heart of our people. I will carry you through the war.”
“You can’t…” Regis started, but then Dorian’s tail swept him out of the way. Dorian flickered and became heat, life, death, cinnamon bear. He flattened himself to the ground so I could climb on his back holding my baby.
I took a bite out of Wilkie, but he tasted like years of desperation while I’d searched for him, trapped in my Candyland with a fear demon. I ate anyway, every bite with intention. I was going to regenerate him into something more than a demon. He had pieces of the scepter woven into his death. I consumed that death, that life and used every bit of my life, anger, hopelessness and strength to bring him back.
Dorian-bear walked through another fire portal and we came out on a plateau where the demons waited. Their skins were dusky, blending with the desolate surrounding land.
Regis handed me a lacy parasol. “My Queen.”
I took it while Dorian paced in front of the troops and I kept eating my baby like a monster. I ate shards of the scepter as well. They landed in my stomach like lead balls. I didn’t care.
