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I focused my energy, feeling the demon magic pulse and grow stronger within me. I stared at the metal bars of our cell, then stepped forward. Their coolness made me shiver as I passed through them and reappeared on the opposite side. I quickly took my human form, the one made of flesh and blood.
Just as I’d hoped, my sudden appearance caught the attention of a nearby guard who withdrew his sword and approached, his eyes narrowed in confusion.
“Hello there.” I gave him a polite wave, showing him I was completely unarmed. I had no need for weapons.
I was the weapon.
“How did you get out?” he asked, glancing at the locked metal gate and then back at me.
“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” I purred, grinning wide.
He aimed his sword at me while reaching for his keys, then opened the lock on the gate.
“You’d better get back in there before I kill you first,” he ordered.
I merely shook my head.
“That’s not going to happen.”
The shadows around us swirled around me as my body shifted into its beast form, until I was a hulking, demonic creature made of fur and fangs and massive claws. I reveled in watching the guard’s eyes widen in horror as he realized what I was.
“I’m a Cheshire Cat demon...that’s how I escaped,” I hissed. “And now I have to kill you.”
"Wha—what the—" he stammered, but before he could finish his sentence, I lunged forward, my giant claws slashing through the air and slicing his throat wide open. Blood sprayed all over my chest and neck, then against the cold stone walls as he crumpled to the ground, lifeless.
“That’s a terrible paint job, Chess," Hatter quipped as he motioned to the red blood spattered on the wall. In seconds, I’d shifted back to my human form, pristine and clean. I snatched the set of keys from the dead guard's hand, then quickly freed Hatter from his shackles.
“Take off your clothes,” I told him, nodding towards the guard's bloody uniform. Hatter’s eyes brightened with glee.
“What’s this? Is the cat feeling frisky?” he laughed as he unbuttoned his tattered shirt. “But if you insist...”
“I’m trying to help you escape, you nitwit earthbound fae,” I retorted with a light growl.
Together, we stripped the corpse of his armor and wiped it clean, then redressed him in Hatter's clothes. He busied himself with positioning the dead man’s body to look like he was sleeping while I made the bloody mess in the hall vanish.
Damn, it felt good to be back to my old self.
"Let's find Callister," I said, my voice low and urgent. Hatter nodded in agreement, his eyes filled with determination.
I made myself invisible, existing completely in the ether as we made our way out of the dungeon and through the castle. Nobody stopped us once—a single guard walking with purpose was almost as invisible as I was.
Being a demon with the power to appear and reappear at will, and to move through walls, I’d explored the Red Queen’s castle countless times. I knew my way around. I relied on my heightened sense of smell to track Callister's scent. It led us straight to the throne room, a place that was simultaneously opulent yet dripping in decay—a testament to the Red Queen's twisted reign of oppression.
The air was heavy with the scent of death. Here and there were large basins piled with severed limbs, the rotting flesh crawling with worms. Large, fat, carnivorous flies buzzed around, drunk on the never-ending source of food. Mold and mildew clung to the walls in broad, uneven patches of black and green.
A massive tent of glistening silver spiderwebs hung from the vaulted ceiling, trapping the most careless flies. Mushrooms and fungus of every shape and color sprouted out of every nook and cranny. Some were perfectly shaped for sitting on, but nobody in the room would dare. Not in the Red Queen’s throne room.
The windows were made of red stained glass, depicting gruesome scenes from the Red Queen’s countless victories in battle. The queen plunging a spear into a bandersnatch. The queen slicing through a colony of glitterblooms. The queen standing with one foot on the decapitated head of an Alice.
That last one never happened.
But the Red Queen wasn’t fond of the truth. Her vanity wouldn’t allow her to see it. And her subjects’ fear of her wouldn’t allow them to correct her.
She truly believed her own lies.
Long red velvet banners hung heavily from the walls, their once vibrant colors now faded and stained with age. They were embroidered with queen’s sigil of a heart. Smaller hearts had been embroidered in black all along the banners, but something was off about them. Dark red shriveled objects had been pinned to most of the smaller hearts. I squinted my eyes and looked closer.
It couldn’t be...
