Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Iplaced the last sliced strawberry on the shortcake and sighed happily as I looked at my beautiful confection. I’d take it to the station for Lieutenant Sato. My smile faded. And while I was there, I’d file a missing person’s report.
I packed it in my second favorite cake box, coral stripes with aqua butterflies and a solid coral lid, my favorite periwinkle one having gone to a vampire and her angel food cake.
How had that turned out? Hopefully better than my parents’ star-crossed love.
Where was my dad? The funeral was yesterday.
If he didn’t show up, would that put the entire burden of her medical and funeral bills on my shoulders?
I’d received a notice that morning of my termination at House Beur, along with a notice of eviction. Happily, as long as I was baking, I didn’t focus on the misery, just the sweetness. Some people buried their head in the sand. I buried my head in cake flour.
I dressed in a navy skirt suit, sensible heels that I could wear all day, and then I was ready to go to the station with my cake before handing out my resume everywhere I could.
As I walked from my bedroom through the living room and kitchen, there was a slight scrabbling on the exterior wall that had me turning to the window.
With a blur of movement, the glass shattered and goblins poured in, climbing around on the wall, ceiling, and floor like cockroaches released from a bottle.
I froze, disbelieving that something from my father’s bedtime stories could come true in my incredibly normal living room in the middle of the morning.
One figure walked instead of scuttling on all fours, all in black, green face bearing marks of scarification to show his tribe. The flow of goblins surrounded him until they reached me.
He took my chin in his clawed fingers and raised it, staring into my eyes with his cold, yellow gaze. “You are Zagad’s only child. Yes?”
“Zagad?” I squeaked then shook my head, but he didn’t release my chin. “My dad’s name is Charles.”
His eyes brightened, and he smiled, showing all his filed teeth.
“Charles?” He said it with a mocking accent.
“But his scent is here. Zagad. He owes me money he can’t pay while he’s in the devil’s birdcage.
Singing won’t pay bills, however sweet the song.
” His nails dug into my skin, pricking sharp, drawing blood I could smell.
He leaned close, deeply inhaling my blood until his nose brushed my lips.
I shuddered and pulled back at the contact, at the invasion of my personal space. “What do you mean, he’s in the devil’s cage?”
His eyes glittered with malice. “Birdcage. Way up high for everyone to see. The devil even dressed him in plumage. Very pretty.” He smiled again as he released my face and licked my blood off his fingers.
He ran his tongue over his jagged teeth and nodded at me.
“You’ll do nicely. If you aren’t wanted whole, your parts will be taken greedily. Such a rare chaos of blood.”
I was surrounded by other goblins crouched around me, eyes hungry, teeth bared.
Think. Think. How could I escape this mess? My father was notoriously clever, or he wouldn’t have been able to catch my mother’s heart, but I wasn’t half as clever, and my magic was like my blood, as he’d said, a chaos rarely coming out the way I wanted it to.
I licked my lips. “The devil? You mean the Devil of Wonderland? He has my father in a cage? Why?”
His eyes narrowed. “Why? You’re asking why instead of begging for your life? Not a clever one then. But pretty. Sparkling. How delicate are you? What sort of slavery would suit your physiognomy?”
I blinked at him and stepped back, knocked into one of the goblins, the unpleasant contact making me shiver. I was pinned in. Trapped. “Slavery is illegal,” I said, trying to sound confident.
He laughed, and all the goblins followed suit. Terrifying. “Do you think everyone bows to the goblin king? There are things in the shadows that a pretty little creature like yourself could never dream…I should say have nightmares, about.”
I smiled back at him and forced my heart to stabilize.
I focused on the baking, the cake, the perfect red slices of strawberry heaven in my cute cake box.
Showing fear was the worst thing you could do with a goblin.
The scent alone made them feral. “You’re quite sure my father is being held by the Devil of Wonderland?
I suppose he owes him money, like he owes you.
Don’t you think that sometimes cleverness leads to more trouble because you’re more easily bored?
For instance, now, this conversation is so boring.
If you were really going to enslave me, wouldn’t you have done it already? ”
He bared his teeth and reached for my throat.
I’d been wrapping my baking magic mixed with my fairy nature around me so that when he almost touched me, the magic worked, popping me into a teeny tiny mini-me package, cake box and all.
I spread my wings and flew, dodging bodies while they looked around wildly, not having expected me to disappear, but they were clever, and they knew that fairies could shrink to the size of a bullet at will.
The leader reached for me, and I slipped through his green fingers with pink pads, heading for the open window.
I dodged goblins who were crashing into each other, trying to catch me, and then I was at the window, past the mass of goblins. Did I mention my magic was chaos?
The small spell flickered out as I passed the frame, and I barely curled up in time to not knock my legs off on the bottom. But a shard of glass caught my shin, running down the bone like a goblin claw.
Goblins leapt after me as I fell out the window. I beat my wings as hard as I could to get height.
I didn’t practice flying enough, and my goblin bones were heavy.
I struggled to keep aloft down the alley while the goblins followed me, clinging to the building’s walls like a bunch of beetles.
I beat my wings harder and harder, but the goblins started leaping at me, and I had to dodge them.
I dropped then glided, trying to avoid them, but one caught a wing and ripped it with its claws before it fell, silent until the thud as it hit the alley.
It wasn’t as far down as it should’ve been.
I was losing height too quickly and my wings were straining—plus the tear was making it even more difficult to stay aloft. And dodging goblins…
I made it to the end of the building then flew across the street. Some goblins followed me; others scattered into the shadows, scrabbling along down below.
I flew, lower and lower. There, ahead of me was the escalator down to Song.
Going into goblin territory was the worst idea, but the Devil of Wonderland had my father.
And the goblins weren’t attacking him to get to my father, so Wonderland would be safe from them.
Except that the devil might also enslave me.
But at least he likely wouldn’t cut me up for parts.
And he wouldn’t be so creepy. Evil, of course, because who else jailed people’s fathers when they had a funeral to go to?
But also startlingly…well, he was handsome.
Everyone knew devils were ridiculously handsome, with those soulful sardonic eyes, cut cheekbones, and soft lips.
Lying lips that could talk anyone into absolutely anything.
But he wouldn’t threaten overtly, and I couldn’t remember a story about him that involved violence.
Of the two evils, he was the less immediate threat.
I dropped, spreading my wings as wide as I could and glided down into the shadowy depths of Song, goblins at my heels.
The flight through Singsong’s undercity was a blur around me, noise and motion that I ignored as I focused on reaching Wonderland.
I hadn’t ventured into Song often, but I’d gone to the grove with my mother when she got sick so she could put her memories into a tree.
I couldn’t hear trees, but it was still the most beautiful place I’d ever been.
Honestly, the only thing that seemed fairy about me were my wings—and being able to fairy shrink for a few seconds.
I’d never thought that would be useful, but apparently it was lifesaving.
I pumped my wings and breathed hard as I flew, aware of the shadows moving around me as the goblins spread their forces. Were there more of them now?
Yep.
Don’t panic. Breathe. Beat my wings. Even rhythm.
It was close to Wonderland, or I never would’ve made it. A goblin struck me from the right, and I spun around, hit a streetlamp, knocking it out of tune, then tumbled to the ground a few feet away from the entrance to Wonderland. The tall, elaborate iron gate beckoned me forward.
My blood was beating in my ears, the scent of it heavy around me, like the scent of hungry goblins. I scrabbled on the sidewalk, crawling and lunging, throwing myself at the gate.
It swung in before I touched it. I made it through, rolled over, and kicked the gate shut as the first goblin hit it.
A blue shimmer ran over the metal, and the goblin shrieked and leaped away, shaking blue sparks off his hands.
I sat there in a crab position as I stared at the iron gate, my cake box on my lap ridiculously undamaged compared to the rest of me. So much for looking professional enough to hand out my resume.
I trembled and shook while the adrenaline crashed, leaving me a shivery mess.
I leaned on my weak arms, staring through the gate at all the yellow eyes.
The leader walked up and cocked his head as he stared at me for a long, unblinking moment before he flashed a terrifying smile, turned and disappeared.
The smile was awful enough that I started shivering in earnest. The smile said that when I came out, he’d be waiting, however long it took.