“How do you know my name?” he asked the moment she was beside him.
The tinkling array of banging piano keys resumed, as did the conversation. Walrus and owl were no longer interested in him and had resumed their drinking.
Pillar tapped the bar top. “Two, Earl,” she looked at the strangely dressed bar keep, before turning back to Aeric.
“Because I have your girl. Or, your cat.” She smiled and cocked her head. “You’ve a fetish for the bizarre as well I see.”
She moistened her lips and it was all Aeric could do not to grimace in disgust. Women, no matter where they hailed from, or how they looked, all had that slice of vanity in them—that desire to be admired by others. He did not want to anger her, she had Lissa and that was enough to keep him focused on the task at hand.
“She is not my woman.” He shook his head.
She laughed, and again the shivery strains shot down his spine, forcing him to take a step back. Something about Pillar made all the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand on edge.
Two glass tumblers slid their way. She slammed her hand down just as they were set to pass her. A viscous glowing green fluid shimmered inside. Vapor curled from the tops.
“Drink,” she said, taking one and downing it in a single gulp, before handing him his.
“I do not drink in Wonderland,” he shook his head, pushing the hand she held the other drink in away.
The long, riotous curls of hair tumbled around her shoulders as she tipped her head back with laughter. “Is that so, mundane? Then I’m afraid, I cannot help you.”
His nostrils flared. “What have you done with, Lissa?”
“Me?” she tapped a manicured nail against her chest. “I’ve done nothing. I only offered sanctuary. Of course.”
The way she said of course let him know there was much, much more to the story than that. “Where is she?”
“Drink.” She held the tumbler back to him.
“No.”
She sighed. “Then I’m afraid I cannot help you. You may go.” She’d dismissed him. Just like that. Turning her back on him, she made to walk back toward the stairs.
“Wait!” he held out his hand. “Why is it so important I drink that?”
Her lips pursed as she downed the glass, as if in challenge. Inhaling deeply, her lashes fluttered and she gave him a satisfied sigh. “Truth and lies. Lies and reality. Who can truly tell? Hmm? Can you?”
She cocked her head. Her smushed in face appearing more distorted up close. His eyes narrowed.
“I can.”
“Can you?” she asked again.
“And this drink does what? Open my mind?” He fluttered his fingers. “There is nothing but distorted madness here. What is there to make sense of?”
A stubby finger ran along the luscious swells of her breasts. “You can’t depend on your eyes, when your imagination is out of focus.”
“My imagination?”
“Mmm. There is sanity in this lunacy, if there weren’t none of us would survive it. But to see, you must see.” She tipped the glass to him.
His mouth was so dry, his stomach empty. The throbbing in his skull worsening by the second, his need for food and drink was more than just a craving, it was a desperate desire. Making it almost impossible for him to remember why he shouldn’t do this.
Everyone within Kingdom knew not to partake of the madness inside this realm, for once it gripped you, you were lost to it. But he felt lost to it now. There was so much he couldn’t understand, he could hardly focus. Chrysalis had been one step ahead the entire time. Aeric didn’t have a massive ego; to admit that he was the best at what he did was an utter statement of fact. The Red Queen would not employ him otherwise. And yet he’d not shown himself to be such here.
It was galling to admit it, but there it was, the absolute, unvarnished truth.
“It’s merely one drink, Aeric,” she wiggled the new glass the bar keep had slid her way. “There can be no harm in that.”
Everywhere he turned he kept making deals with devils. He looked around, at the floor, at the walls. There was no blood, no blue hair anywhere. What if this was nothing more than an elaborate ruse?
There were no traces of Lissa here. Was he walking into yet another trap? He took a step back.
“The panic eats at you,” she said, “you think I lie. That I do not have her.”
His eyes narrowed. “If you have her then show her to me. Give me proof.”
She sighed. “Of course, Aeric, so that you may know this transaction to be legitimate.” With a snap of her fingers, a panel in the floor slowly opened.
A rectangular glass case slid up from below, and curled within was the prone feline form of Lissa. There was no mistaking the wild color, or the jewel encrusted bow around her neck. It could be a mirage, an illusion just like this cabin was, but his gut told him that was really her.
“What did you do to her?” he growled.
“No, not I.” Her grin was mysteriously short.