Page 17 of Dark & Darker Still (Vane and Roc: Origin)

Sixteen

Alice

In Wonderland, you learn at an early age that you must always be wary around jabberwockies and if you should come across one that has shifted, you have just a few seconds, and fewer tools, to protect yourself from being devoured.

The first thing is caution and the second thing is mercury.

And though I’ve lived the last four years in close quarters with two of the most powerful jabberwockies, I always make sure I have a vial of mercury on me at all times. Like the royal family, I keep a vial strung from a silver chain around my neck.

Yanking the vial off the chain with a hard pull, I make my way back to the billiards room.

I give the cracked door a nudge.

There are three pendant lights in the room, hanging from chain attached to the ceiling. Two of them have been smashed, casting deeper pockets of shadow around the room.

In the back corner, I spot Roc in his jabberwocky form. All dark shadows and mist and glowing yellow eyes.

I step over the threshold, careful to make no sudden movements.

Once I’m inside, I nudge the door closed with my boot. We can’t risk Roc escaping and terrorizing the Umbrage or Darkland at large. It’s already gone too far.

What have I done?

I just wanted to frighten Gen, to prove to her she was in over her head. Vane is good at catching himself before the turn. But that moment before the shift happens is terrifying on a good day, enough to scare a spoiled, narcissistic heiress.

It was supposed to be Vane. Not Roc. It was supposed to be Vane’s watch.

The room is empty save for Roc. I don’t know how many people he was in here with, but I know for a fact he was entertaining the Captain of the Guard and the royal princess.

Only the guard made it out.

Which means…

“Roc.”

His silhouette has no shape. It’s just dark mist.

“It’s me.”

I hold up my left hand while keeping my right slightly behind me, the vial of mercury safely tucked in my palm.

Mercury is like poison to jabberwockies.

If they ingest it, it will subdue them. If used on them directly, it burns.

The problem with using it on a jabberwocky that’s already shifted is that their body exists on another plane.

It’s neither here nor there. More of a nightmare cloud than a body with substance.

If I can get close enough to him, though, I can splash it like acid and it should be enough to pull him back into his body.

I edge around the pool table, hoping like hell he doesn’t go in the opposite direction. He’ll be faster than me and if he gets to the door before I do, I may not win this fight.

I take another step and his form vibrates, several ripples running through his mist like a rock dropped into a well.

Another step.

He pulls to the opposite direction, backtracking to the opposite side of the pool table.

I freeze.

“I just want to help you.”

I’ve only had to deal with Roc shifting one other time and I had Vane by my side to help. When I asked him later if he remembered what we said, or if he was cognizant of his surroundings while being in his monster form, Roc’s answer was, “In a sense.” But he left it at that.

When Roc goes still again, I take another step.

He mirrors me, moving in the other direction. Now the pool table is between us and he’s closer to the door than I am.

I can’t let him get away. His entire existence is at risk because of me. And it wasn’t even about him.

This entire time, Roc has always had my back. He’s taken my side when he could have easily taken Vane’s. Not because he was being difficult but because it was the right thing to do. He always does the right thing.

Until now.

Because of me.

I summon all of the energy I have and lunge forward.

He darts away.

“Shit. Roc!” I climb on the table, race down its length, tear off the cap on the vial of mercury, and leap after him.

There’s a monstrous roar, the smell of burning flesh and something deeper, like ichor, like death.

A plume of dark mist clouds around me and then suddenly Roc is corporeal, and we crash together to the floor.

He’s a tangle of limbs, his clothing torn, his face and hands covered in blood and gore. There are three lacerations across his face where the mercury singed the skin and muscle.

“Roc. Roc!” I scramble around him, righting him on his back.

His chest rises and falls with breath and checking his neck, I find a pulse.

“Thank god.” I sit back on my butt, heart racing in my ears.

This is the fallback of a jabberwocky shifting—they devour everything in front of them, and then when they shift back, they’re comatose.

Sometimes it’s a few hours, sometimes a day or two.

At the worst, it’s a week. But Vane and Roc are old enough now that he’ll likely be out for at most a few days.

Just enough time for us to clean up this mess.

But how the fuck are we going to explain away the disappearance of a Lorne princess?

Tears burn in my eyes.

I prop myself up against the wall and draw my knees into my chest.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.

Roc didn’t deserve this. And now we’re all going to suffer the consequences of my actions.