Page 127 of Cherish

One plops onto my head, and I have to bite the insides of my cheeks to keep from screaming. Hudson reaches out, quick as lightning, and knocks it onto the ground, and I can take a breath again.

I want to just shout out Lorelei’s name to get the queen’s attention, but my gut is telling me now is the worst time to do that, when I need her mercy. She’ll simply think it’s a trick—or worse, go into a bug-filled fit of rage.

Thankfully, Macy extends both hands in front of her and murmurs a spell that sends fire washing over every single one of the shadow creatures, incinerating them on contact.

When I turn to look at her, wide-eyed, she shrugs. “I’ve been practicing. Just in case.”

“Hell yeah you have,” Eden tells her admiringly.

“You really think you just did something?” the Shadow Queen asks icily. “There are millions more where those came from.”

Macy looks her straight in the eyes and sneers, “Ditto.”

For a second, I think the Shadow Queen is going to pop a blood vessel. Her face turns a vivid, unbecoming shade of violet, and her eyes look like they’re about to bulge out of her head.

But then she takes a deep breath and pushes to her feet as everything around us returns to normal.

“This is growing tiresome,” she says. “What is the real reason for this picture of false bravado?”

Now that we’re here, now that the queen seems actually willing to hear me out, my mind races with uncertainties. Should I mention Lorelei first, or Mekhi, or even the Celestial Dew? I know I’m only going to have one chance to convince her, so I need to choose wisely.

When I don’t immediately answer her, shetsk-tsks at me. “Come on now. Don’t be shy, little girl. Let’s hear that deal you’ve come so very far to offer.” Then a devious smile lifts one corner of her mouth as she adds, “And it better be anexceptionalbargain if you hope to keep me from moving on to the torturing part of today’s events that I’ve been so looking forward to.”

69

Breaking Up Is

Hard to Dew

The way she’s talking to me—so saccharine and condescending—makes me not want to tell her anything. But the sooner we have this conversation, the sooner we can get the hell out of here.

In the end, I decide to start with whyweneedherand not Lorelei. I figure if she knows how badly we need her help to save Mekhi, maybe she’ll be less likely to think it’s a trick to play on her sympathies by mentioning her daughter. “I have a friend who’s dying from shadow poison. He was bitten by a shadow bug in the Impossible Trials.”

“And you’re here to beg for his life?” She tuts at me in disappointment. “What a waste of time, trying to save another being. Caring about someone is a weakness your enemies can exploit.”

“Is that how you rule?” I ask her, truly wanting to know her answer. “By not caring about what happens to your subjects?”

“Don’t speak to me of subjects. You have no idea what it’s like to rule,” she replies haughtily.

The condescension is just too much. “I do, actually. I am the—”

“I knowexactlywho you are,” the Shadow Queen interrupts, and my stomach clenches with fear that she recognizes me before she adds: “someone about to spend the rest of her life eating rats in my dungeon.”

“Rat meat is actually—” Flint begins, signature cockiness on full display, but Eden stomps on his non-prosthetic foot before he can say anything truly disgusting.

“Enough,” the queen snarls. “Get to the point. You’re the one here asking for my help, after all. I haven’t come asking you for help with one ofmysubjects.”

“It doesn’t matter if Mekhi is your subject. He’s our friend. And we’ve never done any damage to your people—not the way you’ve done to mine.”

She lifts her brows. “You’re referring to the shadow poison currently working its way through his bloodstream?”

“You know that’s exactly what I’m referring to.”

“How am I to know?” She shrugs. “You pesky paranormals are so fragile. So very many things can go wrong with you. It’s amazing you survive.”

Her cavalier attitude toward Mekhi’s suffering makes me blurt out, “You mean like Lorelei? It’s astonishing she’s lived as long as she has. But also terrifying to think that she’s spent her entire life in agony.”

The Shadow Queen loses her calm in an instant. “Keep my daughter’s name out of your mouth!” she screams, her hand shooting out like a whip.

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