“Two days at a slow pace.” Hatter glanced up at the stars, now just beginning to blink in the night sky. “Once we get to the forest, it could take weeks to find him.”
“We don’t have enough supplies.”
The hope had been that we’d be able to stay with Coleti and pay her for whatever supplies we used. Obviously, that hadn’t worked out. As a result, we had only a couple more meals’ worth of food in our bags.
“I know,” Hatter replied. “But we have money, and there are a number of villages along the way. We’ll stop and resupply. We’ll just have to be careful that no one sees your hair.”
My hand flew to my braid, hidden beneath the cloak. It still stunned me that the shade gave me away so easily. The Red Queen was truly crazy.
“Too bad you don’t have like a super strong, magical fae hair dye here,” I muttered. “Maybe this wouldn’t be an issue then.”
“What is that?”
“Coloring for your hair. People do it all the time in the human world. Although their’s is just regular dye. Not magical.”
Hatter’s eyebrows pulled together. “That is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Fae don’t color their hair?”
“By the aether, why would they?”
His tone was so incredulous that I had to laugh. “A lot of humans do it just for fun. Come to think of it, some of the most popular shades are found naturally on fae. Maybe that’s why—”
Hatter’s hand slapped over my mouth, and I jerked back, jostling awake the pixies, who let out high-pitched yelps as they woke.
“Hey! Don’t you—”
He jumped in front of me and gestured for us to kneel. “Someone’s coming,” he hissed.
My spine straightened, and I listened hard. A few seconds later, I caught it too, the sounds of people talking as they tramped through the woods.
I shot to the ground next to Hatter, who was already crouched and peering over a downed log.
“Who are they?” I whispered.
Instead of answering me, Hatter sought Dee and Dum with his gaze. “Go check it out.”
The girls leapt off my shoulder and soared out of sight.
I tapped my fingers on my knee as unease rushed through me. I hated doing nothing. It made me feel like such a sitting duck—just waiting for something terrible to happen.
Still in a squat, I shifted from side to side, and felt the book bump up against my right hip. I inched closer to Hatter.
“Do you think it’s the people who set Coleti’s house on fire?” I asked, trying to ignore Henri’s alluring, spicy scent.
“Maybe,” Hatter replied unhelpfully.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait too long for proper answers; five minutes later, the pixies returned, their eyes wide, and wings trembling.
“Queen’s men, lots of them, marching this way,” Dum said. “They’re wearing the battalion suits. Spades.”
Dee nodded. “I heard one talking about being on the lookout for a white-haired girl.”
“Oberon’s ears,” Hatter cursed.
“Spades?” I asked, trying to ignore the way my stomach twisted into knots.
“The queen’s army is divided into suits, Clubs, Spades, Diamonds, and Hearts. They wear the symbols of their battalion on their chests,” Hatter explained. “They each do different jobs. Clubs and Spades are usually sent out to keep the peace, while Diamonds guard the castle.”
