Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Sasha was sitting on the floor of Vile’s library. The black and white checkered, marbled floor looked so remarkably similar to that of the Queen of Heart’s palace and yet it was decidedly different. The pattern was just off. The white was more beige.
Which was good. It didn’t send her into a fucking panic attack.
Shutting her eyes, she scratched at her arm absent-mindedly.
Sniffling, she did her best not to cry, but couldn’t help it.
The tears ran down her cheeks anyway. It wasn’t until she shifted, moving her foot, that she heard something roll across the floor beside her.
It was metal, and cylindrical, and by the sound of it, a bit oddly shaped.
Looking down, she tilted her head to the side, studying the object in surprise. It was the scepter. The Queen of Heart’s—Vile’s—cane. She had been holding it when the story ended. “Huh…” She picked it up and turned it over in her hands. It was exactly the same one.
“Well done, my dear. The game is now tied, one-to-one.”
She jolted and scrambled up to her feet. Vile was standing on the ceiling, grinning up at her, which really was down at her.
It seems they weren’t quite done with Wonderland logic. She gripped the cane tight in both her hands to keep from scratching at her arm. “How is this thing still here? Tell me we’re not still in that fucking story.”
“Oh no, no.” He began walking toward the wall, stepping from the ceiling to the vertical surface like that old Fred Astaire dance routine. Gravity just didn’t seem to bother him in the same way as most people. “We’re quite done with that. Souvenirs can come and go as they please, however.”
“Souvenirs,” she repeated, flatly.
“Keepsakes. Mementos. For lack of a better word? Tchotchkes.” He walked down the wall to the floor, and was finally right-side-up. “Are you quite all right, Sasha dear?”
“No, I’m not.” She took a step away from him. “Not that you really care.”
The beleaguered, long-suffering sigh that left him was almost comical. He tipped his head back and stared up at the ceiling. “I cannot win with you people!”
The ruby cracked off his jaw before she even realized what she’d done. She’d taken the cane and swung it like a baseball bat and smashed him across the face with it.
His head reeled to the side from the blow. She watched as a small line of black blood ran from the corner of his lip.
No. It wasn’t blood.
It was ink.
It left a smear of blue-black on his pale skin as he wiped it from his chin with the back of his hand.
Apparently, she’d reached her emotional breaking point. She wondered if he was now going to break the rest of her to match.
Almost idly, he looked at the smear of ink on the back of his hand, as if he was seeing a rare sight. “No, my dear. I am not going to hurt you for that. I’m rather impressed. Acting impulsively is one of the few ways to catch me off-guard. You’re learning.” He took a step toward her.
“I wasn’t trying.” She took a step back from him.
“And that is precisely why you succeeded.” He took a step toward her.
And she took another one back. “You’re not mad?”
“Mmh. No.” He ran his tongue along the cut.
It was already gone. “Hit me all you like, if it pleases you. If it brings you peace. I am quite used to being dealt much suffering so that others may work through their own issues at length. I am often the butt of other people’s moral lessons, after all. ”
She tried not to focus on his presence or on the way his tongue moved over the cut on his lip.
Fuck.
Too late.
With a sigh, she turned her back and walked away from him. Gripping the scepter tight in one hand, she waited for the inevitable mocking. The gloating. “You know if you try anything, Virtue and Sidney will just interrupt you again!” She rounded a corner and pulled up short.
He was standing right there in front of her. Of course he was.
Hands clasped behind his back, he wasn’t gloating. Or mocking. She expected him to be smirking or sneering down at her. He wasn’t doing any of those things. He was just…watching her. Flat. Empty. Not curious. Not judging. Not anything.
Blank.
Waiting.
“What?”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “What?”
Turning on her heel, she went to storm off in the other direction.
And pulled up short.
“Oh, fuck off.”
He was right there. Again. “What?” He repeated at her. “You give me far too much and far too little credit all at once. Pick one.”
“What do you mean?” She took a step back.
“Am I to be a creature made only of malice, incapable of feeling? Cruel, all-knowing, evil without any other goals? Or do you wish me to care for you, to desire you, to want you? Make up your mind.” He took another step into her, closing the distance between them.
It sent her staggering backwards, nearly tripping over her own feet. “Stop that.”
“No. I brought you there because I thought it would cheer you up. Only to find it made you do that to yourself!” He gestured at her arm. She didn’t need to look, because she knew what he was pointing at. The scratches.
That was when she saw it.
The anger in his eyes. It was faint, buried in the purple glow. But it was there. Not at what she’d done. Not at the situation.
But at her.
An equal fury rose up in her own chest. “Don’t you dare.” Growling, she jabbed a finger into his chest. “Don’t you dare look down your nose at me—”
His hand snapped around her throat. And before she could even register what had happened, she was slammed up against the wall. The scepter-cane clattered to the ground loudly beside them.
It was like he had thrown every switch in her body. Everything in her both turned off and turned on at exactly the same time. It took her a few seconds to realize what he was saying to her.
“—too intelligent to lose yourself to such things!”
He wasn’t hurting her. The hand around her throat wasn’t squeezing. But its presence there was inarguable. The smell of him—of roses, of wet ink—overwhelmed her.
“I haven’t been back in that place until you brought me there,” was all she could say in reply.
“I haven’t even thought about it since.” She winced.
Not because of his hand at her throat. But because of the memories.
Maybe she had baggage she should have sorted out and put away.
But it still wasn’t her fault it had been dug up and dragged out for public enjoyment.
“You outplayed me as Moriarty, Sasha. Moriarty!” He snarled down at her, his face a mask of rage. “And you let yourself be consumed by something as trivial as Wonderland? A damnable child’s story!”
She shoved him in the chest as hard as she could.
When he took a step back and let her go, giving her six inches of space and dropping his hand to his side, she knew it was only because he allowed it.
But she was happy for the space and the air, all the same.
“It’s only a child’s story to you. I told you what it means to me. ”
“And you are too intelligent to let something so pathetic break you apart. That is my point.”
“You don’t get to make that choice, Vile.” She rested her head back against the end of the bookcase that he had pushed her up against. “I don’t think I even get to make that choice. Not consciously. Not without a lot of work.”
“Humans.” He paced away from her a few steps and rubbed his hand down his face. They stood in silence for a long moment. “The strife I caused you in that regard was unintentional.”
“I know.” She paused. “I don’t blame you for that.”
Another long, long stretch of silence. “Good.”
Did he…just…thank her? He had a tone.
He shot her a vicious look. “No.”
That made her laugh. It was a weak, tired, laugh. But it was a laugh. “You’re impossible.”
“And yet here we are.” His gaze trailed down to her arm. To the red scratches. “Do not do that again, Sasha.” It wasn’t a request. It was an order.
“That’s not for you to decide.”
“We’ll see.” He smirked. The playful expression on his face was marred by a strange kind of worry in his eyes.
But she tucked that away into the corner of her mind. She’d been mistaken. That wasn’t possible. Looking away, she took a deep breath, held it, and slowly let it out, trying to steady herself. “Where do you think we’ll go next? It’s Sidney’s turn.”
“It’s Virtue’s turn, actually. Which is even worse.
I cheated and chose the last story. So, he will likely talk Sidney into choosing the next one.
He will already have it picked and approved by your dear sister by the time they come to find us, so that we cannot intercede or have anything to say about it before we are thrown into the mess.
” He ran a hand through his hair, smoothing it back away from his face.
“Great.” Who knew what the fuck Virtue would pick.
“Likely something he knows he will win. Something he and your Sister will be the sole focus of. One where their loooooove may flourish.” He wiggled his fingers in the air dramatically as he drew out the word love.
She was surprised there weren’t actually sparkles in the air.
“Don’t tempt me. I can do it.” He grinned at her.
That got a real chuckle out of her. “Sidney is going to be furious at me. I had her killed.”
“Pah!” he scoffed. “Off page! She didn’t even feel it. Not even a memory of it to bother her.” With that, he began to pace back and forth in front of her. “I positively spared her. I was weak, this last round. Boring. Listless. Why? I think because of you.”
“Me?”
“Yes! You did not want to be there. You had no direction or desire to be in the story, so neither did I. Oh, that is troubling.” He wrinkled his nose. “I’m not sure that has ever happened before. I do not like that at all.”
“What hasn’t happened before?” She decided she needed to no longer be standing. This was all getting exhausting. Walking to one of the long library tables nearby, she sat on the edge of it.