Page 13 of Cheshire’s Smile (The Crimes of Alice #3)

It took what felt like hours to walk through the Between. Our shoulders were tense, and our eyes shot around us, jumping at our own breathing. Finally, the reception desk finally came into view.

“Oh, thank the Reaper, we have finally arrived.” I paused, my shoulders sagging. All the tension melted away at the sight of the four doors circling around the wooden desk.

“Let’s not linger, pet.” Cheshire’s head moved from side to side, watching our surroundings. “We aren’t safe until we’re between those doors. Anything could still come after us.”

I gave a curt nod. “Right.”

My hand curled around Cheshire’s. We were almost home free, and I wasn’t taking the chance of losing him to whatever still lingered in the Between.

A part of me should have been worried about how easy it was to reach this point without another confrontation. There hadn’t even been any voices trying to call us off the path. To be honest, the silence was creepy, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it.

Had the sickness gotten all the fae creatures living in the Between? Or had they run off to the Human Realm? Both options were concerning.

For us, the first was the better option than the creatures rampaging all around the Human Realm. We didn’t need another catastrophe to deal with when we weren’t even finished our current problem.

However, if the sickness had gotten so bad that it was taking out the monsters that even the average fae feared, then it was gaining strength and fast. It meant we were running out of time, and I didn’t like that for Hatter or Cheshire.

“Where are the guards?” Cheshire asked once we stepped between the doors and stood before the reception desk.

There were guards here before. I knew there were. I remembered dealing with them several times already during my journey. The Seelie and UnSeelie both had guards for their doors, keeping out unauthorized visitors from wandering into the Fae Realm.

“Maybe they evacuated with the rest?” I mused as I stepped away from Cheshire to investigate.

There were no signs of a struggle or any indication of where they might have done off to. The doors were the same as they had always been. Tall. Foreboding. And, as I discovered after a jiggle of a door handle, locked.

I spun away from the doors that lead to the other realm to stand before the one we needed—the Shadow Realm.

I didn’t need to check the doorknob to know that this one was locked.

The chains wrapped around the wooden door were locked firmly in place.

No one was getting through without the magic to undo the binding.

“What do we do now?” I sighed and plopped down on one of the two chairs behind the desk. “Not only can we not get into the Shadow Realm, but even the door to the Human Realm is locked.” I lowered my face down to the surface of the desk. “This is hopeless.”

“It’s not hopeless.” Cheshire rounded the table and placed a hand on my back, rubbing it in soothing circles. “We will find a way to save them. I promise.”

My head lifted, eyes narrowed. “Fae can’t lie. So you’re either extremely confident, or you’ve picked up a new skill in the last hundred years.”

“No.” Chuckling, Cheshire sat in the other chair and pulled my chair so my legs were between his. “I’m afraid lying is still not one of my skills. But I do have faith.”

He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, his fingers caressing my face.

“Faith in you. If anyone can save us, it will be the woman who didn’t settle for a bad marriage.

The woman who found a way to become fae when no one else thought it was even possible.

” His hands clasped mine and held them to his chest. “The woman who would burn down the world for us without a second thought. That’s the woman who will figure this out and save us. ” He kissed my knuckles softly.

My gaze softened on him as my heart swelled with emotion. Then I grimaced, withdrawing my hands from his grasp. “You shouldn’t. I’m just going to disappoint you. I don’t even know what I’m doing. I’m making this all up as I go along.”

“And look how far we’ve come.” Cheshire leaned forward, his hands on my knees. “You got us to the Between. You faced your fear of the Hall of Mirrors. You can do anything, Alice.”

“Anything but unlock a door.” I leaned my elbow on the table, smacking the keyboard of the computer. “Maybe Kat has an idea of how to unlock the magic around the—” I trailed off my eyes, moving to the monitor that had come to life. “What’s this?”

The background of the screen was a still frame of a dark-haired, shirtless man with scraggly hair and a beard. They looked familiar to me for some reason. I could have sworn I’d seen them on the television at one point or another. Unfortunately, the name of the show eluded me now.

“Perhaps Type and Gripe have something on their device to help us?” Cheshire offered helpfully.

I highly doubted someone would leave the answer to unlocking the Shadow Realm’s door just sitting nilly willy here on a computer. It almost seemed too easy. Still, I squinted at the screen.

“It needs a password.”

Cheshire eyed the computer over my shoulder. “Perhaps Underground?”

I snorted. “Would it be that easy?” I typed the letters into the keyboard and hit enter. “Wrong. And we only have ten guesses left.”

“Well, there can’t be that many options.” Cheshire tried to reassure me once more, but he hadn’t been around computers the way that I had.

Kat had gone into extensive detail about the nuances of computers and all about cyber security. She’d almost strangled me when I tried to set my own password as simply that, password. Knowing the two-headed dodo bird, they wouldn’t have made such a moronic decision.

I leaned back in my chair, allowing Cheshire’s scent to fill my lungs while I chewed on my thumb. If I could only remember where those men on the background were from, then I would have some starting point at least.

Shoving my hand into my pocket, I pulled out the compact mirror.

“What are you doing?”

I opened it and stared hard into the surface. “Trying to will Kat to call me with my mind.”

“Can you do that?” Cheshire’s brow rose.

“No,” I huffed, “but it’s worth a shot. Unless we figure out this password, we have nowhere else to go. Not unless you want to go back out there.” I threw a hand toward the white void.

Cheshire shook his head.

“So, then, we wait.”

Cheshire hummed and brushed my hair away from my neck. “Well, if we have nothing but time on our hands right now...” His lips traced a hot pathway up my neck, where he nipped at my ear sending a hot bolt of desire through me. “I know a thing or two we can do to pass the time.”

My lips tugged up at the corners. “I don’t think here is the best place to be engaging in our baser instincts.”

His claw hooked under the neck of my dress and pulled it down, exposing his mark on my breast. “I think now is the perfect time. It will help you relax while we wait.”

He slipped his hand into my bodice and cupped the flesh, fingers twisting around my nipple. My back arched into his touch not caring that my mind had protested.

I couldn’t argue with his sound reasoning. We’d been through such a stressful few hours, and my mind was so cluttered with worry about Hatter and the Tweedles, I couldn’t remember the character on the computer’s background.

“Fine,” I moaned, leaning my head back to brush my nose against his. “I suppose I could use a bit of a distraction.”

The purring rumble that answered me sent a thrill down my spine. Cheshire’s free hand gripped my knee and easily drew them apart. Then he pushed the ruined skirt of my dress up until his fingers played with my bare soaked folds.

“Look at you, already so ready for me,” Cheshire growled low, his fingers lightly teasing up and down my core.

I gasped. My hips bucked, swiveling for more pressure. More friction. “Please, Cheshire.”

A masculine chuckle of satisfaction vibrated along my spine before the pad of his finger found the sensitive bundle of nerves. He pressed down, not moving, just giving me the pressure I craved.

But it was not enough. His tail slipped off his shoulder and wrapped around my ankle, forcing my legs further apart.

“Reaper, you are beautiful,” Cheshire murmured against my cheek, his eyes down on my exposed flesh. “I can’t wait to have you writhing beneath me again.”

“Then stop teasing me,” I quipped, grabbing at his hair. “Kat could call at any moment and I need to come.”

“Hmmm, such a greedy girl,” Cheshire hummed before he pressed a chastising kiss to my nose. “And yet I cannot find myself able to deny you.”

His finger moved in a circular pattern around my clit. Every third pass, he would swipe it across the top, making my hips jolt. I was dripping on the chair, though I couldn’t find it in me to care if the guards could smell me when they came back. All I wanted was for Cheshire to keep touching me.

“I’m close,” I panted, my fingers tightening in his long locks. “Please, don’t stop.”

Cheshire’s eyes darted between my face to between my legs as if he couldn’t decide which he wanted to watch more. His hand on my breast tightened to an almost painful squeeze at the same time his finger picked up the pace.

Then I was falling apart, my eyes blackening at the edge, my mouth opening in a silent scream.

Faintly, I heard a ringing sound, which was new for me. Usually, I almost go deaf when I orgasmed. Suddenly, hearing sounds must be a new high that only Cheshire could take me to.

“Alice, pet.” Cheshire brushed his lips across my forehead as he continued to stroke me through my release. “Your mirror.”

“My mirror?” I panted, brows furrowed. Then my eyes widened as I realized that ringing sound wasn’t in my ears—it was on the desk in front of me.

I grappled for the compact, shoving my skirt down even though I knew Kat wouldn’t be able to see it. Then I opened the device.