Page 126 of Cherish

The guards direct us to a part of the room several feet away from the throne. “Line up,” they hiss for what feels like the millionth time since the door to this room first opened.

“We’re lining up,” I mutter back as we do just that. I try to figure out what I’m going to say to her to break the ice, considering we’ve come here to ask a very specific favor of her.

“Why are you back in my kingdom?” she asks in a low voice that somehow radiates through the entire hall. “I was certain I had seen the last of you after that unfortunate night in Adarie.”

I turn to Hudson, wondering how exactly he plans on answering such a leading question, considering what happened the last time he and the Shadow Queen ran into each other. But he just lifts a brow at me, and though it makes me nervous as all hell, I know he’s right. I’m the one who has to negotiate with her. This is my fight to win, one queen against another. And I don’t plan to lose.

68

What’s Your

Deal?

I step forward. “We want to strike a bargain,” I say as regally as I can manage, and her gaze snaps onto mine.

“Letting people fight your battles for you now?” the Shadow Queen sneers to Hudson, though her eyes don’t leave mine. “Have we met?”

I wish I could say,Yeah, and we kicked your entire purple ass. But instead I reply, “Not in this lifetime. I’m Grace Foster, and I’m here to strike a bargain with you. And it’s one you’ll want to hear.”

“A bargain?” she repeats with a snide little laugh. “I don’t bargain with friends of people who try to kill me.”

“Maybe you should,” Macy pipes up from behind me. “You’d probably be a lot safer.”

The Shadow Queen narrows her eyes at Macy. “Maybe you should keep your mouth shut. You’d probably live a lot longer.”

Macy shrugs. “You’re assuming that’s my number one priority.”

“Careful what you wish for, little witch. Here in the Shadow Realm, it has a funny way of coming true.” She shifts her gaze back to mine. “You should go. There will be no bargain here for you.”

As if to underscore her point, some of the shadows around the room begin to wake up, elongating and squirming until the entire ceiling is undulating with their movements.

It’s super creepy to watch, especially with memories of the Trials and Adarie fresh in my brain. My heart leaps up to my throat, and my hands start to shake so badly that I stick them in my pockets to hide them from her view.

“You haven’t even heard what I want,” I tell her. “Or what we’re willing to give you in return.”

“It doesn’t matter. If it isn’t that vampire’s head on stakes in the middle of the Adarie town square, I’m not interested.” She perks up at the mention of Hudson’s death, her eyes gleaming with some kind of unholy light that comes from deep within her. “Then again, maybe I should make that happen anyway—no bargain necessary.”

She waves a hand, and the shadows on the wall begin moving, too. Unlike the ones on the ceiling, they start to divide up—some small, some medium, some huge, and some extra small.

I don’t know why she’s breaking them up like that, but I’m smart enough to know it isn’t for any reason that I might like.

But I also need to not back down from this woman.

Not now, not ever.

So instead of trying to placate her by throwing ourselves at her mercy, I look her dead in the eyes and say, “Threats don’t work on us.”

“Then you obviously haven’t met the right threat,” she answers. A flick of her fingers, and snakes start dropping from the ceiling. Not slithering down the walls but dropping from straight above us like they do from trees in the tropical rain forest.

It’s one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen, especially when they start writhing and sliding on the ground at our feet.

Hudson doesn’t flinch. In fact, he doesn’t so much as look down. Instead, he just stays where he is, arms folded over his chest, and watches the Shadow Queen with eyes so bored I’m half afraid he will yawn right in her face.

I’m nowhere near as calm as he is. My heart is beating like mad, and there’s a part of me that wants to scream my head off and run in the other direction. But I can’t. If we’re going to have any chance of saving Mekhi, we have to convince her that we can help her daughters. And she’ll never believe we’re strong enough to do that if I run screaming from this room like I so desperately want to.

So I stand my ground, refusing to flinch or move so much as an inch, even when one of the evil things slithers right over the top of my shoe.

She lifts a brow but doesn’t say anything else. Then she flicks her fingers again, and this time, shadow bugs pour from the ceiling onto the ground all around us.

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