by ERIN BEDFORD
This time my father’s lips curved into a smile as he clasped me on the shoulder. “We, my son, are going to get a message to your mate. If she was able to share her magic with you, then you are connected, and she will be able to find you.”
Sending a message to Kat seemed too good to be true. Even if we could pull it off I worried whether or not she would believe it was from me and not a trick. Could Kat put aside her grief long enough to figure it out?
Chapter 9
Kat
I AWOKE FROM my dream with a jerk. The twins I had been dreaming about had quickly morphed into a laughing cat as big as a house. Its large paws swiping out at me had tossed me from the dream.
I rubbed my eyes with the palm of my hand before peeking out at the darkened room. A quick glance at my, somehow miraculously not dead phone, told me it was just after one a.m. and I should not be awake. But something had caused it and if I knew anything about the Underground, it was usually best to follow the warning.
Slipping out of bed, I padded across the floor and into the bathroom. I covered my mouth as I started to yawn but then promptly choked.
The mirror in the bathroom, that shouldn’t have still been fogged up from the bath I had taken hours ago, was covered with a white film. It wasn’t the lack of heat in the room causing it that worried me it was what was written there in the fog.
Kitten.
In loopy letters that could only belong to one person. I shook my head and rubbed eyes once more. I had to be dreaming. That was it. I was still in bed and this was all a dream. It’s happened before why shouldn’t it happen again?
A stinging pain radiated through my arms as I pinched myself. I looked back to the mirror. Nope, it was still there. As clear as day. One word that I knew without a doubt had come from Cheshire S. Cat.
He was the only one with the balls to call me kitten. The only one that I allowed to give me such ridiculous pet names. And the only one who would leave a message on the mirror in his own home for me to find.
Inching closer to the mirror, I peered into the surface. Though fogged over from the nonexistent steam, it wasn’t hard to tell that there was nothing in the mirror but my own smeared reflection. Reaching up, I swiped my hand across the surface, half of me upset that I had destroyed his message, but the other part more anxious to see what was hidden.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything more to see. The only thing looking back at me was my wide-eyed exhausted face. Frowning, I placed my hand on the frame of the mirror hoping that it might be connected like the rest.
When nothing happened after a few moments, I dropped my hand to my side with a frustrated huff. Chewing on my bottom lip, I furrowed my brows while staring hard at the mirror, trying to think of a way to show myself some kind of sign that I wasn’t crazy. That Chess really was trying to get through to me.
Realization dawned on me. The mirror might not be connected on this side. For how pervy Chess was it was pretty hilarious that he didn’t want anyone peeping in on him while he was bathing. Not that I could blame him, his kind of tub was meant for relaxation, not naughty fun time. Though, if Chess was here I wouldn’t exactly tell him no.
The thought of calling Pat to activate the mirror seemed like a bad idea. He wasn’t exactly helpful these days, even though he had pointed me to the book on portals. But something inside of me told me I was barking up the wrong Fae.
I shouldn’t need his help anyways. Was I the Seelie Princess, or wasn’t I? I was supposed to be all powerful, right? That meant I shouldn’t need his help. I should be able to do it myself. That’s if I didn’t kill myself in the process.
Shaking the nerves out of my hands, I drew my shoulders back and placed my hands on either side of the mirror. Closing my eyes, I dug deep inside for my magic and coaxed it awake. It responded lazily and aggravated. It wasn’t happy that I wanted to use it again after exerting so much energy on closing the hole. I mentally apologized, hoping it would feel my desperation to get through the mirror.
It seemed to think on it for a moment but then consented and came to the surface. I took the magic and focused it on the frame of the mirror, envisioning Chess. I didn’t know where he was, so I couldn’t think of the place only him.
I pictured his long pink hair trailing over his shoulders as it brushed his chest. His emerald green eyes that always drew me in and left me breathless. Even that smirk of his that half made me want to hit him and the other half kiss him. All the little things that made up my love for Cheshire S. Cat were funneled into the mirror.
I held my breath as I watched the mirror shake and glow. It had never done that before. Stepping back from the sink, my eyes grew wider and wider until I felt as if they might pop out of their sockets. When the glow faded it wasn’t my face looking back at me, but Chess’. Well, Chess and someone that looked so much like him he had to be related.
My heart stopped and my breath caught as I moved slowly toward the mirror. I reached out with my hand. My lip quivered and my eyes burned as my fingers touched the glass surface where his face was. The expression on his face matched mine, a bit in wonder and disbelief but there was one thing on his face that wasn’t on mine.
Surprise.
His eyes flickered to where my hand sat on the mirror. He slowly raised his own hand until it lined up with mine. Chess’ hand was larger than mine, his fingertips stretching out several inches past where my fingers ended. For a moment, I swore I could feel him. The hole in my chest pulsated and a smile crept up my face as I laughed.
“H…how? How is this possible?” My eyes snapped to his emerald orbs that were just as engulfed with emotion as mine. Then they turned to the man by his side. “You? You did this?” I asked, my gaze following Chess’ to the man beside him.
A sad smile was my response and with a shake of his head he said, “No, this is both of you.”
“What do you mean?” I locked eyes with Chess once more, the fact that he was actually here before me was still hard to believe.
“You are connected, that is the only way the barrier between the Shadow Realm and your world can work. Two of one heart can do more than even the Reaper himself can conspire.”
“So, you are in the Shadow Realm?” I cut in trying to see behind the two images in the mirror to the barren area behind him.
Before either of them could answer, a feminine hand with nails painted as red as blood slipped over Chess’ shoulder. The dark haired woman from my dream moved into the frame. She pressed her front firmly against Chess’ back. The animalistic urge to rip her off him gnawed at me so strong that it took all my will to not throw myself at the mirror.
“Yes, he has,” the woman’s deep sultry voice slid out of her mouth. She stroked a hand along Chess’ shoulder, her lips curled up in a shit eating grin, “but don’t worry I’ve kept him company so he would not be alone.”
I was two seconds away from giving her a bitch please speech when in the blink of an eye Chess shoved her away and out of the frame. Her cries of outrage rang in my ears and I flicked Chess a look.
“Friend of yours?” I cocked my head to the side, lips pursed.
“Hardly.” The complete disdain in his voice when he said the word made me fall for him all over again.
“After all I’ve done for you,” the woman screeched off to the side, which caused Chess to roll his eyes, a move that was something he had to have gotten from me. “I hope the Reaper damns you both, you ungrateful brat.”
“The Reaper?” That was the second time they had mentioned the Reaper in the span of five minutes. The likelihood that it was a coincidence was spotty at best.
“Speaking of the Reaper,” the man that looked so much like Chess it was uncanny said. “He is more than likely on his way now. A hole like this one wouldn’t escape his notice. So, I suggest you say what you have to say and quickly.”
“Who are you?” I started, but Chess cut me off this time.
“He’s my father.” My gaz
e jerked to his and then back to the man. It all made sense. The coloring, the line of his jaw, even the twinkle in his eye was unmistakably Cheshire S. Cat.
“Your father,” I choked out, the original Cheshire was standing right before me.
The one from the stories of Alice in Wonderland, but this was one version of him that I had never seen before. The Cheshire cat from the stories was exactly that, a cat. But this guy could have been a movie star or runway model. Or some famous cosplayer.
“Yes, and he’s right. We don’t have time to explain everything, no matter how much I’d love to sit here just talking to you, love.” He gave me a fanged-toothed grin that made my heart ache to hold him. “You can get me out, pet. We can be together again.”
I shook my head. “But how? I don’t know how to get to you or where you even are?” I tried once again to make out more of the background but unfortunately, with them standing in the way, I couldn’t make out more than a darkened sky and dirt floors.
“If you are connected as my son has stated then it will lead you to where you need to be.” His words were ominous even while they were supposed to be hopeful. Yep, he was definitely related to Chess. Riddles were great for party tricks but a map would be more useful.
Before I could ask another question or to even say goodbye both of their heads jerked toward a sound I couldn’t hear and then the mirror cleared showing me my own face once more.
“No!” I slammed my hands on the porcelain sink causing it to creak beneath my palms. When the mirror still did not give me the image of Chess back, I reached up and shook the frame as hard as I could, screaming at the top of my lungs but still nothing.
Seething at my lack of response, I reached for my magic and found the well not surprisingly, resistant. I hadn’t been very nice with how I used it recently. First with the hole and then the mirror, now it was telling me no more. It didn’t surprise me; my magic’s personality was as difficult as my own. Which meant I was out of luck and out of ideas.
How the hell was I supposed to find Chess when I didn’t know where to start? Chess’ father said that if we were connected then it would lead me to them. I could only assume by connected he meant by the magical bond we shared, a bond that had given me nothing but heartache the last six months. One that for once might help me now.
Taking a deep breath in and then letting it out, I tried to calm the torrent of emotion that raged inside of me. If I was going to figure out where the hell I was going I couldn’t be dwelling on trying to contact him again.
What I needed to do was find someone who knew more about the Shadow Realm than I did. There were two people who knew more than I did. My mother and Mab. Since one wasn’t someone I wanted to talk to, and the other had been trying to persuade me to go after them in the first place, it looked like I was headed for the UnSeelie Palace. I had some groveling to do.
Oh, joy.
Chapter 10
Chess
“YOU REALLY SHOULDN’T have done that.”
I didn’t have to look behind me to know who had spoken. The chill that went down my spine, the fear that made its way into my heart was easy enough to pinpoint down the cause.
The Reaper.
There wasn’t much information available on the Reaper. Many of the Fae pretended like he didn’t even exist. That he was just a made up story meant to scare you into behaving. But I knew the Reaper was very much real.
When I was a child, not much more than a Faeling, I had thought I was big and brave. That I didn’t need anyone and could face anything on my own. That was shortly after my father had left me and I was left all on my own.
I’d been warned about the Veil of the Faeries before. That going there would only cause trouble. But I was young and naive. I wanted to see the faeries, and nobody was going to tell me otherwise.
What no one thought to tell me was that the reason people stayed away from the Veil was because that was where the Reaper came to collect the souls of the Fae who had passed on. So, there I was no more than a babe, searching high and low for a faerie to take home with me. But even the faeries weren’t stupid enough to come out to play when the reaper visited. I’d had the bad luck of having my adventure on that day.
When the Reaper was in your presence the air grew cold and the hairs on the back of your neck stood at attention. It was like that now, and unlike then I couldn’t run home and hide under the covers hoping he wouldn’t come for me. No, this time, I had to turn and face him like a man. Because if anyone was getting me out of the Shadow Realm it was him.
“And why is that?” I slowly turned from the mirror to look upon a Fae’s worse nightmare. What I saw was pretty disappointing, to be honest.
He had a black billowy cloak that hung around his shoulders, his hood was pushed back to show not a skeletal head or decaying corpse, but that of a normal man. His long black hair lay across his shoulders and upper chest. His eyes were a dark blue that had I been interested in dating anyone I would have turned on my charm.
But there was something about the Reaper. Something familiar that didn’t set right. Whether it was the line of his jaw or the scowl on his lips, I didn’t know, but I had met this man before.
“You give her false hope and the Fae need her now. More than you.” The Reaper’s voice was fluid like silk sheets and harsh like nails at the same time.
“She won’t stop looking for me,” I stated, putting my nose in the air. “Now that she knows I’m alive. She’ll come for me.”
“And had you been patient you would have found your own way out but just like the rest of them you are impatient and too wrapped up in your wants and needs to see the bigger picture.” His words snapped at me and made me cringe. Shame filled me.
I had only been thinking of myself and getting home. Yes, the hole in my heart hurt. It felt like every second, every breath was pulling at the edges of the hole making it bigger and bigger until I felt like it might swallow me whole. It never did, though.
“It’s too late now.” I gulped and brushed my hair over my shoulder. I waited for him to scowl at me more, or better yet to kill me on the spot, but he did worse. He took one look at me and threw his head back and laughed.
“So much like your father, you are,” he patted me on the shoulder; the feel of it caused a chill to run through me. “Come, let’s walk.”
I looked to my father who had since changed back to his feline form. A coward if I ever saw one. Morgana stood to the side watching on with amusement in her eyes but also a hint of fear. Interesting.
The Reaper spun on his heel, his cloak sweeping the floor behind him. I hesitated for just a moment; long enough to send a questioning look to my father who gave me a very feline answer, his ears switched. I now knew how Kat felt about those kinds of answers. She referred to them as irritating non-fucking answers.
With no other choice but to stay with the one who had obviously checked out, and the other who I’d already pissed off, or to follow him I quickly caught up to where he was moving into the fog.
Like with Morgana, the fog just seemed to clear for him as she moved through it allowing me to follow after. Did the claims Morgana had to queendom actually ring true? Or was anyone that was supposed to be here able to move between hovels at will? They were questions that could only be answered by asking them, but I didn’t think the Reaper was in much of a giving mood.
“Only the certain few, myself included,” the Reaper said out of the blue answering my question. Had he read my mind? “Yes, I did,” he answered again and then smirked over his shoulder at me. “A perk of being the Reaper.”
“The Reaper?” I cocked my head at him, “so it is a title? Not your name?”
He shook his head. “You should know good and well that names hold power and in my case, the title the Reaper holds more power than something as plain and ordinary as Eugene.”
I forced myself not to bust out laughing, though my lips ticked at the name. I shook my head in an effo
rt to cover up my laughter. “I could see how that would be a problem.”
“Thus, the Reaper was born.” He spread his arms out wide around him making the fog where his arms touched diminish. “Though, I can’t take full claim for such a name since I am not the first nor will I be the last Reaper. I am simply surviving my time until another takes my place.”
As he finished his explanation the fog dispersed around us, the ground turned from the dead grass I craved to gray stone. He led me along a stone path lined by the first water I had seen since being here that hadn’t come out of a faucet. The water was dark except for the swirling tendrils of blue energy moving through it.
A sudden urge to lean down and try to scoop one out came over me. Literally, like a cat with a string, my eyes followed the glowing lights as they came closer and closer to me. They were almost just in reach when a hand clasped down on my shoulder and jerked me back.
My wide eyes locked onto the Reaper’s. What just happened? I looked down at where I was standing, just an inch away from the edge, which was two feet farther than I had been before. I didn’t even remember moving.
“You don’t want to be doing that, trust me.” He patted me on the shoulder and continued toward a large stone building. Large columns held up the roof, which had carvings of ancient times that I couldn’t quite remember the stories to.
Turning my gaze from the decor, I stared at the Reaper’s back. “What just happened? What are those things?”
“Those,” he said over his shoulder, gesturing a hand toward the swirling blue lights that even at just a glance coaxed me to come closer. “Are the souls of the dead. If you touch them they’ll latch onto and suck you of your magic.”
“Wait a moment,” I said catching up to him, “I thought this wasn’t the afterlife? Morgana said I wasn’t dead, but if those are the dead then how am I here? How are any of them here?”
