by ERIN BEDFORD
“Good. Then open the door.”
My wrist twisted as I unlatched the lock and did as he said. Light, airy, I am floating through space. Nothing can weigh me down.
I thought I was doing a great job until I tried to step through the door. Then it was like an anchor fell on my chest. I couldn’t breathe and all thoughts of feather-likeness shot from my mind.
“He’s fighting you,” the Reaper’s voice rang in my mind, “He doesn’t realize you are trying to help him. You have to reassure him so he will let you in.”
Reassure him? The guy who hated my guts as much as I did his? That was easier said than done.
Prince? I said in my mind feeling quite silly. It’s Cheshire. I am here to help. You have to let me in or you will die.
Nothing happened for a moment. There was no answer, no evidence that he had even heard me. Then the entrance to the door was no longer weighing me down, I was light and weightless once more. As I stepped through a sick feeling overcame me just before the door slammed shut behind me. What the hell had I gotten myself into?
Chapter 15
Kat
THE LIQUID THAT enveloped me was unlike the others. This one wasn’t cold. It was glacial. It burned like fire where it touched, and it felt like it lasted forever.
Finally, I fell out of the mirror on the other side. I collapsed to the ground and took in deep heaving breaths. It took me a few moments before I realized the pain was gone. I sat up and glanced at myself, turning my hands over in confusion. There were no burns, no markings where there should have been.
Mab had said the Shadow Realm was not for the living, but the dead. Those who were sent here still alive wouldn’t be welcomed at any point. Perhaps this was what she meant when she warned me before I stepped through the glass. Maybe that was its way of trying to get me to turn back?
I had expected a lot of things when I came through the mirror, but what I didn't expect was it to be so blah. Darkness stretched as far as I could see and the fog was thick enough to make soup out of it. And what was up with the fucking mirrors? They were everywhere. Did someone rob a mirror store? Or were they just really bad at decorating?
I moved around the area, the dirt ground beneath my feet making the area even more depressing. If this was the afterlife I wasn't looking forward to it. If the dreary atmosphere wasn't enough, the utter lack of anyone else would have sealed the deal.
I was all for alone time but this was ridiculous.
I started toward the mirror area, my eyes flickering from one mirror to the next. Each surface reflected my face. If they were used for communication like Chess had done with me in his bathroom, they weren't active now.
Kneeling on the ground next to one of the mirrors, my hand reached out to touch the frame to see if I could activate it with my magic. The instant my hand touched the metal frame, the mirror’s surface changed and showed the wall on the opposite side of the mirror in my hallway at home.
I moved from the mirror to another one. Not hesitating this time, I touched the frame. This one reflected the mirror in my bathroom. The next one showed my bedroom.
I collapsed to the ground with a huff, my heart beating in my chest like a thundering drum. Had Chess been watching me this whole time? Trying to communicate but unable to get through?
My eyes burned as my throat clogged up. All this time I had been thinking he was gone, that I had to move on, and he had been right here the entire time.
“So, you must be the long lost Seelie Princess.” Glancing up from where I had fallen to pieces, my eyes widened at the woman before me.
She was clad in a crimson gown, the neckline plunging so low I could see her navel. If I had worn it I'd have tripped and fallen out of it with the first step, but the way she moved in it was like it was part of her. Where she moved it moved, slithering along the dirt ground like a snake.
“Who are you?” my voice came out scratchy and I hated it. I had a feeling that any weakness in front of her would be a very bad idea.
“Are all humans so rude? Cheshire wasn't half as rude as you. He at least introduced himself before he started demanding answers.”
At the mention of Chess, I jumped to my feet, launching myself onto her, my hands clutching her shoulders. “You know where Chess is? Was he here? Where is he now?”
“So many questions and yet you still haven't answered mine.” She clucked her tongue and brushed my hands away.
Dropping my hands back to my sides, I straightened my shoulders to look her squarely in her dark eyes. “Yes, I am the long lost Seelie Princess. Now, will you please tell me where Chess is?”
“I figured that much out already, what I don't know is your name. What do they call you? It can't just be princess.”
“Depends on who you ask.” My eyes narrowed in suspicion as I evaded her question. Why did she want to know my name? Nothing good had ever come from a Fae wanting to know my name. That usually meant they were trying to get something from me.
“Well, what does Cheshire call you?”
Not liking the attitude coming from this woman, I gave her a nasty smile. “You can call me Lady, or better yet, moderator. Since that is what I am.”
The flicker of fear in her eyes made my heart pitter-patter. She tried to cover it up with a snooty scowl. “They let someone like you be the moderator? They sure have lowered their standards since I lived in the Underground.”
I couldn’t help myself; I did the mean girl thing. “Well, I’d say they’ve raised their standards if you are here. With all that going on,” I gestured to her mostly exposed torso and chest, “I’m surprised you weren’t cast out sooner. What were you exiled for? The inability to keep your legs closed longer than your mouth?”
Okay, so what happened next I totally deserved. I let myself get drawn in by her petty insults and only had myself to blame. So, when I found myself going from a standing position to being knocked on my ass, it wasn’t entirely surprising.
As I tried to relearn to breathe, my magic came to the surface, red alert to anything that might attack me once more. Morgana stood where she had been before but her arms turned into snakes.
Dark red and black stripped; they stretched out across the area. When she realized she had missed she slowly recoiled the slithering cretins back into her, her gaze searching for where I had jumped.
Morgana? More like freaking Medusa! Just when I thought I’d seen everything, something else happened and I had to reset my whole look on things that were abnormal.
I tensed as I watched her prepare for another attack. Her arms went rigid and her eyes narrowed as she locked on to me. Just as she was about to shoot the snakes my way again, I tucked and rolled like my life depended on it. Who said school didn’t teach you anything? Though, I doubted the firefighters meant for it to be used to avoid attacks by crazy snake ladies, but if it worked it worked!
“Stay still, you little twit!” she growled out in aggravation. She jerked around to find me again, the snakes that were her arms hissed at me, liquid dripped from their fangs. When it hit the floor it sizzled and caused tiny holes to form.
Note to self. Avoid fangs.
“Why would I do that?” I called back as I dodged yet another attack, barely avoiding getting bit in the ass. “You are trying to kill me. I don’t think Cheshire would be too happy if you killed his savior.” It was risky trying to use Chess as my winning piece, but from what I could tell she had a lady boner for him the size of Texas. Maybe she wouldn’t want to risk making him mad?
“Pfft.” She made one snake hand turn back into a regular one and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “As far as he’s concerned I’m doing him a favor. Who wants to go back to the Underground with someone like you waiting for him on the other side? He would be much better off with me.”
Well, it was worth a try.
“Oh, yeah?” I shot back, “Why don’t you put your magic where your mouth is?” I had only just gotten the question out w
hen her arm changed back into a snake, and this time instead of coming for me, they burrowed into the ground.
If there was one movie I hated more than anything it was Tremors. The first time I had ever watched it I was nine and I had nightmares for months. I refused to stand on solid ground and would walk on all the furniture to get anywhere. It pissed my mother off to no end, and Hillary was always yelling at me to get off the furniture. This time was no different.
Seeing those things go into the ground, I high tailed it away from where she was and scrambled onto a rock that had a mirror leaning against it. While it did have me on high ground, it didn’t keep me from being pretty much trapped. All I could do was keep my eyes peeled and listen for their attack. My blood pumped in my ears as I jerked my head from side to side looking for those little fuckers.
“If only dear Cheshire could see his princess now,” Morgana laughed, “Trapped like a mouse with nowhere to go.”
Her laughter only caused my fear to turn to anger, and the moment I stopped looking for the snakes to reply to her was when she struck. The earth crumbled as the snake shot out of the ground and into the air. Before I could make a move to get out of the way, they whipped around, wrapping their long bodies around my frame.
Damn it. How had I fallen for her trick? I was the one who was usually distracting my enemies with my snarky remarks and here I was falling for the same ploy.
The snakes bodies constricted around me making it hard to breathe. Their heads danced around my head as if they were laughing at my pain. Trying not to panic, I took in shallow breaths. I saw it once on a TV show on snake attacks.
The more the victim panicked, the deeper they breathed and each breath they took, the snake could constrict tighter. I figured that if I wasn’t giving them much room to deal with it might bide me some time. Hopefully.
The pressure on my arms and the rest of my body almost reminded me of going through the hole to get to the Between. Like it was trying to fit me in a size 2 tube top. I wasn’t no petite biddy, so the imagery wasn’t a pretty sight.
Trying not to think about the situation I was in, I let my magic curl up inside me. It balled up into a bundle of crackling energy, pulsating and churning, just waiting for me to release it. I waited and waited. It had to be the right moment. When she thought she was winning, that was when I would strike.
Finally, she started to get bored of how long it was taking to kill me and cocked her head to the side. “Why won’t you die already? You’re already in the Shadow Realm, it’s not like you would have far to go.”
Before she got the last few words out I let that tight ball of energy go. It rushed out of me and barreled into the bodies of the snakes. They screeched with Morgana, making my ears ring.
I didn’t have time to worry about it, though. I jumped from the rock and darted across the area to hide behind a large full-length mirror. Taking in deep helpings of air, I listened to see if she would attack once more.
“I’m trying to help you, Miss Moderator,” she taunted after she had finished screaming, “you’ll be so much happier without all the stress of being Fae royalty, besides didn’t you already kill yourself once? Cheshire would be better off with someone more secure in themselves.”
While she was busy spouting off how wrong I was for him, I moved around a set of mirrors until I was on her blind side. Then with a battle cry, much like my hero, Xena, Warrior Princess, I slammed into her knocking her down to the ground.
Straddling her hips, I gripped each of her wrists in my hands as hard as I could. The pressure caused the snakes to disperse and only her hands to lie in their place. She bucked and wailed as she tried to get me off of her, but I held tight. I shoved my magic into the earth around her, forcing the deadened ground to sprout forth vines that wrapped themselves around her body and limbs.
With her thoroughly subdued, I should have gotten up. I should have left her there and went to find Chess but the power was pumping through me. The need to use more magic came to the surface at an unstoppable pace.
The magic curled into the vines pulling them tighter and tighter. Whatever else she might have said was cut off by the chokehold it had on her throat. Her face started to turn blue; her eyes bulged in their sockets. A voice in my head screamed at me to stop but it was faint. Since I had come here alone there was no one here to pull me back. No one here to make me stop. It was just my power and me.
I was just about to turn her into a squashed potato when a single tear slipped out of my eye. Confused, I reached a hand up to touch it. The action was enough to cause my magic to stall.
Looking down at the glittering moisture on my finger a stark realization filled me. Horror covered my face and I jumped up from where I sat on top of her. Now that I wasn’t trying to obliterate her she was taking in deep breaths, her eyes full of terror but not brave enough to move in case I struck out again.
I skittered away from her, the temptation to finish what I started too prevalent in my mind. Stumbling to my feet, I ran from her and into the thick fog that made my stomach recoil. So engulfed by my own emotions I was easily able to push the feelings aside and keep running. To where? I didn’t have a fucking clue.
Chapter 16
Chess
I IMAGINED THE inside of a person’s head looking like a hall with a long line of doors. Each one leads into a different part of the person's mind. A childhood would be behind one door, good memories behind another, and all the big bad memories, the ones you wished you could forget, would be locked up tight behind the biggest door of all.
When I walked through the proverbial door that led into the prince’s head, I hadn’t expected to walk straight into what had to be one of his worst nightmares.
There, standing in the Orchard, was the prince along with Alice. Her face flickered between a tall blonde woman that I could only assume was the princess and what Alice looked like now. Next to them stood the real Princess, Lynne.
The scene looked normal except the princess was wielding a blade in her hand. She had it pointed at the two of them while tears ran down her face. Since this was Lynne and not Kat, plus a dream, I didn’t have the overwhelming urge to be near her or to soothe her pain.
“How could you do this to me?” she screamed, waving the dagger at them. “I thought you loved me.”
“I do love you, Lynne,” the prince argued, reaching for her, but she jerked away from him, the blade just barely missing the palm of his hand.
“If you loved me you wouldn't have been with her. Just admit it, you never loved me at all, did you?” she shouted into his face, “It was just a game arranged by my mother. I'm just a joke to you, in fact, I shouldn't be here at all.”
She took the blade she had in her hand and flipped it around so it was pointed toward her heart. The prince cried out and tried to jerk the dagger out of her grasp. At the last moment, instead of trying to stab herself, she twisted it around and shoved it into his stomach with a gleeful grin.
“Lynne, why?” his words came out gurgled as blood dripped from his lips. The prince’s hand clutched at the handle protruding from his body. Blood poured from the wound. He fell to his knees as Alice and Lynne conformed into one person.
The prince’s eyes widened as a mirror image of himself, sans the knife wound, stared down at him. Someone had a guilty conscious.
The wounded prince collapsed to the ground, a pool of liquid beginning to form around him. The evil version of him stood over his corpse for a moment, laughing at the scene. Then, like something had clicked, the scene started all over again with him kissing Alice and Lynne catching them.
Had this been what he'd been seeing ever since he'd gone to the Shadow Realm? While I was dallying with Morgana and trying to find a way home, he had been suffering alone. His guilt eating him alive.
While the prince was busy replaying his darkest regret, I took a moment to look around. The Orchard was exactly what it looked like in the real world, except with it being in t
he prince’s mind, there seemed to be a dark edging around it. Like the mood of the dream was causing the lights to dim.
Wondering if everything else was like in the real world, I glanced down at myself to see that I was an actual physical person. The clothing I was wearing in the Shadow Realm was the same as what I wore now. Curious about what else could be the same, I reached over and pinched myself. A sharp pain went through my arm, and a red mark appeared where I had marred myself.
So, I could get hurt here. Could I die? Watching the prince stab himself over and over again didn’t give me the confidence that I would leave unscathed should I come into contact with the same fate.
I turned my head back and forth wondering if I was stuck in the Orchard or if I could leave? Would I end up in the queen’s garden or did it just end? The only way to find out was to move but first…
I took the first step since arriving, my foot crunched in the grass beneath my feet as I wandered over to where the prince was bleeding out. Just as the scene reset itself, and the princess started screeching again, I cleared my throat.
Strangely enough, not just the prince’s head turned but all of them did as if they were one body. Seeing as it was the prince’s mind, I could imagine they were all him in a way. His mind was filling in the roles of those that tormented him.
“Not that I’m not enjoying you kill yourself over and over again, but we do have a time limit here.” I pointed at my wrist, though I wasn’t wearing a watch. What I said wasn’t exactly true. The Reaper hadn’t said I only had such and such amount of time, but I figured the longer I was in here, the more likely I would get stuck. So getting out fast was the best course of action.
In unison, the three heads tilted to the side as they surveyed my form. They seemed confused by my very presence, which didn’t bode well for me. I didn’t need the prince’s brain thinking I was an intruder and have him try to boot me out before I even got started.