Huntsman's Prey (3 page)

“Dani,” the scrollwork around her eye formed into the shape of a tear, “please, after all these years I do not doubt your love for us, nor for Chrysa, but you have to tell us once and for all what is happening to our daughter.”

With a heavy heart, Danika nodded, and touching the tip of her star shaped wand to her chest, she grew to human size once more. Wings buzzing in agitation, she started from the beginning. “When the moon cursed your daughter, I went to the council to ask for the books of Lore.”

“Lore?” Alice’s brow quirked.

“The fairy tales,” Hatter supplied for her, but his eyes never left Danika’s face.

She nodded. “Aye, the tales. I’ve researched for years how to break the moon’s curse.”

“But you spelled her that night, Dani. I heard you,” Alice nodded, “you said that she had the—”

“Gift of choice, yes I know I did,” she huffed, “and she still does. Your daughter can decide to not let the curse corrupt her. But curses are never really that easy, otherwise they wouldn’t be called a curse, they’d be called a wrist smack, right?” She chuckled.

They didn’t join in.

Danika cleared her throat. “So basically the curse turns her mad. Each year it only gets worse.”

“But she never manifested—” Hatter rumbled.

“Yes, she did,” Danika grimaced, folding her hands together as her palms grew slick. “I never told you, but when she was four I saw the darkness for myself. It consumed her, curled out of her body and enveloped her like a fog bank. I did not tell you because I did not wish to alarm you.”

Hatter was absolutely still.

As was Alice, but her gown was deepest black. The air was dense with the gathering undercurrent of emotions. Outside a murder of crows cawed.

“That was not your decision to make. You should have told us.” His words pierced Danika’s heart like a barb and she winced.

“I know that now. And I’m so, so sorry. I just love you two so much and you looked so happy, so hopeful,” the word spilled wistfully off her tongue, “I tried but… I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”

Sniffling, Danika dabbed at the corners of her eyes. What she wanted to do was get on her knees and beg for forgiveness, it was one thing to lie to Galeta, she hated that over-inflated bag of poo. But to lie to these two, it’d hurt, and being forced to expose her duplicity now, it hurt twice as bad.

But she held little hope her words would sway them, once a liar, always a liar. Trust was blown. She could only hope that in time they’d at least manage to forgive her, understanding that it came from a place of love.

A few seconds later, a heavy sigh spilled from Alice. Standing, she walked toward Danika towing her husband behind her. Danika expected a slap, what she did not expect was for Alice to wrap her up in a scented hug of cinnamon and clover.

“Dani, we love you and though it pains me to know she’s been sick so long, please do not take our harsh words as us saying we hate you. It hurts, but I can understand. Can’t we, Hatter?” She looked over her shoulder at her husband who didn’t seem nearly as willing to forgive.

Alice poked him in the ribs. “As someone who very nearly died of cancer, and left her entire family behind without a word to let them know how or why, I know what it’s like to feel you have absolutely no choice in a matter. I do not like what you’ve done, Danika, make no mistake,” Alice gave her a stern look, “but
we
can understand. Can’t we? Dear?”

Eventually Hatter managed to choke out a garbled, “Aye.”

“She’s been sick since she was four then?” Alice asked with a soft sigh.

Eyes swimming with tears, Danika huffed trying to dry them. Her throat was scratchy as she said, “Yes. In the books once the curse manifests the time bomb starts ticking away. There was no way for me to judge that on the eighteenth year she’d flip, or trust me I would have stopped the party, I swear it by my love for Jericho.”

Hatter’s lips pinched.

No, he’d definitely not be as forgiving as his Alice. Not that Danika couldn’t understand it, she did, if she were in his shoes she’d no doubt feel the same.

“So essentially she’s as mad as I was,” he said.

“No, goddess I wish. No, Hatter, she’s much worse. The child seems to have lost all sense of reason. The bloody massacre she left in her wake,” Danika shuddered, “that is why I say I’m not sure she’s capable of choice at the moment.”

The room grew loud with the tick-tock ringing of clocks.

“What do we do then?” Alice whispered.

Danika shrugged. “I do not know, my dear. But we must do something before the Ten catch wind of—”

Just then a manic shrieking caused them all to cry out and twirl, looking around for the source of noise. It was the clockwork monkey, half its leg was caught inside the snapdragon’s mouth.

But the monkey wasn’t shrieking because it’d been caught, it was shrieking because it was trying to grab hold of Leonard—Hatter’s pet mouse—who was waltzing drunkenly across the floor.

His bow tie hung haphazardly around his furry neck. The golden spectacles Danika had fashioned him for his birthday was shattered, split down the center of the frame. One of his ears was matted with dried blood.

“Leo!” Alice cried, rushing to the wee mouse and picking him up before he dropped to the ground.

The furry, little thing was panting and grabbing hold of his chest. His velvety nose was bright pink, and he sounded winded as he said, “I saw ‘er I did.”

“Her? Her who?” Alice shook her hand just slightly, because the mouse was definitely blinking and looking for all the world as if he were ready to pass out. “My daughter?” she tried again. “Leo, tell me, did you see Chrysa?”

“Mmm,” he nodded wearily, his eyes were closed now.

“Leonard,” Hatter leaned over his wife’s hand, “did she do this to you?”

It took two painfully gasping breaths, before the mouse could speak again. “Aye. Mad she was. Looked at me like she don’t know me, then she struck. Grabbed me so quick I near to peed meself.”

A visible shudder rippled down Alice’s spine, her dress shifted from blue to gray to black, over and over again.

“But then she done the strangest thing. All sudden, she blinked and opened her mouth and told me, ‘
RUN
’. I was dead, I was. Weren’t no coming back for me.”

Danika wiped the back of her hand across her mouth as an undercurrent of excitement whipped through her veins. “When she blinked, Leonard, did she seem to recognize you? Was there any awareness at all?”

Opening his beady eyes, he looked dead at Danika and nodded. “Aye, godmother, I do believe she did. I ran and she howled, but she never came after me.”

“How did your ear get torn?” Alice cooed.

“Fell down an ‘ole full of brambles. Ran for me life.” He whimpered, hugging his arms to his fat little chest.

Alice rubbed her finger along his fur. Hatter pulled her into his arms and they stood like that for a while. They’re sadness a palpable weight in the air.

But Danika wasn’t sad. No, on the contrary Leonard’s tale gave her hope. Not much, just a smidge, but more than she’d had a second ago.

“Why do you smile, Dani,” Hatter glowered, “can you not feel our pain?”

“No, no, you mistake me.” She waved her hands. “The curse has most assuredly gripped your daughter. And yet, for a split moment she was cognizant enough to let Leonard slip away. Somewhere in her head she remembers her old playmate. She let him go. Don’t you see?”

“See what?” Alice wiped her nose with the back of her hand, tucking Leonard into a pocket of her gown, patting it down gently.

“Choice!” Danika felt like pumping her fist. “If she’s capable of letting him go when the curse drives her so mad, then she is still capable of choice. She can be saved.” Jericho was right, the Cheshire was right. The answer to the riddle had been right here all along.

“But you were saying something about the Ten. What will happen to her if the Ten learns of her madness?” Hatter was quick to ask.

Truth time
. “Nothing good I fear. You know what they did to the Jabberwock.”

Both Alice and Hatter shuddered, they knew quite well what the ten had done to the chimera, man-eating beast.

“Madness is fine, so long as the madness is contained,” Danika continued, “once it runs amok—”

“They take care of the problem,” Hatter finished.

“No!” Alice scowled, yanking on Hatter’s arm. “You can’t let them hurt her, sweetheart. I swear if a single fairy lays a hand on my daughter I’ll rip it off and slap them with it.”

Hatter patted her shoulder.

Wincing in sympathy, Danika scrunched her nose. “No need to go ripping off hands, Alice. I think I know what to do.”

“What?” They snapped in unison.

“Many years ago I had to send a hunter to tail Hook, he’d grown, well…” she waved her hand, “well, you know,” she pierced them with her eyes, “he was wild. So I sent the Huntsman after him.”

“The queen’s tracker?” Hatter blinked and then snorted. “Oh yes, she’ll let him come to our aid, sure.” The sarcasm was hard to ignore.

Danika was a damn fine godmother. She’d not thought much of it at the time when she’d first met the Huntsman Aeric and felt the familiar tingle rush down her spine. The tingle of true love. Of course the pulse had been faint, but it’d been there.

In all those years since she’d first felt the shiver of love’s first bloom she hadn’t forgotten and always looked around for who the Huntsman was meant to be paired with.

It was almost as if Miriam were speaking to her through the great divide, because deep in Danika’s soul she sensed an answering awareness when she thought of the Huntsman with her Chrysa. There was something there that needed to be explored.

If anything could tame a beast, it was a huntsman.

But she’d not tell them that just yet, no need to give them false hope. For everyone within Kingdom knew the strongest, most surest magic of all was true love. If anything could break the curse, it would be that.

She smiled. It didn’t solve every problem, but it was a start. Tomorrow Jericho would visit her, she’d have to talk to him and see what else could possibly be done, but this was most assuredly a good place to begin.

“The Huntsman takes side jobs. He also happens to be a ward of mine. Though I rarely see him,” she grumbled, “Red Queen fatty keeps him so bloody busy.” Her wings buzzed angrily.

“No, I do not like it,” Alice shook her head, the scrollwork had now fashioned itself into a spearhead. “He’s a trained killer, bordering on psychopathic.”

Danika laughed. “Killer yes, psychopath… well dear, that’s what they all said about your Hatter.”

Alice frowned.

Hatter brushed his knuckles against her cheek tenderly. “He is the best. But, we should have no problem finding her. You say she’s leaving a trail of death in her wake. Surely if we just follow the corpses—”

Alice dry heaved, grabbing hold of her stomach.

“Sorry, my heart,” he whispered.

“No, I really do insist it be the Huntsman, he’s skilled, he knows what he’s doing and to be blunt, your daughter is dangerous.” Danika shook her head.

Dress a blazing shade of fiery orange, Alice shook her head. “She let Leo go, she’s—”

“To expect her to do that every time is the height of folly, my dear,” Danika said it softly and with love but also with force. “You did not see what I did. His experience will keep not only himself safe, but also her.”

“Danika, I swear by the gods,” Hatter growled, “can we trust you?”

It hurt that he should question her, but right now this wasn’t about her. This was about them and Chrysalis and righting a horrible wrong.

“If I fail in this, Hatter, I’ll let Galeta have her one hearts desire.”

“And that is?” His peaked brows quirked.

She shook her head, that was a secret only she and The Blue shared. “Trust me with her, I swear I shall do right by you.”

Become mad yourself…
Danika snorted, Cheshire was not as dumb as he might sometimes appear. This was a mad, mad business. Sure to fail.

But it was their only hope.

Closing her eyes, she called the Huntsman.

The bar was raucous tonight. The queen had found herself a new consort from the crystal region. A flamboyant peacock of a man with legs like a frog’s and a waist that stretched out farther than he was tall. She claimed love at first sight. In truth, it was lust… for his pocket book.

But the pig faced queen wasn’t much in the way of looks herself.

Tonight was the eve of the royal couples hand fasting, mandatory party for all denizens of the Red Queen’s court.

The Huntsman sat in the corner booth, his brown cape on and with hood over his head, keeping to himself as he often did. Chugging one tankard after another, feeling nothing.

Even as the laughter grew, as the woman attempted to lure him in with seductive poses meant to expose their scantily clad bodies, he felt numb.

The bar had been honed out of solid obsidian, only well placed grooves in the walls meant to hold fat beeswax candles helped to cut through the dark interior. Dwarves danced with hamadryad’s. Their bark like skin appearing more reptilian than tree like in the low lighting as they twirled and danced on bare feet around their miniature partners.