“For what?”
Jinni asked. “I’m no use to anyone anymore.”
Ewan had to strain to hear over the wail of the winds. Black sky ripped open with a jagged streak of yellow light, thunder exploded in their ears.
“To scare away the Jabberwocky should he
come.
” Ewan cupped his mouth to be heard.
He rolled his eyes, crossed his arms over his chest, and said, “And how am I to do that? Cry
boo
?”
When Ewan had first come to
Danika
, he’d hated her.
Hated his life.
To have found his mate and have her stripped away on that very same night; it’d driven him to madness. Hatter had been useless, his lunacy more than Ewan could bear. Gerard and Hook, neither one could be counted as friend. But it’d been Jinni, who’d brought him back from the brink. He still wasn’t sure why the genie had done it for him, but he was grateful. Those had been dark days, dark times. He trembled remembering.
“Have ye seen your face lately, ghost? ‘
Tis
a frightful sight.
Ye’d
scare anyone with a glance.”
Jinni snorted, but something of the old twinkle came back to his face. “I’m not good company today, Wolf. Leave me be.” He turned, clearly intending to disappear once more into the goddess forsaken excuse he called a home.
Ewan snarled. “I’ll howl the entire bloody night, be a constant source of irritation in
yer
miserable existence. Ye will come. Now, or later, but ye will come. Decide, Jinni.” He narrowed his eyes at the still visage of his floating friend.
Seconds ticked past, then a minute, two. Jinni didn’t turn, didn’t move or even flinch, for a moment Ewan considered he might have to put his search on hold just to make good on his threat when the specter finally heaved a loud sigh of disapproval.
“Lead the way, filthy mongrel,” Jinni said, but there was no heat behind the words, more a detached acceptance.
It wasn’t in his nature to be particularly thoughtful of the feelings of others, especially another male, but Ewan worried at this rate the genie may not be around another year.
A particularly strong gust barreled into Ewan just then, nearly knocking him flat and forcing him to shove thoughts of genie aside. He needed to
become
the wolf again; next gale might drive him below sea. Gods forbid that should happen,
t’was
nigh impossible to extricate oneself from within a sea maiden’s clutches for at least a fortnight should she catch you. Lustful wenches they were.
Calling his power, he
shifted,
content to be back in wolf form. Sounds were sharper, smells richer, and his senses more keen.
He shot like a bolt away from the cliff’s, not worried about going slower. Jinni could follow with a thought.
The moment Ewan entered Hatter’s woods the landscape shifted. Trees, once tall with trunks thick and brown, were now contorted monstrosities painted in rainbow hues. Some were speckled, others striped. Leaves the color of rust reached out on twisted limbs, attempting to wrap their snake like ends around his tail.
The magic in these woods distorted and twisted everything. Anywhere else in Kingdom a tree was just a tree, but not here. These trees did not bear fruit for others, nor were they attractive to gaze upon. They were carnivores, seeking easy prey to devour.
But that was only the beginning of the surprises to be had within the mad realm.
Birds and insects flitted by, resembling that which they were named after. Horse flies whinnied at his passing. Wolf could not stop, and would not look back. Only the unschooled did so. Before
Alice
, the woods still held an element of the arcane, but it’d been tame, innocent, and not nearly so dark.
Since her return, the woods were full to bursting with the Hatter’s mad magic. Trees that’d seemed mundane in years past were once again treacherous and capable of killing an unwary soul.
Pollen dusted his nose when he ran headlong into a thicket of posies and thorns. Ewan sneezed, clawing at his nose, but never stopping. Not when the hooked thorns tore into his side,
nor
when Jinni laughed.
“Your obsession with finding your mate is not worth this, surely, Wolf?”
Ewan ignored him.
Morpho
butterflies erupted from the brush, filling the sky with their electric blue shimmering. Pads of butter squirted from them, coating Ewan’s fur with the sweet hint of clover. He curled his nose, hating when they did that.
A distant howl rang through the woods and the fur around his neck stood up. Lips curled back, teeth gleamed as he growled low and pushed harder, kicking up dirt in his wake. Demonic laughter zigzagged all around him.
High, low, in the sky, in the ground.
A crescent slice of teeth materialized in his sights.
“Whom, do you seek?”
Cheshire
asked. “Oh wait…” A tiger striped face manifested within a plume of smoke. “We all know the answer to that riddle, do we not?
Big.
Bad.
Wolf.”
Snarling, Ewan plowed through the image, huffing as he inhaled the brimstone fumes.
Eyes, independent of one another, bounced inside Jinni’s chest. Blinking, opening wide, and then narrowing into slits.
Jinni rolled his own eyes, but apart from that, gave no other indication of annoyance.
“Hmmm…”
Cheshire
’s ghostly voice returned.
The floating eyes turned its glance on Ewan--who was now coated in sweat, pulse hammering wildly as he tried to reach the edge of the woods with his sanity intact.
A branch rushed out, latching onto Jinni’s ephemeral ankle. But Jinni phased through it, the tree shuddered and shook a wooden fist at him.
Just a little further.
Ewan sailed clear of a tree root lifting up from the ground.
“I could tell you where she’s
at
,Wolf
.” The cat smiled its ghostly smile up at him with pointed teeth sharper than his own.
Blood rushed through Ewan’s ears, his heart thumped hard against his ribcage. The cat lied. He always lied. He was a trickster, a deceiver, better to tune him out.
But what if he knew?
Blinking furiously, panting even harder, Ewan shook his head. How could the cat know? Not even
Danika
knew?
T’was
impossible, the cat toyed with him again.
Pain ripped through his sides as he ran harder, using every ounce of energy left to exit the woods quickly. Ahead he saw the glimmering wave of twilight, the edge of Hatter’s forest. Warmth seeped from his padded feet, he’d cut himself somewhere. Almost as if the thought conjured them, gnats descended in a black haze, attracted to the scent of his sweat and blood, they nipped at him.
“Don’t you want to know?”
Cheshire
floated fully in front of him, relaxed and licking one paw. “Aren’t you even the slightest bit curious?”
“Go away, cat,” Jinni said sharply, his vaporous hand streaked through the tabby, who only laughed as if he’d been tickled.
Squeezing his eyes shut for a brief moment, Ewan tried to recall where he’d heard her cries. Yesterday hunting along the border of the woods, he’d heard her faint call. She’d whispered ‘wolf’ and his heart had clenched. For the first time ever he felt hope, hope that his ordeal would soon be over.
He looked around him, at the still black night, at the trees that were now returning to normal. Somewhere a raven cawed. He licked his teeth.
Malvena
had spies everywhere.
Miriam had been right all those years ago.
Malvena
no longer cared whether Ewan lived or died, but that did not mean she’d left him in peace. It’d been years since he’d worked for her, but Ewan knew her mind, knew the mystery of that night ate her alive. No doubt, Patrick the Red had been killed. He might have felt a flicker of remorse, but Patrick had tried to end his mate’s life, sadness was simply not in him. If
Malvena
hadn’t done it, caution be damned, Ewan would have. He’d have found a way to slink back to his clan just so that he could rip Patrick’s still beating heart from his chest for daring to lay one claw on her.
The cat floated at the edge of sanity and reason, a creature of madness and lunacy unable to go further for fear of losing himself beyond the safety of his magic forest.
Ahead the land rolled like the soft swell of a rolling sea. Stopping, Ewan panted, catching his breath, waiting for his heartbeat to return to its normal rhythm. Jinni floated by his side, gazing up at the bejeweled sky with profound longing painted on his face.
“The fairy has lied to you, wolf.”
Cheshire
lifted a brow, the perpetual grin curving higher like twin sickles. Cat’s voice was low, filled with hubris. “The girl is not here. She never was. She’s on Earth. A place called, A-
Laska
.”
His chuckle grated on Ewan’s nerves.
Popping his eyeballs out,
Cheshire
juggled them in the palms of his fuzzy hands. “Ask me how I know, dog.”
“The cat lies, Ewan,” Jinni hissed. “Do not listen to his madness.”
“Do I? I did not think that I did.” He tossed the eyes higher into the air with each pass, until finally he threw them so hard, they blazed a white streak through the night.
A memory floated to the very edge of his consciousness, so brief it’d almost slipped by unnoticed. Ewan latched onto the image.
Danika
had mentioned something at the table the night she’d promised Hatter his mate; their mates were from Earth.
His nostrils fluttered. He’d dismissed her words as unimportant, all knew Red was his, and hidden somewhere within Kingdom.
Danika
had been talking to the others, not to him.
But what if she hadn’t been? What if she’d slipped and he’d been too stupid to realize it? Was Red on Earth? And if so, why had
Danika
sent him on chases all through Kingdom for years with ‘sightings’.
Surely not.
His godmother wouldn’t lie to him? Not like that.
But what if…
Calling the
unbecoming
, Ewan ignored the sharp sizzle of snapping, sliding bones, and strutted to the gloating cat.
“What do ye ken,
Cheshire
?” His voice shook from the depths of his belly.
Balls of white fell back to the cat’s open mouth. He swallowed the twin orbs and blinking rapidly, readjusted his pale silver eyes before answering. “The birds talk. Talk. Talk. Incessant chatter; drives me simply mad.”
He narrowed his eyes, tugged on the cat’s scruff, surprised
Cheshire
let him. It didn’t last long, the cat faded in a puff of smoke. Only his whisper remained.
“She’s been found.” Then he laughed, and the woods behind him echoed with the strain of a thousand eerie cackles.
“What?!”
Ewan thundered, whirling on the only other soul around.
“He’s a liar,” Jinni said with a firm shake of his head. “Do not listen.”
Fury ripped through his body, blanketed his mind with visions of death, and gore.
“
Danika
!”
Ewan thundered, roared her names to the heavens.
Hot air smacked his cheek, and with a crack of lightening,
Danika
hovered before him. Corn silk blue eyes were large in her pale face; wisps of gray blond curls framed her head in a halo effect. But he wasn’t fooled. He knew what the fairies were capable of, had seen their savagery for himself.
Taking a deep breath,
Danika
nodded. “It is true.”
Words escaped him, his mind went blank.
“The cat should not have told you. I came only just now to--”
Snarling, Ewan snatched her from the air, wishing her could squeeze the life from her fragile body. “How could ye? I’ve done all
ye’ve
asked and more. Trusting ye would help me find her, ye swore it. When I found Gerard that was
yer
promise.
Yer
oath…”