The Mad King (The Dark Kings #1)(39)

My spine stiffened and my breathing hitched. Curling my fingers into my throne’s armrest, I leaned forward, not wanting to be caught, and yet also perversely desirous she do just that, that somehow she’d figure out it was I who spied upon her.

Calypso’s tempers were legendary. The sea could be calm, but it could also be chaotic, wild, and tempestuous. My pulse quickened at the thought of what she might try to do to me.

But only a second later, she turned and sailed from the cliff’s edge and back into the sea, vanished from my view. I rubbed at my chest and wondered what in the hell to do next.





Chapter 13


Alice


I laughed when the moss miniature tossed a bun at the back of the Hatter’s head. Covering my belly with one hand and my mouth with the other, I gave in to a fit of laughter such as I’d never known.

Beside me, Hatter smiled, but he continued on with his story. And once again I found myself marveling at the world I imagined from the words he spoke.

Fish with buckteeth. And giant, man-eating frogs that could swallow a person whole and wind them up in an entirely new world of wonder. Skunks passed out and belly up, sleeping off a night of drunken revelry. It all seemed ridiculous and impossible, except that he spoke in a way that let me know he believed every word of it.

That didn’t mean it wasn’t an analogy of some sort, or even wishful thinking on his part. I couldn’t imagine a world like the one he fashioned, but it was fun to try.

My very favorite part of his story was the wonder of his home. The gardens where they’d had tea. And a little mouse had catered to their every whim. And the dawning realization that the female too had magic.

I shook my head. “I cannot believe this kind of wonder actually exists.”

We got all the way to the end of the story this time. And I watched with stupid tears shimmering in my eyes and a lump in my throat, feeling ridiculously jealous because a bit off moss and grass was told by a bit of ice and twigs just how treasured she was by him.

No sooner had those magical words been spoken than the figurines collapsed back into a heap of grass and snow at our feet. Closing his eyes, Hatter leaned back on his hands, looking far more exhausted today than he had yesterday.

I frowned, feeling more worried than I had a right to. But why did he always look so ill? I was beginning to suspect he’d been cursed somehow, but why, and how?

“It did. But not anymore,” he said slowly, as if each word was a struggle.

I shook my head. “Not anymore? Why’s that?”

Dark eyes looked wearily back at me. “Because when she left, she took the light with her.” His smile was sad, and his words spoken without cruelty, but I felt the sting of them anyway.

“Oh, that is sad.”

He gave a weak grin. “Not your fault. Not hers either. Life can be cruel, Alice. But”—he straightened his shoulders—“we had it better than most. We had many lifetimes together. I suppose to some that would make us lucky and not cursed.”

I thinned my lips, not really sure he was buying what he was selling, but it was obvious he wanted to move on from thinking such sad thoughts, so I agreed with a reluctant nod. “If you say so.”

His cheek rested wearily on his knees, and I didn’t think of anything other than wanting somehow to make him feel better. Using a bit of the magic inside me, I twirled my finger, causing a golden, spiraling glow to dance through the air.

When the light dissipated, a table and chairs stood before us, and heaped upon the wrought iron surface were platters of tea cakes, cupcakes, and vanilla-honey tea.

He sat still as a statue, staring at the tea things as though they were a snake intent on striking him.

Which made me feel suddenly foolish and silly. I twisted my lips, dragging my fingers through the jean crease at my knee. “I um, thought that maybe”—I waved my fingers—“you might be hungry and want to eat something with me.”

His nostrils flared, and a tight muscle in his jaw twitched. “You made tea and cakes.” He said it slowly, and though he sounded none too pleased about it, I couldn’t help but shiver to hear that deliciously deep English accent of his roll with the vowels.

Giving a wimpy chuckle, I swallowed once. “Um, well yes. You showed me that garden scene, and I was suddenly hungry for some. But maybe I shouldn’t have done this. It was stupid. I am stupid. I’ll go now. I’m sorry, so sor—”

I made to stand, but his arm shot out like a laser, and his hand clamped down on my elbow, holding me tight.

“No. Don’t go, Alice. And you aren’t silly.”

Feeling so unbelievably stupid and selfish, I gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I am silly. This was your thing with her. I shouldn’t have done this. I just didn’t think, and I—”

But he was standing now and holding out his hand to me, looking down at me with a closed expression that felt full of some unnamed emotion. Hatter looked like a man drowning, and it was so stupid that I should care about a stranger like this when I hadn’t cared for anyone else in my time since being here, but I hadn’t lied when I said his emotions at times seemed so real to me that I felt myself choking on the on the weight of them.

His grip was absolute as he led me around to the chair, and only then did he release me in order to pull it out so that I might sit.

Casting him one final, worried frown, I did sit. And looked at the stuff I’d conjured without even thinking of it.