Page 144 of Happily Ever Witch
Villains didn’t hike.
Luckily, they were getting closer to the Club Palace, so they could kill people soon. That would be a welcomed relief from all the icky, unspoiled beauty.
From this distance, Esmeralda could already see a tall, black-and-white clock tower looming. For some reason, she sort of liked the strange structure. It seemed like there was a chessboard on top of it, rather than a numbered dial. Frigging bizarre, sure. But, it made her think of the Cheshire Carpet andthatreminded her of the Heart Castle and, weirdly,thatassociation wasn’t so terrible, at all. Thinking about the Heart Castle was actually soothing.
Homey.
God Knew, nothing else in the kingdom was calming. Certainly not the weather. A lifetime of dreading water meant Esmeralda had automatically recoiled, when snow began falling. But Trevelyan’s waterproofing spell kept her warm and dry.
As her instincts gradually caught up with her mind and body, her confidence grew and a smug sort of happiness took its place. Despite the unappealing wholesomeness of their pine-scented surrounds, things could be a lot worse. She was walking in the snow with her True Love! It was like a frigging Christmas song. Without giving herself time to think about it, she reached out to take hold of Trevelyan’s palm.
He glanced down in surprise and didn’t pull away. Instead, his fingers slid between hers, linking them together. His lips curled up at the corners.
Esmeralda bit back a smile. She might be pissed at the man. --He still wasn’t tamed and never really would be… He was always setting stuff on fire… He wascompletelytrying to trickher into marriage.-- But no one could deny that he belonged to her. A thousand percent.
A girl could do worse for a mate.
“I still think the Queen of Clubs is only blocking the Bad magic.” She told him casually, because they’d been talking about this for a while. His incredible powers were one of his favorite topics, ranking just after sex and his assortment of hated enemies. “Some of my energy is still okay.”
Not that her Good half would do her much --ya know--good. She could feel it within her, but she didn’t exactly know what to do with it.
“I’m not sure how this new spell of hers even works. Especially, at a distance.” He sounded distinctly pouty. “There shouldn’t be any spells that I can’t dissect.”
“I told you the magic here is --like-- it’s own thing. It’s going to amp up every spell to make shit even crazier.” Esmeralda gestured to the winter Wonderland they were walking through. Every not-so-unique snowflake was shaped like a tiny club. “This whole kingdom thrives on chaos.”
“I thrive on chaos too, but not when it’s working against me. And it seems like it’salwaysworking against me, in this misbegotten land.”
She considered that. “Maybe that’s a feature, not a bug.”
“Oh God… Are there bugs here?” He looked around in distaste. “They’re probably ridiculous and chattering, like every other creature in Wonderland.”
“No, I mean maybe the magic here is targeting you and me, because we’re the ones trying to rule this place. It wants to make sure we’re up for the job, so it’s throwing weird-ass testsour way.” She arched a brow. “Have I mentioned I suck at tests?”
“Don’t worry. I’m a dragon. I excel at everything.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying, maybe Wonderland wants to see you excelwithoutusing your powers as a cheat-code. Maybe prove that you can make some allies.”
…Which meant for her, it was probably the opposite. Esmeralda typically got through her life with minor spell-casting. Wonderland probably wanted to see her rely on her magic, for a change. God, that was a stupid plan, even for this stupid place. Her Bad powers were disastrous enough. Just using Good spells, they were outright doomed.
“But, magic is whatmakesdragons excel.” He grumbled. “Without it, no one can be a true villain.”
Esmeralda glanced his way, surprised by that crack in his supreme confidence. “You can. Magic isnotwhat makes you the best at being Bad, Trev. I told you before. You’re just as big a deranged maniac without it.”
“You think?”
“Iknow. You’ve barely had any powers since I’ve met you and you’ve been absolutely awful the whole time.”
“Sweet of you to say so.” He gave her fingers a squeeze. “Horrific villainyisan innate talent of mine, I suppose.”
Esmeralda snorted at his boastful tone, but she was pleased to see his normal arrogance return.
“Still, if my powers weren’t being blocked, I could transport us right into the Club Castle and the Queen wouldalready be dead.” He went on. “I hate waiting for my enemies to suffer.”
“She’ll be horribly murdered soon.” Esmeralda consoled, nodding to the ominous, white palace in the distance. “And you got us this close to the castle.”
Trevelyan grunted, not fully appeased.
There was a huge tree toppled directly across their path, with weird icicle ivy growing all over it. He let go of her hand to climb up on top of it. The delicate frozen leaves crunched under his feet. Trevelyan didn’t care about exotic vegetation, because Trevelyan didn’t care about much. Mostly, just about him and her. That was kind of enough.
