Page 25 of Madness Becomes Her

“The palace still.”

“Do you have a deal with the queen? Will she let her go after so long?”

Bonnie said the last time I was here, I was fifteen. I’m thirty now, and Fin’s sister was already a hostage when I started coming here, so if there was a deal, the queen isn’t honoring it.

“No deal other than if I continue to hat her bulbous head, my sister remains alive.”

“Is she well cared for?”

“She claims she is.”

Sadness burns in my chest. “Well, we’ll find her and bring her home.”

“The queen won’t like that.”

“Fuck the queen.”

“Eleanor!” he reprimands, grabbing my wrist and pulling me to him. He slaps a hand over my mouth, looking around the room as if somewhere, hidden amongst the tulle, one of her guards lies in wait to report treason. “You mustn’t speak like that. What if someone heard? She’d cut off your beautiful head and deliver it to me.”

“You think my head is beautiful?” I whisper when he drops his hand.

“You know I do.”

“And you’d miss it if it were off my neck?”

It’s not lost on me how delusional I sound right now, but I can’t help it. It’s his presence, this world.

“How would I finish your hat if you had no head?” he whispers back, and once again, we’re dancing around a kiss I long for him to give me.

I know he’s fighting it because of the Eleanor he knew before, the one who popped up in his garden, looking for safety and comfort.

“Tiger Lily, I—” he starts, but a knock at the door summons his attention away, and his head turns.

I could strangle whoever it is!

“Hatter!” Lewis’s voice sounds anxious as he raps away on the door again.

Fin looks at me, and I nod, straightening my bed clothes as if Lewis will be able to tell the state we were just in a moment ago before his interruption.

Fin smirks, swinging the door wide.

“What is it, Lewis? You’re early.”

“The Queen. She summons you. Make haste! We’re already late!”

CHAPTER SEVEN

THREATS, PROMISES, AND GOOD INTENTIONS

Tagging along with Finlo and Lewis, my feet hurt from trying to keep up. They’re moving at breakneck speed. We’ve walked through two whimsical towns, neither of which they let me dawdle in.

The palace looms overhead, looking slightly different from in my memories because now I have the context of understanding the ruthless woman inside it.

The staircase winds up the edge of the black mountain perched atop, and my body aches as I think about trudging up it.

“You can always stay down here?” Lewis offers. “I have some coin; you could take it into town and walk the market?”

I swallow, watching Finlo’s eyes look down. There’s shame in them, and I find myself wondering if it’s a shame because he wants me to come with him or the opposite.