I took in the rest of the courtyard, which was filling with more and more people. I saw my mother and the Queen, surrounded by half a dozen guards. Mother spotted me too, and nodded at me. The Queen seemed as dazed as ever, staring into the distance as if she was gazing into another world.
“Where is the King?” I asked Celia, when I realized my uncle wasn’t here.
Celia gasped. “Father?” She turned around, inspecting the courtyard. “I don’t see him. Do you think…” She stopped mid-sentence, turning toward me. “No… He can’t be hurt, can he?”
I hugged her, despite how angry I had been at her earlier, despite how she sickened me sometimes, I still couldn’t stop caring for her. She was my cousin, my blood, the closest thing I had to a sister. “I’m sure he’ll be okay,” I said while I rubbed her back, although I glanced back and forth across the courtyard, desperate to find a glimpse of my uncle.
Then, like a deus ex machina, he appeared from the main entrance, flanked by a small army of guards. One look at his expression told me something bad had happened.
A second look at him, where he met my gaze straight on, told me something bad had happened to someone I knew.
Who wasn’t here?
I let go of Celia, softly pushing her to the side. Everything seemed to move in slow-motion. Step by step, I dragged myself toward my uncle, toward the king. The noises of the other courtiers vanished to the background, as if I was swimming underwater and they were chatting from somewhere on the surface level. My ears rang, my chest felt hollow.
Something bad had happened to someone I cared about.
“Who?” I mouthed to my uncle before I reached him. “Who?” This time, sound came out when I tried to use my voice. A shout, primal and rough.
Who wasn’t here? Mother was safe. The Queen was safe. Celia. Caspian. Malachi. My uncle.
Who…
The answer materialized in my mind the moment my uncle said her name out loud.
“Your chambermaid, Bella…”
The world disappeared. The ground vanished from under my feet. Bella. My friend Bella.
“We found her in your chambers. Thankfully, you weren’t there.” The King looked at me with compassion sparkling in his grey eyes. “I’m sorry, Regina.”
I fell to my knees, the cobblestones shredding the skin of my legs. Strong arms grabbed my arm, trying to get me to stand up, but my body might as well be made from lead.
“What happened?” The words came out like a squeak. I swallowed hard, trying to find my composure.
This was like the day Derrick died all over again. Then, I had fallen to the ground too, bruising my knees. The cry escaping my mouth had been animalistic, primal. My chest felt as if someone had carved out my heart—empty, hollow.
“She was stabbed to death with a rapier,” the King said. “We found the weapon right next to her. Whoever managed to sneak into our palace, they made it all the way to the inner court, to your chambers.”
To my chambers. Of the hundreds of rooms in the castle, the intruders had chosen my very own chambers. What was Bella doing there, though? I had told her to go to her own rooms, told her to go rest… Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time Bella blatantly disobeyed something I said.
And now, it had gotten her killed.
The strong arms lifted me by the arms this time, putting me to my feet. I was so dizzy, the castle kept spinning back and forth.
Bella. Poor, poor Bella.
“I want to go see her.”
The King shook his head. “No. You’re in no shape to go see her.”
It was as if I had tunnel vision; I could see the King, the castle behind him, but everything to the sides, fell away, out of my view.
“I want to see her,” I repeated, struggling against the arms holding me back. “Let me go see her.”
“Father.” The voice belonged to Celia, who had appeared next to me. “I will go with her.”
The King looked thoughtful. “No. I’m sorry, niece, but this is not in your best interests.”
“She was murdered in my rooms!” The shout came out much louder than I had intended. I shook my arms, breaking free from whoever was holding me. “I need to see her.”
“Please, Father,” Celia pleaded. “Let us go see her.”
My uncle sighed. “Very well, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. None of this is business for girls. Guards, join them.” He gestured at half a dozen guards to protect us.
“Your Highness,” Caspian said. I was startled to hear his voice from so close behind me. Had he been there the entire time?
Bella. Bella was dead. How could this have happened?
She was all alone when that army of cards entered the castle, entered my rooms, and killed her. All while I was in the library, playing cards with the wrong prince, while I should’ve been there, with her. If both of us were there, then she would’ve survived.
Or both of us would’ve died.
“If Your Highness agrees, my brother and I would also like to join them. It would not be very chivalrous from us to let Princess Celia and Lady Regina go through this alone.”
The King waved his hand, gesturing it was all right. His earlier enthusiasm for the princes seemed to have deteriorated, or maybe he was just upset about the thought of the enemy sneaking past our defenses and entering the seat of power seemingly unnoticed.
How had the army of cards managed to get inside, with the guards being tripled after the incident in the maze? With what had happened today, I should’ve stayed with Bella, I shouldn’t have left her alone.
As I was scolding myself over all the things I should’ve done and shouldn’t have done, the guards led us through the hallways, up the stairs, towards my chambers. The door stood slightly ajar, and even without the King’s message of earlier, I would’ve realized something was amiss the moment I reached the corridor. Everything up this scene, with the door standing like that, screamed trouble.
Taking a deep breath, I peeked through the open door. My breath got stuck in my throat. Celia was holding my hand, squeezing my palm.
“Bella…” I said, staring at the lifeless body of my friend lying on the floor of my chambers. Bella was lying on her back, a pool of red forming a large circle around her heart. Her one hand lay on top of her heart, balled into a fist, and the other lay open next to her body.
“Oh my God.” Tears streamed down my face, and I shook my head, not fully grasping the gravity of the situation, the reality not yet sinking in. Bella was dead. My best friend Bella.
“I’m sorry,” Celia whispered. To her credit, she didn’t say anything else, just held my hand as I shuffled toward Bella’s body, until I eventually untied my hand from hers and knelt down next to Bella’s corpse.
“Just her?” I asked one of the guards, my voice breaking.
“Just her,” the guard confirmed. “No other rooms ransacked either.”
I didn’t realize until he said it out loud, but my room had indeed been ransacked. Some of the chairs were thrown backward, the books from my closet were thrown all across the room, as if a tornado had passed by and left mayhem in its wake.
“As if they had specifically intended to come here,” I mused out loud.
“What?” Celia frowned at me. “I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.”
“A coincidence?” I gestured at Bella’s lifeless body. “Bella was killed! Something chased me in the maze. Me. And now they try to break into my rooms.”
“I hate to say it, but Regina may have a point,” Malachi said, when Celia looked on the verge of denying it again. “At some point, we have to stop treating this like a coincidence.”
“Are we amateur detectives now?” Celia asked sarcastically, putting her hands on her hips. “Don’t be ridiculous. This is all just one big coincidence. Bella was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
I took Bella’s hand in mine. She was already growing cold. “I’m so sorry,” I told her. “I should’ve been here. I’m so sorry this happ
ened to you.”
As I touched her hand, I felt something crunch against my hand, like a piece of paper. I turned Bella’s hand around, and as I suspected, she was clutching a small note.
Slowly, I folded the note open, while Celia erupted into a monologue about how we should all stay calm, and that the King would find the culprit of this heinous crime soon, and punish whoever was responsible.
Punish them the way he had punished an innocent boy whose only crime was to love the wrong girl.
“Guys.” I licked my lips—they were as dry as if I had stumbled through the dessert for months on end.
“What is it?” Caspian asked. He knelt down next to me, and I handed him the note.
“I think Malachi’s theory might be right,” I said, while Malachi and Celia moved behind us, waiting eagerly for Caspian to open up the note.
As he opened it, the note revealed a crude drawing of a Knave of Hearts. In the middle of the card, someone had carved my name: R E G I N A
The handwriting was downright creepy, with deep, dark lines. Worst of all was the sign of the cross that the author had written right next to my name.
“A death threat,” Caspian gasped.
“Directed straight at me.” Strangely enough, I didn’t feel scared. I felt angry. Furious. Guilty. Because this note meant that for whatever reason, the army of cards had set out to kill me, and my best friend, Bella, was nothing more than collateral damage.
“But why?” Celia sounded more as if she was offended someone would think I was a more favorable murder target than she was. “I mean… An assassination attempt on the King, that I understand. On the Queen. On me, since I’m in the Crown Princess. But you… Why you?”
Her ego really had no boundaries. She truly thought the world’s meridian would move to the side just to make room for her, if she only asked.
Still, despite her egocentric tendencies, she had a point. If the intent was to destroy Wonderland, then you had to attack Kings and Queens, not pawns. And despite the King being my uncle, I was no direct heir to the throne—Celia had the strongest claim, followed by my mother. So why not target them instead?
“I hate to say it, but you’re right,” I said while I got up from the floor. “Why target me? Politically speaking, it makes zero sense.”
“Nothing about this note is political,” Malachi said as he took the note from Caspian and further inspected it. “This is personal.”
“Personal?” I gulped. “But I don’t have enemies. At least, I don’t think I have any enemies. Not enough to want to kill me, surely.”
Unlike Celia, I hadn’t left an impressive track record of broken hearts in my wake, and I usually stayed away from any kind of drama—besides the drama involving Celia, and that I got involved in out of sheer necessity only.
“Give me that note again, please,” I asked.
Malachi handed it to me, and I inspected the note. Knave of Hearts. My name. A death threat.
“Lady Regina,” one of the guards interrupted our conversation. “We should head back to the courtyard. It’s too dangerous to stay here. Our men are still searching the castle, but until we can be certain everything is clear, it’s not safe.”
“Have you found anything yet?” I asked.
“No,” the guard replied. All of the guards were dressed almost exactly the same, but this was one of the captains of the guard, judging by the blue-colored emblem on his tunic. “We found no trace of any intruders. The only reason we even knew to sound the alarm is because one of the servants passed by and saw Bella lying here. The door stood open by then already.” He gestured at the door standing ajar. “No one else got hurt, no one else noticed anything.”
How could someone vanish just like that, in the middle of a palace inhabited by hundreds of people, let alone a whole army of people—or an army of cards, to be more precise? How could someone get away with murder without being seen by a living soul?
I stared at the crudely drawn death threat in my hand. Cards didn’t just start living by themselves, and they certainly didn’t invade castles. Someone was behind this. Someone was the puppeteer pulling the strings.
“Are you ready to leave?” Caspian asked me, a worried look flashing across his features as he helped me stand up.
“You can spend the night in my room,” Celia suggested. Against all odds, she had been surprisingly helpful toward me since we heard what happened to Bella. “You shouldn’t be on your own right now.”
I let Celia guide me out of the room, still clutching the threatening drawing in my hand. As I stared at Bella’s lifeless form, her eyes closed as if she was only asleep, I swore that whoever was behind this, whoever had hurt her like this, once I got my hands on them, their fate would be a thousand times worse.
Chapter 12
Celia was snoring loud enough to keep a deaf person awake. We were in her bedroom, each on one side of her bed, with the moonlight peeking in through the gigantic window.
I hadn’t slept in her room since I was six years old, maybe seven. We had been a lot closer then than we were now, and back then, I actually enjoyed spending time with her. Usually. Not when she pulled my ponytail or pulled the head off of one of my dolls, two things that happened at least once a week.
Thinking back about my childhood made me think of simpler times. Back then, my father was still alive, my mother was not as driven by ambition, and wasn’t forcing me to seduce a prince who was never mine to begin with.
I rolled until I lay on my back. A small army of guards was stationed outside Celia’s bedroom door, and every so often, I heard one of them pace back and forth. My mind threatened to drift back to thoughts about Bella, so I purposely focused on something else.
Caspian. Blue-eyed prince charming.
Malachi. Dark-haired, mysterious stranger.
When we were in our early teens, Celia and I devoured every book in the library, especially when it was romance, and especially when it concerned two guys fighting for the same girl. Celia used to say it was so romantic, and how special that girl must’ve been to have two guys battling for her hand.
Not that any of the princes were actually battling for my hand, but I liked to pretend they were.
Bella would’ve loved to hear me out about what had happened between Caspian and I early this evening. Not that anything had actually happened, but she didn’t mind if I drew out every small detail, focusing for hours on the smallest, most insignificant word spoken or gesture made. Back when I told her about Derrick, she already proved to be a good listener.
Bella. I couldn’t believe she was gone.
A scratching sound at the door startled me. Was it one of the guards?
I sat up straight in bed, careful not to wake Celia, but she had stumbled so far into the land of dreams even a dragon’s roar wouldn’t wake her up right now.
For a moment, I thought I must’ve imagined it, until the scratching came again. Like a cat’s claws on the wooden door.
A cat.
The palace had no cats because Celia was highly allergic to them. There was only one cat foolish enough to show its face around here.
As quietly as I could, I crawled out of bed and tiptoed toward the door. Slowly, careful not to make any squeak, I pushed the door open.
The guards were asleep. All of them.
Either the guards in Wonderland were insufferably bad, or that sneaky Cat had gotten its claws on some sleeping-dust, and I was willing to bet my entire fortune on the latter.
Shaking my head at the Cat’s antics, I softly closed the door behind me, and shuffled through the hallway, following the sound of tiny cat paws tiptoeing away.
I rounded the corner, and spotted the Cheshire Cat’s lazy smile looking down at me from atop one of the wooden beams crossing the hallway.
“What are you doing here?” I put my hands on my hips, questioning the feline. “It’s not safe. We shouldn’t be out here. Did you put the guards to sleep?”
“You’re wasting time,” the Chesh
ire Cat remarked while it stretched its legs. “Asking the wrong questions.”
I sighed. “I’m really not in the mood for this. My best friend just died.”
“Did she?” The Cat looked thoughtful, as if the vote was still out on that one. “What is dead, if not the beginning? What if dead is not dead? What if dead is actually… alive?”
“Cat.” I rolled my eyes. “Please. Not tonight. I can’t take any of your riddles.”
The Cheshire Cat snorted, offended. “Here I’ve come, out of my way to help you. If you don’t want my help—”
“I do,” I interrupted quickly, making a calming gesture. “I do, but I don’t want to wade through a sea of riddles before I get to the actually helpful part.”
The Cat shook its head. “Too impatient. Want to run before you can walk. You want to see the big picture before you’ve even figured out the beginning.” The feline lay down again, on its back this time, hitting imaginary dots with its paws.
“Your instincts have been telling you the truth the entire time. Wonderland has been throwing hints left and right, but you just don’t want to see,” the Cat said. “Who can sneak into a heavily-guarded castle unnoticed?”
At first, I was ready to scold the Cat for coming up with riddles again, but then it started to dawn on me what the Cheshire Cat was trying to do. This wasn’t a riddle, this was logic, and logic could help deduce who or what was behind Bella’s murder.
I skipped through the options in my mind. An enemy army was unlikely, not if there were too many. A lone spy? An assassin?
“Don’t look for it too far,” the Cat said. “The answer is right in front of you. Would you be able to sneak in here?”
I contemplated the answer for a second. “Yes.”
A footstep echoed in the distance. A guard stationed somewhere else who was approaching us? Or… or something more sinister?
“And why would you be able to?” The Cheshire Cat asked. When I didn’t reply right away, the feline sighed out loud, as if I was missing something blatantly obvious.
“Because I know this place,” I said eventually. “I know the ins and outs, the nooks and crannies.”
Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance Page 64