Page 194 of Cherish

She turns without another word and starts walking up the jagged, diagonal path that leads inside her fortress. It’s slow going for her today—every step torturous, unlike her normal, smooth glide—and I can’t help feeling as if she already knows that I failed. Knows that she’ll never see her other daughter again.

“Please, help yourself,” she says several minutes later when she leads us into her throne room. There’s a table set up against the wall loaded with so many of the delicate fruits and pastries the Shadow Realm specializes in. Everything looks delicious, and still none of us even thinks of making a move toward it.

She smiles thinly as she notes our reticence. “Am I to take your reluctance as a sign that this isn’t to be a celebration?”

“I’m sorry,” I answer, biting my lip.

“You’re sorry?” she repeats. “That’s all you have to say for yourself? That you’re sorry?”

She flicks a hand, and the beautiful china and glassware and food go flying in every direction, slamming against the wall and falling into pieces at our feet.

“You came here. You proposed a deal to me. You told me you could free my daughters. And now you have the nerve to come back here and tell me that you’re sorry? Your apology means nothing to me,” she snarls. “Less than nothing.”

The shadows at the corners of the room start to respond to the agitation in her voice, writhing and spinning as they spread out along the ground.

“I understand—” I start, but she cuts me off with a slice of her hand.

“You understand nothing.”

The shadows seethe and roil around us. And though they stay shadows and don’t take the form of any of her normal creatures, that doesn’t make them any less intimidating. It might even make them more so. I’ve had a lot of experience fighting shadow beasts, but I don’t have a clue what to do with these disembodied things slowly slithering their way along the edges of the walls.

So I do the only thing I can do at the moment. I ignore them and focus on the Shadow Queen. If nothing else, I know my friends have my back.

“I’m sorry,” I tell her, holding out a beseeching hand. “We did everything we could, but it wasn’t enough.”

She slaps my hand away, and the moment our palms come in contact, the tattoo on my wrist starts to burn like hell itself. “Do you think good intentions matter?” she screeches, and her voice bounces off the purple marble floor and glass-covered walls, echoing in the room and skating down my spine like the edge of a particularly sharp ice pick. “Do you think you can just get out of the deal we made? Because life doesn’t work like that, little girl.”

She lifts her hand, presses three fingers against her own magical bargain tattoo. And I don’t know how it’s possible, but the second she does, my tattoo starts to burn even worse.

I glance down at it—because I can’tnotlook at it right now—and I half expect to see that it has branded straight through to my bone. But no. It’s still just sitting here on my skin, sizzling like I’ve just poured acid all over it but not actually sinking any deeper.

“We had what you needed,” I explain. “But it was taken from us. However, I brought something else of value. Maybe you can trade it with someone else for what you need to save your daughters?”

I start to reach in my pocket for the vial of Celestial honey, but her gaze narrows on mine. She flings her arms wide. “What bargain would you have me make from this prison?”

“We could help,” I suggest, hope filling my chest just the tiniest bit. “If you can cure Mekhi, I have something just as valuable, which you could use to trade for the Celestial Dew.”

“You. Have. Nothing. I. Want.” The queen bites out each word. “And your bargains are worthless.”

My eyes widen. “But—”

“No. You didn’t complete your side of our bargain. But you brought him to me anyway. Did you really expect me to hold up my end of the deal even though you did not honor yours?” She sneers. “You think this boy matters to me? He may be wearing my daughter’s talisman, but I willnevercare if he lives or dies.”

“Talisman?” Confused, I turn to look more closely at Mekhi, who is currently leaning against Jaxon and Hudson like they’re the only things keeping him from slumping to the ground. The fact that they probably are makes my heart ache for Mekhi and makes me even more determined to somehow find a way to reach this woman who knows more secrets of the universe than anyone should.

“What talisman?” I ask.

Another flick of her fingers, and Mekhi cries out, his knees going out from under him.

108

The Shadows

We Keep

The second Mekhi gasps, Hudson and Jaxon tighten their grip on him and catch him before he hits the ground.

The queen whirls away from us with a condescending laugh, and another flick of her fingers has the chain around Mekhi’s neck snapping off and hitting the ground at Hudson’s feet.

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