“Come out Hatter, I know you are around here!” Bill’s voice boomed through the forest. Chase must have noticed me quiver for he put his arm around me.
“Don’t worry, they can’t see us,” he whispered into my ear.
I nodded, although I found that to be very unlikely. If he was such a good tracker and was right below our tree, how could he not know we were up there? I tried to calm my thoughts down about the situation as I peered back down at Bill.
“Is that a challenge Bill or do you know the only way for you to win is for me to give up?” Malcolm’s voice answered back. I couldn’t find where Malcolm was standing and dared not shift to find out. I just hoped he would be okay, but I trusted him for some reason. Mainly because he had lasted this long and hadn’t gotten caught.
“Oh, on the contrary.” Bill answered. “I will find you and that girl you are hiding. Do you really think she can bring down the Cirque de Rêves? Nothing can stop him, you can see that yourself. You are wasting your time!”
“If I am wasting my time, why are you looking for her? If she poses no threat, stop wasting your time.”
Bill let out a loud belly laugh. “You would like me to do that, wouldn’t you? Just because I know I don’t have anything to worry about doesn’t mean that you all aren’t being a nuisance. The Queen has ordered me to destroy all that are against the Cirque de Rêves, and you my friend have betrayed us all.”
“You are making a mistake,” Malcolm added. It sounded like he was coming from all around, I had no idea where he could be. “The Cirque de Rêves has blinded you. I must stop it before we can never go back.”
“We will see about that,” I watched as Bill pulled out his gun and started firing into the woods. I jumped at the noise and Chase squeezed my hand.
“It will be all right,” he whispered. “Malcolm knows what he is doing. He has been doing this sort of thing his whole life. And unlike in your world, that is a very long time here.”
I nodded as I watched the horses gallop away into the distance after Malcolm. I didn’t like the idea of something happening to him because of me. I would never forgive myself, even though it wasn’t my choice to be here. I still felt as if I could have done something.
Chase and I waited up in the tree for what seemed like an hour. We didn’t hear anything from Bill and his men, but neither did we hear from Malcolm or the others yet. I was beginning to worry and wanted to ask Chase what he thought but I didn’t want to make a sound. I had no idea if they were close and I was afraid of getting caught.
Unlike me, Chase looked calm, his eyes closed and ears attentive. If he was like a cat, he should be able to hear from quite far away. I wondered how exactly they worked and how he could have some feline characteristics and some human characteristics.
Suddenly Chase’s ears twitched and his eyes shot open. Then I heard it too, a whistle coming from below us.
“Well.” Chase jumped down to a lower branch. “That is our cue.”
I smiled as I climbed down behind him. We were finally able to leave this tree and be on our way. I could get answers and stop worrying about Bill capturing us.
I forgot how high up we truly were until I was almost to the ground. Looking back up, I couldn’t even see the branch that we were once waiting on. I shuddered at the thought if I had slipped. Good thing Chase was with me or I would’t have been able to overcome my fear, or I would have gone up and easily slipped.
As I thought this, I knew I would jinx myself. It was a curse I had, even though I was graceful in ballet, I was sometimes quite clumsy in other things. As I stepped on the last branch before hitting the ground, I felt my foot slip and I started to fall backwards. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for my body to meet with the hard forest floor. I just hoped my head wouldn’t hit a rock, that would be the worst. When a couple seconds went by and nothing happened, I opened my eyes to find myself in Malcolm’s arms.
“You should be more careful, we don’t want to draw attention back to us, now do we?” His smile made me blush.
“No,” I whispered and straightened back up, dusting off my clothes as I had gotten some bark and dirt all over Davis’ clothes he let me borrow. I just hoped I wouldn’t stain it. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
I glanced over at Chase, who was frowning at the entire incident. I wanted to say something but I had no idea what I could tell him to make him smile again. Whatever was going on between them likely had more to do with each other than the present circumstances. Maybe I would find out about it later, even though it really wasn’t any of my business.
I looked around for Davis and Melvin. “Where are the others?”
“They are already on their way to Howard’s.” Malcolm nodded deeper into the forest. “We will be meeting them there. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 9
As we approached the edge of the forest, we came upon the once magnificent
