by Eva Chase
“The Otherlan—The Red Queen already knows,” she said, looking at Theo. “But I thought you should be part of the discussion too. A representative has snuck out of the palace to try to strike a deal with us—between us and the Diamonds.”
At the word “Diamonds,” my blood ran cold. “What representative?” I said, even though she hadn’t been directing her comments at me. “Who came?”
Mallo’s gaze jerked to me, startled. “It’s—you know. Unicorn.” She gestured over her head as if indicating the gentleman’s shiny horn. “I know he helped us before, but I still don’t entirely like it.”
“It’s good that you told us, although I’m sure the Red Queen would have asked to consult with us before making any decisions anyway,” Theo said.
My mind was still whirling. “Unicorn came alone?” I said.
Mallo nodded. “He said it was a lot of trouble getting out without the Queen catching on. I’d imagine it’d have been harder with more.”
“Did he say which other Diamonds were involved in the offer?”
“I didn’t hear much,” Mallo said. “It sounded like all of them.”
I could think of a large number of the Queen’s pampered courtiers who would have sooner chopped their own heads off than ally themselves with the common city dwellers. Unicorn had helped us—I trusted him well enough. But so many of the others… My gut couldn’t quite sit right with the idea.
“Do you think this is some kind of ploy?” Theo asked. “They have plenty of reasons to want to see the Queen of Hearts overthrown. Who knows how she’s been terrorizing them during this latest furor.”
“All true, all true,” I said, taking a step away. “But having spent as much time among them as I have… I think I’d like to look into a few things before I report back to our queen.”
I slipped into the in-between without another word. If I was going to make it to the palace and back in time to share any news I could bring, I’d have to hustle.
The Duchess had rambled on sometimes in a bragging tone when I’d gone to her rooms with her. Back then, she’d known a little stone cottage near the edge of the palace grounds that was overgrown with vines as if no one ever went there. Which made it, she’d told me, the perfect place for her to meet with other Diamonds if they wanted to have discussions without any fear of the Queen overhearing.
They’d just sent Unicorn off to us. Where else would they be waiting for him to return with the answer we gave him but there?
I jogged through the streets, speeding up as I left the city behind. One of the first things we would need to do once we had our land back was replenish our stock of horses and carts. Maybe we could even claim some air trolleys for city use. I didn’t think Lyssa would object to speedier transportation options.
I skirted the wall around the palace grounds until I was in the area of the cottage, between the west and the north gates. Getting over the wall would have been easier with Dee along. But he was somewhere on the other side of that wall already, making his own deals. My hackles rose at the thought.
In the end, I took a running start and simply flung myself toward the top. My fingers managed to hook around the edge of the highest stones. I hauled myself up, hoping no guards inside had been close enough to hear my scramble even if they couldn’t see me.
To my relief, no one was in earshot. I stalked along the top of the wall until I spotted the viney mass, only the door, a window, a chimney, and patches of worn marble stones visible amid the leafy tendrils.
I leapt down from the wall and hurried over to the wooden door. In my invisible state, I leaned my ear close.
Someone was in there. Muffled voices reached my ears, but the door was thick enough to muddle their words. I couldn’t make out a thing they were saying.
I frowned and stalked to the window, but it had been covered with some kind of fabric on the other side to prevent any outside eyes from peering in. The stuff dampened their voices too. I circled the whole building, but there was no way I was finding out what was going on in there short of opening the door and strolling in. Somehow I didn’t think I’d get a particularly warm welcome. The Duchess had gone to some effort in recent months to see my head ended up on one of the Queen’s pikes.
My gaze drifted up to the roof and settled on the chimney. My chest tightened.
There was another way I could get into the building—a way that, if I was careful, would ensure they’d never know their center of conspiring had been breached. The trouble was that even the idea of doing it made my skin prickle with discomfort.
I sucked in a breath. I’d shifted before, to save Lyssa, even though the sensation had brought too many awful memories back to the surface. It had been easier to make the leap in that moment of panic, though. I might not hear anything useful in there. Lyssa hadn’t asked this of me.
She shouldn’t have to. Whether I’d planned it or not, I was more than just a rambler helping the rebellion on the side. I was at the fore of the struggle now, and I had to act like it. It wasn’t just Lyssa but all the people in that city back there whose lives could rest on the information I discovered.
A hero wasn’t someone who only pitched in when it was easy. I hadn’t seen myself as a hero before, hadn’t wanted the title particularly, but when I remembered the way my queen had looked at me last night, I wanted to earn it. For her sake and mine.
Holding myself in the in-between, I hunched down on the ground and gritted my teeth. With a mental shove, the change rippled through my body. I seemed to contract and expand at once, shrinking but changing shape, fur sprouting all over my suddenly rotund body. My whiskers twitched. My tail lashed behind me instinctively.
The ghosts of long ago fingers, pins, knives traced over my skin. I shuddered and sprang at the vines.
If I just thought about Lyssa—if I could let those better, fresher memories drown out the old ones, even if they came from my human form…
As my claws dug into the tendrils and I clambered up the side of the cottage, I urged my mind back to last night. To the gentle caress of her hands, the eager slide of her mouth. The fondness so clear in her voice and in her eyes…
Fondness? No, I should be honest. It’d been love. Love that she’d spoken of, love that she’d shown.
Even my cat heart in my cat chest thumped eagerly in response to those recollections. The words to return her sentiment had been there at the back of my throat. But I hadn’t said them. Even now, a shiver passed through my nerves imagining doing so.
The shiver rippled deeper in this form. It connected with the older memories and sparked a flare of understanding that burned all the way to my bones with the phantom echoes of ropes tied tight and slicing knives.
I did love her. Oh, how I loved her. More than I’d ever cared for anyone in my entire existence. It was fucking terrifying.
Saying those words, admitting the depth of that emotion out loud… somehow that felt like tying myself to her in a way I might not be able to break.
Why in the lands would I want to break it? Hearts take me, I should be honored if she wanted me by her side for as long as we both did live. I didn’t enjoy the roaming. I got nothing but joy at her side. The Duchess would have the ultimate triumph if I let her perversions sour everything good in my future.
I needed to be brave for Lyssa, and not just here, in this private mission.
My resolve coursed through me. I climbed up the side of the chimney with a steady grip. Then I eased my way down inside, thanking the powers that be that it was far too warm a season for a fire.
It was slow going, because while no one would see me if they looked up the chimney, they’d catch the scrape of my claws if I wasn’t careful. Also, it wasn’t the widest chimney in the world, and I had plenty of bulk for a cat. After several tight and tense minutes, I’d edged down far enough to make out the voices in the room.
“Do you really think that’s wise?” a man was saying.
The laugh that answered made my fur stand up all acro
ss my back. “Make what you will of it,” the Duchess said. “We can always leave you behind.”
Were they talking about going to the city, as if they truly meant to go through with that plan? It was impossible to tell from a comment that vague. I wasn’t inclined to trust a word that came out of her mouth, besides.
There sounded to be at least a dozen people in the room. A few murmurs went around about the chocolates someone had brought for snacking on. “How long will they take to hash it out, do you think?” someone asked.
Apparently the Duchess was leading this endeavor, because she answered immediately again. “The poor things, no doubt the offer has sent them into quite a tizzy, picturing an alliance with us. We must give them time.”
Her patronizing tone set my teeth even more on edge.
“It is a gamble,” another voice pointed out. “Either way you slice it.”
“You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t agree that appeasing her is our only hope of survival,” the Duchess replied. “Any way you slice it, we all know what the greater threat is here. ”
The greater threat. A prickle ran over my skin as the words sunk in. Was that the place they were making this offer from? Their sense of a great threat?
Knowing the Duchess, knowing the Diamonds, I couldn’t imagine them fearing anyone more than the Queen of Hearts.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lyssa
It should have been totally bizarre seeing a horse-like figure sitting at a table like a man, but somehow Unicorn perched on his chair, resting his hooved arms on the tabletop, as if it was a perfectly natural pose. Here in Wonderland, I guessed it was.
He shook back his glinting mane with a quiver of the muscles in his graceful white neck. He didn’t look totally at ease with the proposal he was making, but then, I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Unicorn really relaxed. Every time I’d talked to him, we’d been making illicit plans behind the Queen’s back, after all.
The woman who owned the ice cream café that’d been a convenient spot for our sit-down lingered by the back counter, watching us with wide eyes. Several of the Spades, including Theo and Hatter, stood along the walls around us. Hatter periodically whirled the hatpin he was holding with a faint hiss of motion. Having them at my back put me a little more at ease, but my heart was thudding harder than usual anyway.
The decision I made here could win or lose us the war.
“All of the Diamonds would help us push back the guards?” I said, turning over what Unicorn had already told me about the theoretical alliance in my head. The flavor of the shop’s sweet cream laced my tongue. “How many of you are there?”
“Around a hundred,” Unicorn said. “Not as many as there are guards, but combined with your numbers here, and the jabberwocks, and the fact that we can move on the inside to stem the charge before it truly begins… I think we could make a useful contribution.”
I did too, though I wasn’t sure how much of that impression I wanted to share with him. Even though Unicorn had helped us before, he’d spent most of his life at the Queen’s beck and call. How far could we really trust him?
And if I couldn’t completely trust him, how could I trust the Diamonds who’d never shown any interest in supporting our cause at all?
“What exactly would I need to promise in return for that contribution?” I asked, watching him carefully and paying careful attention to my ring. So far it hadn’t woken up as if there was danger to combat, but it had been pretty selective in what it decided to respond to in the past, so that wasn’t a total comfort.
“We’d ask for forgiveness for our association with and prior support of the Hearts’ rule,” Unicorn said. “No charges laid, no punishments dealt out. Those who wish to will keep their homes in and around the palace until equivalent accommodations are found or built.”
That didn’t sound unreasonable, even though the idea of living in the palace with the glammed up Diamonds all around made my skin crawl. We’d have to come up with those “equivalent” accommodations quickly. Let the Spades have the run of the palace for a change.
“And they’ll trust my word?” I said.
Unicorn shrugged. “I trust it. I vouched for your credibility. They were all there when you broke the prisoners free—they know you’re not the bloodthirsty type by nature.”
I ran my thumb over my chin. “Why would they take this risk at all, though? They’ve had an extravagant life living the way they do under the Queen of Hearts.”
“I don’t see that any amount of extravagance is worth the constant tension having her right at our backs,” Unicorn said. “If I could put you on that throne right now in her place, I’d happily do it. Her latest strategies… We can’t be sure how long she’ll even let us keep our free minds as her paranoia grows.”
His shudder as he said that convinced me that he meant every word. But he was speaking for an awful lot of others.
“Do you trust all of the Diamonds you’re here on behalf of?” I asked. “You believe that they’ll follow through? They haven’t always been all that considerate of you, from what I’ve seen.”
Unicorn grimaced, but he nodded at the same time. “All the talk that happened when I was part of their discussions sounded genuine enough. I wouldn’t have come to you if I doubted them.”
“Fair enough.” I exhaled slowly, trying to hide my tangled emotions, and eased back my chair. “I’d like to discuss the offer with my companions, and we might have more questions after that. Do you mind waiting here?”
“That’s fine,” Unicorn said. “But I’d like to bring your answer back as quickly as possible. The Diamonds may have meant the offer, but they do tend toward impatience… If they start to feel you’re not committed to working with them, I don’t know what directions their minds will go in next.”
Well, that wasn’t exactly reassuring. I got up, and most of the Spades followed me out, Kip and Dum staying behind to keep an eye on Unicorn.
We walked across the sunny street into the shadows of the buildings on the other side. Hatter passed his hatpin from one hand to the other, his expression tight. I could guess how he felt about the possibility of allying with the Diamonds. Theo looked more thoughtful.
“What do you think?” I said. “Is it worth trusting them?”
The Prince of Hearts rested his dark gaze on me. “I think we should hear what you make of this first, my queen,” he said. “Better that you have a chance to sway my judgment before I give it than the other way around.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, considering he’d spent way more time around the Diamonds and the palace than I had, even if that’d been decades ago. But I was supposed to be queen here. I still had to get used to acting like it.
“I’m thinking that if we can trust them, allying would give us a huge advantage. We’d have people helping open the way for us on the inside. And with more numbers, with people who can step in early on, we might be able to avoid a lot of the violence that’d be inevitable otherwise if we’re going to get to the throne. I like all of that.”
“If we can trust them,” Hatter muttered.
“Exactly.” I wet my lips. “They haven’t found the courage to stand up to the Queen in an awfully long time, even though they were in the best position to do it. They might resent her, but they’ve always enjoyed the benefits they get from sucking up to her a lot more. But they could have been shaken up enough by the way I challenged her during the trial and the way she retaliated afterward to rethink their position. I’m not sure how we could tell.”
“I’m inclined to think we should take the chance,” Theo said. “The Diamonds, from what I knew of them—my mother didn’t have me mingle very much—are selfish but often smart. If they see more benefit in supporting you than her now, they’ll switch sides in an instant. If they’re lying, then we’re in exactly the same position we were before. We’ll just have to be prepared to make the full push ourselves, and any way they assist will be a welcome gift.”
My gaze sl
id to Hatter. “Do you feel okay about that?”
His mouth twisted. “I don’t like making any promises to those boot-lickers. Why should they get to keep everything as they’ve had it at the expense of everyone else, just for finally doing what they should have done ages ago? If they really cared about setting things right, they wouldn’t put conditions on their help.”
Theo spread his hands. “Like I said, they’re selfish.”
“I don’t like that part either,” I said to Hatter. “But at least we can put specific conditions on how they need to help, and if they don’t do enough, then we don’t have to keep our end of the deal either.”
“It may be worth it, then,” he admitted. “I know how much you’d like to reclaim the throne without bloodshed.”
My stomach knotted. “I realize there’ll end up being some no matter what I do.” I just had to keep reminding myself of all the blood the Queen of Hearts would continue shedding if I didn’t take this stand. “All right. Let’s work out exactly what we want the Diamonds to do for us, and see what Unicorn—”
“Wait.” Chess’s voice leapt from the air a second before his form blinked into sight. Sweat dampened his rumpled auburn hair, and his broad chest was heaving as if he’d run all the way from the palace. A chill raced through me. Theo had said Chess had gone to do some scouting. Obviously he hadn’t liked whatever he’d seen.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
Half a dozen pairs of eyes fixed on Chess. He tensed a bit under that scrutiny, and a flicker of uncertainty crossed his face.
“I—I’m not entirely sure,” he said in a careful tone. “I was able to listen in on some of the Diamonds’ conversation, but they’d already discussed the particulars of their plan, of course. They didn’t say anything that clearly revealed their intentions.” He studied my face. “You want to accept the alliance.”
“I think it would make the battle ahead much easier if it’s real,” I said. “But if you heard or saw anything that made you uneasy, Chess, I want you to tell me. You know those people better than anyone, even Theo. I trust your judgment.”
