The Hatter is Mad: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 2) (21 page)

“Won’t that end badly for the world? I thought we needed a Blue Prince,” I said. The knife was very heavy in my hand.

“Yeah, it will be bad until we let him out. You can’t keep your emotions bottled up forever,” Rhapsody replied. “If there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s making us think about things we’d rather ignore even when they are staring at us in the face.”

Her words had a strange gravity to them, and in that moment, I realized what she had meant. I’d spent so much time being angry about everything. I’d been upset about being compared to Dirge, about how my parents treated me, but really, I was the one who needed to let it go. My mother and father had raised me knowing I had supplanted their real child. I could have tried to see that, but instead the only thing I saw was what I had wanted to see. The comparison to someone I should have been proud to be compared to. It wasn’t like this was an either or thing. I could be myself and still try to live up to the image of Dirge. She was a hero, after all.

“He didn’t hurt you earlier did he? That was all for show, wasn’t it?” I asked as Rhapsody watched me with cool, calculating eyes. The intelligence behind them seemed old enough to give me the chills.

“Well he thought he did. That’s what counts. Seeing is believing after all,” Rhapsody said. “We always believe what we want and see only what makes our beliefs true.”

“Go on you coward! Kill me and see what happens,” the Blue Prince screamed and began to laugh. He held his neck out to me. “Do it! Rip me out of the world and see what happens, you petulant little—”

My knife whipped out slashing across his throat and spilling blue blood onto the ground at his feet. I didn’t even mean to do it. I just reacted. There was a flash of blue light so bright it blinded me. I stumbled backward and fell on my butt as spots danced in front of my eyes.

“Lillim… Lillim is that you?” I turned to see my father sitting on the ground beside Zef and Morgan as the ghostly form of the Blue Prince stood over the puddle.

“Dad!” I cried and ran toward him, gripping him tightly as he wrapped his arms around me.

“I had the strangest dream,” he said, shaking his head.

“Touching, but we’ll be going. So long and thanks for the heavy lifting and all that,” Morgan said sort of offhandedly. All around us, time was starting to thaw. In another few moments, everything would be happening in real time. I watched Caleb slump to the ground in slow motion and that’s when it struck me.

“The Blue Prince still needs a host right?” I asked as I turned and looked at the Lords of Death.

“Yes?” Zef said cautiously.

“I know just the person.”

Chapter 34

“This is officially the worst idea you’ve ever had. Officially.” Caleb enunciated the last word as he spoke with heavy sarcasm.

“By worst idea, you mean best idea ever, right?” I nudged him with my elbow.

“Not really. Not really at all,” he said.

We were sitting on the edge of a lake with our feet dangling in the cool water. All around us birds chattered and squirrels ran around chasing things that squirrels chased. I wanted to get away from everything, to spend time alone with Caleb. Now that he had merged with the Blue Prince, I didn’t know how often I’d be able to see him. I didn’t know what the Lords of Death actually did, nor what their day jobs entailed. I was sure it was something important though. It had to be something important.

At first, everyone else had thought it was a horrible idea too. Well, everyone but Rhapsody, and since she had seniority, what she said pretty much went. I’ll admit it was a little odd since she looked six. The Blue Prince had more than enough staying power to guarantee Caleb wouldn’t fall victim to the poison. The thing that would really matter would be if Caleb and the Blue Prince could live together. I was inclined to think Caleb possessed that special blend of insanity that would make it work. Even Zef grudgingly admitted it wasn’t the worst idea he’d heard since eternity began. Part of me wondered what worse ideas he’d heard, but he hadn’t elaborated.

“So what’s it like?” I asked Caleb as I leaned my head on his shoulder.

“It’s sort of like having two thoughts at the same time, like seeing two sides of the same coin at the same time, but for every coin in existence.” He smirked.

“But you’re alive now. And you’ll be alive for years,” I said.

“Unless I burn up, like all the others.”

“Does that really seem like something that is going to happen? You ought to be able to tell by now,” I said.

“Honestly, it doesn’t, but that may not mean anything. The Prince and I still have a lot to learn about each other. It’s taken the others years to get to the level of symbiosis they have. We’re starting from scratch,” he said with a smirk and for some reason I wasn’t quite sure if he was still talking about the Prince.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine. If you were going to freak out, you’d probably be doing it by now,” I said, leaning my head against his shoulder.

“That supposed to make me feel better?” he asked.

“Yup.” I smiled at him.

“Just wait until you have a whole other being running around in your head. I mean, ever have the feeling you were being watched? It’s like that
all the time
. When I do anything, how do I know it is really me? Like did I mean to pick up that stick at just this time or did he want to do it? That’s what I feel like.”

“Uh huh. Well I suspect that as long as you aren’t having your voices tell you to kill all humans, you’re probably fine.” I meant it as a joke but the way Caleb looked at me told me he didn’t find it very funny. Maybe I came a little too close to the mark. That made me shudder. Maybe the voices were really telling him to kill us all.

“You’d be surprised at how often the voices tell you to kill when you can feel all the emotions of everyone in the immediate vicinity. I can see how it could drive someone crazy. The key is to not obsess about it,” Caleb said and kissed me on the forehead.

“If you aren’t grateful, next time I’m just going to leave you to die. Go on, get poisoned again. See if I help you out,” I replied.

He reached out and touched my face. His fingers were warm as they trailed along my skin. Wherever he touched, his heat seeped into me and sent tingles across my body. I tried to take a deep breath, but as I stared at him, I totally forgot how to actually do that breathing thing. Looking at him was like watching a sunrise. Ethereal in its composition and so indescribably beautiful it took my breath away.

I nuzzled my face against his hand, and he smiled at me. I tried to take my eyes off his lips, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything as he leaned toward me, his lips brushing against mine for the barest of moments. Things low in my body tightened, and my heart thumped so loud in my chest, I was sure he could hear it.

Caleb’s hand trailed down my shoulder and came to rest on my left hand. He leaned in close, his warm breath tickling my skin. His lips brushed against my neck, so warm, so soft. That was when the tears came.

I can’t quite explain why it happened just then. I really, sort of wish I didn’t start crying. They came so fast, there was nothing I could do. Caleb sighed, his breath cool against my neck as he pulled me close to him and held me as I shuddered through it.

“Yes.” His voice was so quiet I could barely hear it, like moth wings fluttering through the air. “I am going to leave and go do Blue Prince stuff. No, it won’t be just like last time where I let you wake up all alone.”

I glared at him and pushed him away. “No! No, you do not get to read my thoughts.”

Caleb shook his head for a moment and sighed.

“That was at least eighty-five percent and half your fault,” he said.

“You’re still doing it. You’re reading my thoughts right now,” I screamed and smacked him on the chest though part of me wondered how a relationship with a mind reader was ever going to work.

“Not this time. I can see it on your face.” Caleb shook his head.

“Now who is the liar?” I asked incredulously.

He smirked and without warning, pulled me close to him. The warmth of his body pressed against mine sent shivers running down my spine. A low gasp escaped my lips as his lips brushed against the crook of my neck. His breath was hot as he spoke softly into my ear. “I promise I’ll stay the whole night this time, no matter what your mother says.” My cheeks reddened as he leaned close. His lips pressed against mine, and a shudder ran through my body.

"What do you mean you'll stay the whole night
this time
?" asked my mother in a voice that could have frozen a glacier.

Thank you for reading 
The Hatter is Mad,
 If you wouldn't mind, please leave a review. If you are wondering what happens to Lillim next, check out 
Fairy Tale
. As a special bonus, the first chapter is included on the next page.

You may also want to check out my other book, 
May Contain Spies
. It is currently
free
.

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. If you do, I'll send you my short story, 
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, for
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If you're interested in some more adventures featuring Caleb, 
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 is also available.

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 for all the latest updates.

Chapter 1

The “No Accidents Since 1908” sign crashed into my front door, narrowly missing me as I leapt to the side and slammed haphazardly into the remains of my blackened husk of a couch. I tucked my body into a roll that left me covered in ash and debris and came up on my feet, fists raised in a fighting stance. The only thing that greeted me was the burned out shell of my apartment.

The beam the sign had been attached to creaked and groaned. I grimaced as it broke free of the ceiling and smashed into what was left of the bathroom wall, tearing a sky-light-sized hole in the ceiling.

“That’s it,” I growled. “It’s time to punch the Fairy Queen in the face.”

Just because she was like four inches tall and all sparkly, didn’t mean she could ignore a job she agreed to do. Since I’d contacted the pint-sized pixie to rebuild my apartment three weeks ago, I’ve been randomly dropping in to see what progress they’ve made. The short answer? None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

I glanced at the safety sign impaled in my front door. “Well, they’ve hung a sign, that’s progress right?” I asked no one in particular because the place was empty, again.

So far, I hadn’t managed to catch them working even once. Every single time I called, the line just rang and rang or went straight to a voicemail that was full. How voicemail boxes even got full nowadays was completely beyond me.

I sighed and tapped at the device on my wrist. It glowed with soft white light, humming like one of those portable, electric fans people carry around on hot days. Just like that the scene around me melted away.

Sunlight streamed through the window to my left, hitting me square in the face. I glared at the window and flopped onto my borrowed bed, annoyed. Originally, I’d thought I’d chosen a poor place for my bed, but all of the beds were arranged so that sunlight always streamed into your face after first light which was at some stupid hour like before noon. I firmly believed that the sun did not come out until well after mid-day.

I grumbled and rolled onto my bed, stripping off my clothes in the process. It was like trying to get comfortable on cement. I bunched my pillow around my head and tried to ignore the relentless rays of sunlight determined to keep me awake, despite the fact I was out fighting monsters all night.

This was part of the reason I was so angry at the damn fairies. Since my apartment had been thoroughly destroyed when Grollshanks threw a car through my front door three weeks ago, I was staying with my mother. This sounded worse than it was.

For starters, I was only seventeen years old. Most seventeen year olds lived at home so I was fairly sure that this reduced my coolness factor to about normal. Secondly, my mother ran a supernatural army known as the Dioscuri, and I was only borrowing a bed in one of the barracks. This was a big deal for me, personally, however. I couldn’t remember the last time I stayed for even a few minutes in the Dioscuri headquarters in the floating city of Lot.

I was mostly a run away from home and hide type of girl. If you grew up like I did, you would understand why. Part of it was that I still hadn’t quite come to terms with being the reincarnation of one of the most powerful Dioscuri the world has ever seen.

But, more importantly, I was used to having my own space and stuff. I was not used to sharing a dormitory with a bunch of other girls. Granted, there was only one other girl in this particular barracks, and since a good two-thirds of the city was badly damaged from a fight with a clan of orcs, non-destroyed space was in especially high demand.

Most of the other barracks were so packed to the brim with people it was common for girls and boys to share. The thought of being stuffed into a thirty bed room with a bunch of smelly male teens made my stomach twitch. The thought that they might be trying to sneak peeks or, worse yet, watch me sleep, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up straight.

I wouldn’t be in this position if those little fairies got their stupid butts in gear and rebuilt my apartment. I hadn’t even seen one damn fairy since I commissioned them. And now that I thought about it, the fairies have been doing a pretty shoddy job for a while now. The two months prior to the event with the giant, car-flinging orc, were so bad that I actually did a load or two of laundry myself, and if you knew me even a little bit, that was saying something. Cleaning was something Lillim Callina did not do. It was right there with cooking and homework.

I sat up in my way too hard little bed and nearly smacked my forehead on the underside of the bed above me. I managed to stop myself only inches from the solid iron bed frame and swallowed with relief. That would have hurt.