My lips pressed together hard. Obviously, I would need to take a different tack with this creature. If he had known my mother, and if she had been kind to the Cheshire cats, I could leverage that.
“Well, you’re lucky if you did. I’ve heard a lot of good things about her.”
“The current queen of the island would not agree,” the cat retorted.
That made my spine straighten. I hadn’t heard a concrete reason as to why the Red Queen would dislike my mother. Only vague assertions that as girls they hadn’t gotten along well. However, if this cat had known my mother, maybe he was better informed.
“Why do you say that?”
The cat stopped humming and transported himself in front of me.
Hatter tried to pull me back, but I shook my head and waved him off. “He won’t hurt me.”
I didn’t know how I knew that, felt certainty . . . this cat was interested in me, but didn’t want to hurt me.
The cat arched his eyebrows at my presumption, but spoke anyway. “The sisters had a tumultuous relationship from the start. But it only got worse when your father arrived in Wonderland.”
“Why? Did he say something to one of them?”
“More like he couldn’t make up his mind!”
My throat grew tight. “You mean he liked my motherandmy aunt?”
“Who he liked was obvious from the start. Who he wassupposedto like was the problem.” The cat laughed.
“What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer, only continued to laugh.
This went on for what felt like hours before I stomped my foot and swiped at him. “I demand that you tell me.”
The cat let out a hiss. “No one demands anything of me. I’m free. I work only for the betterment of this island—and that involves no fae.” He disappeared and reappeared, this time up in the tree, far above our heads. “And as for you . . . well, it remains to be seen which princessyou’llturn out to be most like.”
There was a pop, and the next second, he disappeared.
Everyone in our camp waited for him to reappear, for the cat’s dreamy voice to cut through the calm of the night.
But he didn’t return.
“We should move,” Henri said.
I spun to face him. “Move? But it’s night, and we’ve been traveling for hours!”
“Doesn’t matter,” Dum said, her tone soft and worried. “You upset the cat by threatening him. We don’t know who he belongs to.”
“He said he was a free cat.” I put my hands on my hips, not about to start traipsing through the woods if I didn’t have to.
“He might be free, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have friends or alliances.” Dum leapt into the air. “I’ll be above, watching.”
Dee joined her sister, and Henri bent to gather his things.
Although the last thing I wanted to do was begin hiking again, I also didn’t want to be left alone in the woods. I was smart enough to know that if fae rebels were worried about the cat, I should be too.
Trying to keep my grumbling to a minimum, I picked up my bag, readjusted my cloak, and resigned myself to continuing our journey.
Chapter 12
We traveled through the night at a pace that didn’t allow for chatter or questions. We didn’t even stop for water and food, taking sustenance as we went. Whenever I suggested that perhaps we’d gone far enough, the others insisted that we hadn’t and we needed to continue hiking.
