Page 93 of Happily Ever Witch
Green eyes found hers, infinite, feral, very Bad desire glowing out of them. And all of that ominous longing was for her. “If you knew how much I wanted you, you’d run away.” He said darkly.
Oooooh… Thatwas more like it.
“Okay.” Esmeralda grinned at him. Her magic had actually worked, her True Love was desperately in lust with her, and she was about to have out-of-control sex in her great big castle. The morning was looking bright.
“My God.” He whispered, his gaze riveted on her smile. “I can’t stop him, if you look at me like that. We like it when you’re happy.” The mix of pronouns was working for her. It was like something uncivilized and otherworldly had her in his/their sights.
“You can’t stopme, at all.” She backed towards the door. “But give me a thirty second head start.”
“What?” Trevelyan’s whole body jerked, finally processing what she planned to do. “No! Dragons are hunters. Whatever you do,don’t run.”
Esmeralda took off running.
“Ez!” It was literally a roar.
Laughing with wicked delight, she picked a direction and sprinted off in it. She quickly found herself in a spiraling hallway. The damn thing curved up onto the ceiling and then back down again, like a waterslide turned on its side. It was enchanted, though, like everything else in the Heart Palace. As long as you kept going, your feet stayed firmly planted on its surface. Esmeralda dashed forward, as fast as she could. Space was key to sustaining this game.
“I warned you!” Trevelyan didn’t last thirty seconds. She knew he wouldn’t. “Now, it’s too late. I’m going to have you wherever I catch you, even if it’s in the middle of the yard!”
“We can’t even reach the yard, through the force field.” Esmeralda shouted back. “We’re going to have to play inside today.”
There was a teeny, tiny door sitting right in the middle of her path. It wasn’t attached to the wall. It was just a miniature door, kind of hanging out in space. Nowaycould Trevelyan fit through it, so Esmeralda bent down to throw it open and crawled inside. Wherever it led, it gave her some added distance in the chase.
“Esmeralda!”
She ignored Trevelyan’s shout and hauled herself into the new space. Turned out it was the room next to the royal suite, meaning she was basically back to where she started. Whatever.
The Cheshire Carpet’s many smiling mouths smiled, like it had been expecting her. “Oh hello there, your majesty.” Lips appeared and vanished on its pink-and-purple surface, moving at the relaxing speed of a lava lamp. “Did you stop the invasion?”
“Yep. The army is yellow-ish smog, now.”
“Oh, that’s nice. Did you know the Heart Kingdom’s colors are pink-and-red?”
“It’s certainly what I would have guessed.” It was a bit unnerving to walk on something that was maybe, sort of alive, so Esmeralda carefully made her way around the fringe edges of the carpet.
“The Spade Kingdom’s colors are black-and-red. The Diamond Kingdom’s colors are red-and-white. And, of course, the Club Kingdom’s colors are white-and-black.”
“Super.” Esmeralda headed for the normal-sized door. “Great to know.” She poked her head out into the hallway, scanning for Trevelyan. He was nowhere in sight, but she could hear him shouting her name.
“I’m totally winning this game.” She murmured to herself.
“A game?” The Cheshire Carpet repeated eagerly. “I adore games! Would you like to play chess? I especially adore chess!”
Again, it struck Esmeralda that the rug was probably lonely. She glanced back at it, momentarily distracted fromtormenting the dragon. “How long have you been cooped up in this room, all alone?” She asked, before she could stop herself.
“Ohages. Alice didn’t much like me.” Mouths appeared and vanished on its surface as it talked. And talked. “Neither did the queen before her. Or the queen beforeher. But I just know things will be different now thatyou’rehere. We’ll be great friends!”
“Sure.” Esmeralda had spent her whole childhood in an orphanage. She knew what it felt like to be unwanted. She was in a fabulous mood this morning, so she couldn’t bring herself to hurt the rug’s feelings. “Um… We’ll play chess tomorrow.” She promised.
“Really?” It cried excitedly. “Oh, I would enjoy that. Can I be the white side?”
“Absolutely. I’ll see you, then.” Esmeralda slipped out of the room, still on the lookout for Trevelyan. Everything seemed quiet, now. He wasn’t calling her name anymore. Had he given up? She tiptoed to the corner and peeked around it.
Instantly, he appeared at the other end of the hallway. “Thereyou are.” He growled.
Esmeralda gave a laugh. She darted away, running to no place in particular. She could’ve come up with an actual plan to escape him, but she sucked at plans. Besides, escaping wasn’t the point of the game. Getting caught was half the fun. The other half was driving your control-freak True Love past his limits.
Trevelyan went in a different direction, trying to cut her off. “You wanted ‘kind.’ I tried to give it to you. I told you to stop this, before you even started it. But you didn’t listen!”
