Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance

by Laura Greenwood et al.

  Bella snorted. “Uhu. And you’ll keep that up for one night, tops. By tomorrow you’ll have spilled the beans, all right. You tell me everything.”

  “Maybe.” She was probably right, though. “Say, do you have some playing cards?”

  “No. But I think there are some in the library,” Bella offered. “Do you want me to go get them?”

  I pursed my lips. “No, it’s fine. I’ll go get them myself.”

  “Do you want me to come with you?” Bella asked.

  After contemplating it for a second, I shook my head. “No, I’ll be fine. You know how sometimes you can have a thought that is on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t figure it out? I think a walk will help me clear my head.”

  “All right,” Bella agreed. “I’ll be here, waiting.”

  “No, no, you go ahead to your own rooms, get some sleep,” I told her. “I don’t see you to babysit me all night, I’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure?” She didn’t seem convinced. “Or…” A grin appeared on her face. “Are you planning to have any more visitors, perhaps?”

  “Bella!” I slapped her arm playfully, while we both made for the door. “You’re incorrigible.”

  “You’re the one sending away your chaperone, milady,” Bella said. “What if someone found out? Such a scandal.”

  We both laughed, and I was genuinely glad I had her, at least. In a palace where I was bullied by my own cousin, manipulated by my mother, and had to spend the majority of the time pretending to be someone I wasn’t, it felt nice to have someone with whom I could be myself.

  After saying goodnight to Bella, I headed toward the library, all the while not being able to shake the thought there was something at the edge of my mind, something important, but I just couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

  Chapter 11

  I opened the door to the library, and almost jumped out of my skin.

  Malachi was still sitting there, in front of the fireplace, lost in thought.

  “Wh—what are you still doing here?” I held my hand to my heart, trying to calm down my racing heartbeat. “I thought you’d be long gone by now.”

  “I was just thinking.” Malachi stood up from his chair. “Sorry, I didn’t want to be in your way.”

  “You’re not,” I said. “You’re not in my way. I just came back to look for something, and I hadn’t expected anyone else to still be here.”

  “Did my brother come visit you?” Malachi tilted his head to the left, looking at me questioningly. “He said he would.”

  I nodded. “He did. He told me about the cards. That’s actually the reason why I’m here,” I added as I took the liberty to sit down in the empty chair opposite of him, behind the chessboard. “Do you know how to play cards?”

  “A little, but I’m no expert,” Malachi admitted. “Why?”

  “I’m thinking we should play a game of cards. There’s a pack of cards here somewhere.” I searched the side of the chessboard until I found the hidden compartment, and clicked it open. “Here we go.”

  Taking out the pack of cards, I shuffled them, and then divided them between the both of us, putting a third pile on the table.

  I was going on a hunch. But the Cheshire Cat had told me I should’ve played cards instead of chess, and the Cat often spoke in riddles, but it was also prone to dropping hints. If our enemies were a pack of playing cards, then it made sense to at least try our hand at the game.

  We started playing, and despite my first reservations, the game turned out to be rather enjoyable. Malachi was far better at playing all sorts of card games, from blackjack to poker, than he had pretended to be, and he surprised me again and again by constantly outsmarting me.

  The ‘aha moment’ happened during our fifth game. I was just handing a card to Malachi, the six of clubs, when I got a déjà vu. My memory transported me across the borders of time and space, back to a moment several years ago, replacing Malachi by Derrick. The setting morphed from the library into a cozy spot in the gardens.

  Derrick was sitting opposite me, and he showed me the six of clubs. “Am I right?” he asked, giving me his trademark, slightly crooked grin.

  “How do you do this?” I shook my head, smiling from ear to ear.

  “Magic.” He wiggled his fingers, and we both laughed.

  “No, but seriously. Show me,” I pressed. “I want to learn. At least one trick, so I can scare Celia half to death with my magic.”

  Derrick opened his mouth to talk, but then closed it again. “I… I can’t teach you.”

  “You can’t, or you won’t?” I was starting to think maybe I had pushed him a bit too far, pressing for him to tell me his secrets. What was it the white rabbit—Wonderland’s most famous magician, always said—a magician never reveals his secrets?

  Derrick cleared his throat. “I can’t because it’s not a trick.”

  I narrowed my eyes, wondering what he was trying to say. “You mean… it’s real?”

  For a minute, an awkward silence lingered between us, but then Derrick burst out laughing. “I got you good there, didn’t I? You should’ve seen your face.”

  I started laughing too, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling something was up with him.

  “Wonderland to Regina,” Malachi said, interrupting my trip down memory lane. He waved his hand in front of my face. “You seemed like you were in a different world altogether.”

  “I was just remembering something, about a boy I used to know.” When I realized what I had said, a blush crept up my cheeks. “I mean, he was all into card tricks and stuff. The things he could do with cards, it was almost like magic. That’s why I thought about him.”

  “I see,” Malachi answered cryptically. He didn’t seem bothered by my turning the color of a tomato.

  “An army of cards must’ve gone from somewhere,” I mused out loud. “It doesn’t just appear one day.”

  “Everything always comes from somewhere,” Malachi said. “But that doesn’t mean we know where it came from. This boy you mentioned,” he added, changing the subject without skipping a beat, “where is he now?”

  I looked down at the cards in my hand. “He’s gone.”

  “Gone where?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” My shoulders slumped, and I felt that familiar sadness fill my chest again.

  “If it makes you look sad like that, then it does matter.” Malachi put his cards down, obviously not planning to make another move until I told him what had happened to Derrick.

  “I don’t like to talk about it.” I heard the chok-chok noise of the executioner’s axe as gallons of prisoners lined up on the courtyard, twelve o’clock sharp on the first Thursday of the month. An echo of the past, the exact moment my heart broke in half.

  Clearing my throat, I leaned back in my seat. “Celia is far from the innocent girl she appears to be. Caspian would hardly be her first lover, and I’m pretty sure he won’t be the last.”

  Malachi didn’t say anything, he just folded his hands and waited until I would say more.

  “Do you know what happens when the boy she likes it not of noble blood? When he’s just a commoner, lowborn?”

  The prince shook his head slowly, waiting for me to continue.

  “What happens when this boy, this lowborn lad, has the audacity to do something as outrageous as kissing a princess?” I shook my head violently, my hair falling out of the brooch holding it up, but I didn’t care.

  “They put him in prison. They pass judgement on him. They say outrageous things, call him part of a ploy to take down the kingdom. Even if he was nothing but an honest, good-natured boy, who didn’t understand the slightest thing about court politics and theatrics.”

  My voice broke, and I took a deep breath. “And when that princess then grows tired of him, and decides she wants a clean slate, an immaculate reputation, what happens next?” I raised my hand to my throat. “Off with their heads.”

  Malachi still didn’t react. He just looked at me, takin
g me in, as if he was seeing me for the first time.

  I hadn’t told anyone about this in years. Celia had always insisted to me that the outrageous things she accused Derrick off were real, but I knew she was exaggerating. I had known Derrick before she ever even met him—he was my friend.

  Maybe that was what got him killed. Celia couldn’t cope with the thought that I would have one friend, one single person on my side, besides herself.

  “First, she stole him from me,” I continued, deciding that if I had laid half my soul bare, I might as well come clean entirely. “I had feelings for him, and even though I told her that, she didn’t listen or she didn’t care. She seduced him with nothing but the flick of her hand, as easy as if… As if what Derrick and I had before, had meant nothing. It hurt me so much I thought my heart would snap in half.”

  I paused and licked my lips. “But it was nothing compared to what would come after. To how she tossed him away like used junk, how she persuaded her father he had tried to make a move on her. I could see it all from my bedroom window, that day they led him to the chopping block.” Unlike while thinking about my father, when I thought about Derrick, I couldn’t cry. Not when I thought about his last moments on earth, at least. Thinking about that filled me with so much anger, so much fury, that it rendered me unable to cry.

  “They killed him?” Malachi looked as if he couldn’t believe what his eyes were hearing.

  “He was just a commoner.” I pushed the cards away, having had enough of playing cards for one night. “So, apparently that meant they could do whatever they wanted to with him.”

  “Hm.” Malachi also pushed his cards to the side. “What do you know about red magic?”

  “That only the King and his next of kin have it,” I said hesitantly, wondering where Malachi was going with this train of thought. “Celia has it, or supposedly had it, I haven’t seen her do anything remotely magical in her entire life.”

  “What else?” Malachi toggled his fingers on the table impatiently.

  “Uhm. That it’s intensified by chaos, destruction, blood, sacrifice.” Completely the opposite of white magic, in fact, which thrived on life, growth, healing. Red and White were perfect counterparts, two sides of the same coin.

  “I think Red magic is what summoned the army of cards,” Malachi said, while he grabbed the remaining cards and shuffled them into one deck. “Does the King hold these kind of executions often? And always in the same spot?”

  “Yes…” I let the sentence linger on in the air. “Why?”

  “Because blood, when shed often enough and in enough quantities, has certain qualities to it. Red magic is the magic of revenge. So, suppose someone exists who is already quite adept at it, even if he shouldn’t be. Even if supposedly only royals can wield this type of magic.”

  “That’s quite far-fetched,” I said. “I don’t know even know if Derrick had magic, or if it just seemed that way.”

  “But these cards…” Malachi put the deck in front of me, and tapped the top card. “They remind you of him. No one else. Just him.”

  “That could be a coincidence. I’m sure if you ask anyone else, this will make them think of someone else.”

  “Still, in the maze, you were the one the cards went after. Not Celia, the most likely target. Not my brother and I, two princes of the blood. You.”

  “I have nothing to do with this.”

  Malachi shrugged. “You’re probably right, and this is probably far-fetched. But my theory still stands that it was Red magic that gave life to these cards. If the Red magic doesn’t come from some rogue magician, then it must come from the king.”

  “The…” My breath got stuck in my throat. “The King? Why would the King lead an army of card figured this way—he already has a kingdom to rule!”

  “Then the next suspect in line.” Malachi looked me straight in the eye. “Celia.”

  “No.”

  “Or you.” Malachi stood up, shoving his chair back. “You’re related to the king, you might have access to this magic.”

  “You’re crazy.” I got up too, trying to get away from him. “I have nothing to do with this, and you know that perfectly well.” I shook my head at him. “I can’t believe you. You ask me to open up to you, I tell you one of my darkest secrets, and next you turn on me and accuse me of trying to sabotage my own country.”

  “I don’t want to accuse you of anything,” Malachi said, bringing down his arms in a calming gesture. “I just wanted to test you.”

  “Great.” Sarcasm dripped off my voice. “Just what I needed. First, Celia testing me because I didn’t dance to her stupid tune for once, and now you, ‘testing’ me. I’ve had enough for today.” I turned on my heel to walk away, but Malachi grabbed on to my arm, stopping me.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have accused you,” he said.

  “No, you shouldn’t have.”

  “I just need to know we can trust you. Because I wasn’t kidding about the rest. If my theory is correct that Red magic is behind this, then not only is the enemy much closer than we anticipated, but everyone in this palace is in danger.”

  Malachi was standing so close to me that I could make out every tiny detail of his face. Like a statue carved in marble, his skin was perfect, free of any possible blemishes.

  I tried to yank my arm out of his grip, but he held on to my wrist. “Tell me I can trust you, Regina.”

  “You can trust me.” I met his gaze full-on, not afraid to look him in the eye. “Now, stop interrogating me.”

  “If my theory is correct, it won’t be long before all hell breaks loose,” Malachi said, still refusing to let go of me. “When it does, don’t trust anyone. Anyone. I mean it. Not even your cousin.”

  “Let me guess—I can only trust you and your brother right? The two people who I have only met one day ago, as opposed to people I have known my entire life.”

  It sounded ridiculous when I said it out loud, but even if Malachi was grabbing me by the arm, even if he had threatened me a little, I still felt as if… Well, as if I could trust him.

  I saw the weight pushing down on his shoulders. The appearance of the army of cards troubled him, far more than it had bothered Celia, for example. He was a man who genuinely wanted the best for his kingdom, and I admired him for that.

  “You’re fighting the wrong enemy.” I yanked my arm again, and this time Malachi let go of me. “I think you believe what you’re saying, but there’s no one someone used Red magic to summon an army to reign destruction all over Wonderland. There’s no one crazy enough to do that.”

  The words hadn’t even left me my mouth before a piercing cry erupted from above our heads, blaring through the room.

  “The alarm!” I shouted at Malachi. “We need to go!”

  I rushed to the hallway and pulled open the door. A thousand of wieeeuwieeeu birds, the makers of the infernal noise echoing all around us, zigzagged through the hallway, notifying all the castle residents that something was going on.

  Malachi pushed the door shut before I could step through.

  My eyes turned wide as I looked at him. “What if it’s a fire? We need to get out of here.”

  “It’s not a fire, and you know it. Those cards have something to do with this.” Malachi’s arm was inches away from my head, as he was still forcing the door close. “You and my brother are the only people I trust in this castle at the moment; please don’t share anything we discussed with anyone.”

  “Of course not.” As if anyone would believe me in the first place. Thanks to Celia diminishing the events of this afternoon, the King didn’t even believe we were almost attacked by a deck of playing cards, let alone that said playing cards would’ve been brought to life by someone possessing Red magic—which, by the way, was a very limited pool of people.

  “All right then.” Malachi removed his arm from the door, and I pulled it open, toward the hallway. The wieeeeuwieeeeu birds had just passed us by, so the noise was slightly quieter, but in the dis
tance I heard the droning footsteps of the guards approaching.

  “Hurry.” I ushered for Malachi to follow me. “Guards are coming, and I don’t want us to catch us here on our own.”

  We descended, following the noises of the servants who had also started their evacuation process. While Malachi and I mingled in with the servants until we reached the courtyard, I could only think of two things.

  One, Derrick, and what Celia had done to him. Even if it was ultimately the King who gave the demand, Celia might as well have cut down that axe herself.

  Two, Red magic. If this magic was born from blood, despair and destruction, then there was no place more powerful than our castle’s courtyard, drenched as it was in the blood of our enemies and prisoners. If someone needed heaps of blood for a particularly powerful spell, such as raising an army of cards—which might sound ridiculous at first, but was actually pretty clever, because when was the last time you saw a playing card drop dead?—then this was the perfect spot.

  As soon as we made it outside, we hurried toward Caspian and Celia, who were already there. Celia, to my surprise, actually looked relieved to see me.

  “There you are!” She pulled me into a half-hug, and for the thousandth time, I was dumbfounded by how easily she could switch from one mood to the next, turning almost into a completely different person. “I’m glad you’re safe.” She then frowned as she looked at Malachi. “Were you two… doing something together?”

  “No, no,” Malachi said quickly. “We just ran into each other in the hallway. I hate to admit it, but I got a little lost.”

  This elicited a giggle from Celia. She was probably the last person on earth who would giggle knowing something bad must have happened in the castle—those birds didn’t just unleash their infernal sounds for no reason.

  “Do you know what happened yet?” Malachi asked, more to his brother than to Celia, but she was the one who replied.

  “No idea, I came here and started looking for a familiar face,” Celia said, smiling at Caspian as if he was her knight in shining armor who had traveled all across the realm to meet her.