Dinah’s throat was dry and stinging, her eyes filled with tears. This couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be.
“I shouldn’t have worried. Using the tunnels, you made your way to the Black Towers and discovered the truth about Vittiore, even if you didn’t put it together right away, for by then Faina Baker had gone mad. Your father was hungry for a shift in power, and once he learned of your excursion to the Black Towers, he decided to behead Faina. It was a message for you, but its true purpose was to remind Vittiore of what would happen if she ever rebelled against him. It was unthinkably cruel, but it was a well-instructed lesson that neither of you were to put your noses where they didn’t belong.
“Time passed. The King’s patience for you was running thin as your coronation day drew near. A sort of madness had overtaken him, and he began muttering dark, violent things. I worried for your safety. I pressed the King to reveal his plans to me, but he refused. Even his most trusted advisors remained in the dark.”
Dinah’s hands were gripping the tablecloth, her nails tearing through the thin fabric. Her world was collapsing, inside and outside. Her watery eyes made the stars look like they were falling. She stopped breathing. She stared at Cheshire as he continued, but all she saw was Charles.
“On the night of your brother’s murder, I was out meeting with some colleagues of mine who lived in the court just outside of the palace—Lords Delmont and Sander, I’m sure you know them.”
Dinah nodded impatiently.
“I returned late, much past the midnight hour. Your father burst into my chamber, unannounced and covered with blood. He was hysterical. I calmed him down, but could not hide my horror when he told me that he had just thrown Charles from a window, and murdered Lucy and Quintrell. He said that he was going to frame you, so that you might never ascend to the throne. Instead, it would be off with your head, or you would be thrown into the Black Towers for the remainder of your life. As he rocked himself by the window, muttering of justice and how your mother’s bastard would be tried for her crimes, I knew that every moment of my life had boiled down to this one. How could I help save my daughter, without revealing the truth to the King?
“I told the King to change, bathe, and gather his Cards to help apprehend you. I ran—how I ran—first to the kitchens and then to the weapon room. I knew you would never survive without food in the wild—you were raised in a palace that gave you everything you ever needed. After I packed your bag, I ran to your room, where I knocked Harris and Emily unconscious. For a few seconds, I watched you sleeping, my daughter, the pride of my heart, with a face like her mother’s, and a fierce intelligence not unlike my own. I had never seen you so close, so perfect, the blood of my veins sleeping before me. I vowed I would do whatever it took to help you survive. Then you awoke… and tried to kill me.”
He gave a chuckle, and Dinah remembered the horror of waking up to the dark shrouded figure in her room.
“And though you did not follow my exact directions, you did escape, and in what GRAND fashion! You left behind a bloody mess, you stole your father’s Hornhoov, and then outran him and his army in a chase that the peasants will be talking about a hundred years from now!” He clapped his hands. “I couldn’t have planned it better myself. It was genius, a statement of your power. After you left, the King quickly declared you a traitor to the realm and placed the crown on Vittiore’s head. The coronation was the biggest that Wonderland had ever seen, and I believe she was glad to receive it. The King left immediately after she was crowned to resume the hunt for you, and it was the opportunity I had been waiting for. A chance to find you, to make sure that you were surviving in the Twisted Wood.
“Whispered sources told me of a Spade tracker that had a long-standing grudge against the King and I sought him out. I made a deal with your Sir Gorrann. He would track you down—with the King in tow—but would find you beforehand and take you deep into the Yurkei Mountains, where you would be safe from the King. He tracked you a little too well, but as you can see, he kept you safe, fed, and began training you to fight.”