She’d learned long ago that the impossible was always possible in Kingdom.
His lips were warm and feather brush strokes against her own, and slowly the passion they’d shared at the beginning began to reignite.
“I want to tell you something too,” she whispered and inhaled deeply because his thumbs were rubbing along the tops of her cheekbones and his body was so warm, so real, and what was a month to wait when they’d already gone through three hundred years?
“Aye?” His brow twitched with an amused expression.
Heart squeezing with so much love it bordered on pain, she pulled up higher and whispered against his lips, “Real magic happened when I first met you, Jericho.”
He didn’t speak again and neither did she, but honestly… what they were doing, didn’t need words. Didn’t you know that already, lovies?
Danika laughed, because for right now the world, her life, her heart… it was all perfect. Jericho was here and that was everything.
Her heart had finally found its way back home.
Author’s Note
If you enjoyed this story and want to know when my next Kingdom book will drop make sure to sign up for my newsletter. I promise to never spam with it, but I will let you know when I have an upcoming release coming out. In fact, the long awaited Huntsman’s Prey is next! Keep reading for a sneak peek of the first chapter, or if you’ve read out of order, make sure to check out my books page below as it will show you the exact order the books should be read in!
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The Huntsman’s Prey: Sneak Peek
The rattling of leaves sounded like the rustling of dry bones. Trees—their trunks twisted and distorted from the magic imbued within the very soil of Wonderland—reached long, gnarly branches out toward Danika.
The stars shone a brilliant silver, winking from within the navy blue sky. A sickle shaped smile of sharp teeth gleamed from inside shadow and somewhere a voice howled. The haunting sound raised goose bumps on her arms and the fine hairs on the back of her neck.
She flew within the shelter of a hollow, staring at the ground below littered with the twisted, distorted bodies of sightless carcasses. Hundreds of dead animals, with limbs torn off and throats ripped open. A brutal slaughter that brought tears to her eyes.
It’d been eighteen years since she’d married off the last of her Bad Five, eighteen years of peace and quiet, eighteen years of being lulled into a false sense that all was well within her world.
But all was not well. She’d suspected this time was coming, had seen a glimpse of the future first time she’d laid eyes on the child. Danika had tried to deny it, tried to wish it away, to hope that desire could stop reality.
Her heart bled to hear the sounds of the lonely, constant cries shuddering through the woods. The teeth returned, floating right in front of her face.
“Cheshire?” Dragonfly wings buzzed softly behind her back.
A face materialized around the teeth, a ghostly distortion of fur and stripes. Then a body followed suit, until finally a fluffy tabby stared back at her with eyes the color of an inkwell.
“Godmother?” His lazy drawl echoed with laughter. “What are you doing in my woods?”
She scoffed. “Your woods. You wish you fat alley cat. These woods belong to the Hatter.”
Cheshire did a strange rolling shoulder lift while he licked his paw. Danika shook her head, much as she loved Hatter, his woods were one she rarely visited and dreaded staying inside of for too long. The sensuous curl of white fog wrapped itself around the cat’s body, as if he were readying to vanish into the ether once again.
She may not like the cat, but she preferred his company to being alone in this warped portion of Kingdom.
“Have you seen the creature?” she asked quietly, heart thumping loudly as she strained to hear every creak, groan, and whistle surrounding them.
“Mmmm. I have,” he purred, long and loud and low, the rumbling vibrations of it causing his fur to stir and fluff. “Beautiful madness.”
“Where is it?” She hugged her arms to her chest, the howls had stopped, which meant it could now be anywhere. She wanted to leave, wanted to leave now.
“It? You mean she. Do you not?”
She closed her eyes. To think of it as anything other than an it would make this task impossible. Oh goddess, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Not to Alice and Hatter, they’d gone through so much, this shouldn’t have happened. How she wished she had Miriam’s wise guidance once again, her truest and best friend would have known what to do, how to fix this.
“I meant exactly what I said. Where did you see it last?” She lifted her chin, voice stern, refusing to allow an ounce of sympathy to leak into her words.
His smile stretched from ear to ear, full of nothing but sharp, little teeth that made him look frighteningly macabre. An impossibly long tongue licked at the fur around his eyes.
“Silver girds her loins, fire ripples at her feet.”
Moon's Flower (Kingdom, #6)
Marie Hall's books
- All Hallows Night (Night #2)
- Crimson Night (Night #1)
- Death's Redemption (Eternal Lovers #2)
- Hook's Pan (Kingdom, #5)
- Her One Wish (Kingdom, #10)
- Rumpel's Prize (Kingdom, #8)
- Gerard's Beauty (Kingdom, #2)
- Her Mad Hatter (Kingdom, #1)
- Hood's Obsession (Kingdom, #9)
- Hook's Pan (Kingdom, #5)
- Huntsman's Prey (Kingdom, #7)
- Jinni's Wish (Kingdom, #4)