Page 129 of Cherish

In a matter of seconds, they have a second chair positioned across from the first, with a table in between the two.

The Shadow Queen painstakingly takes her throne—again, moving more slowly than I’ve ever seen her—and I slide into the chair opposite her.

Several members of her Shadow Guard form a half circle behind her, and my friends move forward to do the same for me.

“Where is my daughter?” she asks once everyone is in position.

“Safe at the Witch Court,” I answer.

Her eyes narrow to slits. “If you hurt her—”

“I would never hurt Lorelei,” I tell her. “None of us would. We’re here because we want to help Mekhi, Liana,andLorelei. We just have to work together to make it happen.”

“By separating my daughters’ souls,” she says.

“Yes,” I reply. “We know how to do it—”

“Why should I believe you when you say you can do this thing? You think I didn’t try? I did everything, askedeveryone. And no one knew how to separate them. Everyone told me it was impossible.”

“That’s because you asked the wrong people.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that you—a mere girl—knew the right person to ask, just like that? I turned the world upside down looking for an answer.”

A spurt of sympathy hits deep inside me, but I shove it down. This woman can be deadly, and I can’t afford to get sidetracked by feeling sorry for her. Even if what happened to her and her daughters sucks.

“I may be young, but I have resources. And I asked therightperson. My grandmother, who is very, very old and even wiser than that. She told us exactly what we need to do. But it’s dangerous—extremely dangerous. My friends and I have already agreed that we’re willing to take the risk, as long as you agree that if we succeed—if we get what’s needed to free your daughters—then you will help my friend.”

For a second, she looks tempted. Very tempted. But then she shakes her head as if to clear it and demands, “Why should I help a vampire? He means nothing to me.”

“It’s not about helping him. It’s about helping your daughter,” I answer. “You can’t leave the Shadow Realm. Which means you can’t fix the mistake you and Souil made all those years ago.”

“You think I don’t know that?” she snarls, and for a second she looks so angry—so tormented—that I think she’s going to strangle me again, for real this time. “My husband was a shadow’s breath away from reversing our mistake before Hudson stopped him.”

Her voice is plaintive and bitter, but there’s no venom, and again I let my instincts guide me. “I’d wager that was his plan, not yours.”

She raises one regal brow. “Would you really, now?”

She’s bluffing. I don’t know how I know, but she is. So I push more. “If he had succeeded in reversing the timeline, many of your subjects would never have been born.” I lift my chin. “I don’t believe you would cause another mother the same pain as yours, take her children from her, whether she’d remember them or not.”

The queen watches me steadily, but she doesn’t disagree.

“I’m not asking you to trust me,” I tell her. “I’m not naive enough to think this deal includes you giving me the antidote first.”

“Good,” she snaps. “Because it absolutely doesn’t.”

I nod.

“Nor will I make a bargain that gives me false hope indefinitely.”

I nod again. “No, that would be cruel. We will either bring you the answer you seek before the end of the week, or Mekhi will have died and the bargain will be unnecessary.”

“That is an acceptable timeframe,” she says with an imperial tone.

“Does that mean we’ve got a deal?” I can’t help the excitement in my voice.

She studies me for several seconds, like she’s trying to figure out if I’m telling the truth. Eventually, though, she says, “It means that if you follow through with your end of the bargain—which is to do everything you need to do in exactly the order you need to do it inandit results in the freedom of my daughters—then yes, we have a deal.”

She holds her hand out to seal the deal, and while I am determined to follow through on our agreement, it still takes every ounce of willpower I have not to shrink away.

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