Page 26 of Dark & Darker Still (Vane and Roc: Origin)

Twenty-Five

Alice

Jade informs me it’s Salty’s day off and since the Joker’s Den is still closed, I find him at his second favorite bar—The Bee Hive.

It’s not as popular as the Joker’s Den, so the crowd is thinner and quieter.

The Hive specializes in honey wine, so no one is smashingly drunk. It’s more of a sipping crowd.

When I ask Salty for a card, he makes a show of being affronted.

I came prepared, of course.

I pull my hat out of my jacket.

“This was made for me by the Madd Hatter. You can have it in exchange for a card.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “ Thee Madd Hatter?”

“Yes.”

Salty knows the name, of course. Everyone from Wonderland knows of the Madd Hatter. But he doesn’t know my history with Madd. He doesn’t know that at one point, I would have taken a bullet for him.

“What’s it do?” Salty asks.

“Makes you invisible.”

His eyebrows lurch up. “For real?”

“Yes. You want to make your way up the rank in command,” I say, “this will do it and quickly.”

“I don’t disagree, but once someone higher up finds out what it can do, they’ll confiscate it.”

I shake my head. “It can’t be taken. It must be given.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Try to take it from me.” I keep my hands loosely on the brim.

Salty examines the hat, then scans my face for any kind of deception. Deciding he likes the odds, he reaches across the table and tries to take the hat from me. Instead, he gets a sharp zap of pain.

“Shit.” He yanks his hand back, shaking it out. “That will happen every time?”

“Yes.”

“If I’m being honest, that hat has more value than one of my cards because I don’t plan on ever going back to Wonderland.”

“There’s value in the card for me. I consider it an even exchange.”

He nods. “Okay. But I don’t understand why you’d want to go back. You don’t even know what you’re returning to.”

“Jade said the same thing.”

“Yeah, well, she has a point.”

“My reasons are my own.”

He turns his glass of honey wine, toying with it as he asks, “This have anything to do with what happened to Lainey?”

“Of course it does.”

He nods and reaches into his jacket, pulling out a handstitched leather wallet. In an inner pocket, he retrieves a card—a queen of clubs.

He sets it on the table between us. Like Jade’s card, Salty’s queen shimmers beneath the light. “It’s yours,” he says. “Free to take.”

“I need the hat for one more day.”

He sits back in his chair, hands folded over his stomach. “You can take the card. I trust you.”

A pang of sadness hits me. At one point, I questioned whether or not Salty could be trusted simply because he worked for the royal family. But it turns out I am the one who cannot be trusted.

“Keep your queen until tomorrow.”

“All right.” He slips the card back in his wallet.

“But I have one more favor to ask.”

He waits.

“I need you to get me inside the palace.”

There is one more card to obtain, but before I can get it, I need to make one more stop.

I find Nix still lingering at Kenny’s. They’re both in the kitchen while Kenny’s shop girl runs the front. Kenny is melting chocolate in a pot while Nix samples the day’s freshly baked goods.

“I have a question for you,” I say.

Nix says, “Oh yeah?” around a mouthful of chocolate donut.

“Did you really come here on a job?”

He smiles at me, swallows. “Nah. I’m on vacation.”

“I knew it.”

“Even assassins need rest.”

Kenny rolls her eyes from her place by the stove.

“Do you feel like taking on a job?”

Nix licks chocolate frosting from the end of his finger. “Maybe. Depends on who it is and the price you’re willing to pay.”

One of the benefits of living with the Madd brothers that I am eternally grateful for is that they’ve never charged me rent. Which means all of the money I’ve earned over the past few years has been saved.

I set two fae gold bars on the worktable.

Nix pauses his licking and eyes the metal gleaming beneath the pendant lights.

“That’s a lot of money.”

“I know.”

“Who do you want me to kill? The king?”

“Close.”

He raises a brow.

“A witch.”

“Alice,” Kenny says, an air of reproach in her voice.

“Let the adults barter,” Nix says, keeping his gaze on me.

“I have a way inside the palace and a method to conceal your movements. I just need you to back me up if I get into a spot of trouble, but my priority is the witch. I want her dead.”

Nix sweeps up the gold with quick, deft fingers. “You have yourself a deal.”