CHAPTER 178

"I could send you home right now if you wish." She pointed over his shoulder and he looked to see that an archway had formed behind him. "All you have to do is agree to the terms and you can be home right now."

"I..." He looked at the queen, then back at the door. His home was being torn apart, but even worse, the others were in danger. "What terms?"

"Leave Cecilia here." The queen was standing next to him now, her voice like honey. "I will allow her to leave in time, Caretaker, but walk away from her and never look back. Is one woman really worth the potential loss of your family?"

He let out the breath he had been holding, then looked at the mirror again. It flitted between everyone's face, then stopped on Beth's.

"She is eternal, Caretaker. You can have no true life with her. But this woman, Beth? She is one of your own kind, you could grow old and have a family with her." The words were low and borderline hypnotic, and she was leaning over him now, her scent overpowering him. He closed his eyes and sucked her in, his head filling with images of distant fields covered in honeysuckle flowers.

The mirror was in his hands now, Beth's face filling the frame. Her hair was blowing dramatically across her face, and her lips were plump and full. The image backed away, revealing that she wore a costume of some sort that hugged her body, and he felt his cock twitch.

"Your life will never be normal, but with her? It could be close."

He sighed, and looked up from the mirror. "Do you really think I could be happy with her?"

The queen nodded. "I do."

The incident with Zel and possibly knocking up Kisa came to mind. He wasn't ready for children yet, and maybe he never would be. Fatherhood wasn't something he had ever considered, but if it were ever going to happen, Beth made the most logical sense. It would be such an easy decision to just go, to save them. Nobody would blame him for coming back.

"I'm not saying the thought hasn't crossed my mind. There really is a lot of potential there. She's smart. And brave. She faced down a demon on more than one occasion, and she's definitely one of the strongest people I know." He looked into the queen's saccharine smile. "If I had to pick the one thing I admired most about her, do you know what that would be?"

"Tell me," she whispered, her eyes glinting.

"That I can trust her." He handed the mirror back to the queen and held up his saw once more. "There will always be a disaster waiting to fall on my head. If I can't trust her and the others to handle it, then I don't deserve them."

He turned his attention back to the cage, a smile breaking across his face when he heard the mirror shatter on the ground behind him. Cecilia's lips trembled and he reached through the bars.

"I came for you. I am not leaving without you." And with that, he resumed cutting.

Beth stared at the door to her closet, her hand nearly on the knob. If she opened it, she could run to the Labyrinth, maybe even stop Marco from reaching his destination. It was highly likely that Ratu would know he was coming, and she felt like her presence alone wouldn't be enough to affect any sort of change.

She put her hand on the door and sighed. Even if she caught him, she had no way to fight him, especially now that he had his hands on the mysterious Grimoire. Would Mike be amused to know that the damned thing actually existed? If the shadow really was in control, then there was no way to use words to settle this, and words were her strength.

The Jabberwock roared and collided with the house once more, causing plaster to rain down on all of them. Dana looked at Quetzalli, who in turn looked at Beth.

Her eyes slid right over Kisa as if she wasn't there, and it was only because she was trying to find her that Kisa came into focus. It was almost like the room had been hesitant to separate from her. This is how it always was with the cat girl. She was a presence in the room that was hard to detect, unnoticeable in the best of circumstances, and it had to be more than just her diminutive appearance. It was certainly a kind of magic.

Beth looked over at Quetzalli, then Dana. The ghost that Quetzalli had touched had looked different after being zapped, much like Jenny did when she manifested. Why were these ghosts different from Jenny? How come they didn't drain the energy from the room? And lastly, how the hell were they able to come into the house?

These thoughts danced around in her mind as she took in the room and considered the situation. There was a shadow castle out back, a possessed Jabberwock out front, and a whole lot of confusion going on. What would Mike do?

"Fuck his way out or get lucky," she muttered with a grin. She wasn't certain how to accomplish the former, and was definitely keeping her fingers crossed for the latter. Still, it wasn't enough to wonder what Mike would do, because right now, this was her problem.

"Kisa." She spoke to the cat girl as she manipulated the knob of the closet. "I need you to follow Marco to the Labyrinth, he may already be there. If you get a chance to stop him, take it, otherwise stay back."

"You just want me to follow him? Why?"

"When he leaves the Labyrinth, he will probably jump in the reflecting pool at the entrance, it's a shortcut to the front closet. I'm guessing he won't expect anyone to follow him, so you'll be our secret weapon. He cannot leave here with that book, or God knows what else he may be taking. Now hurry."

"But—"

"Go!" Beth pointed into the cave, and Kisa scowled before entering the tunnel. She may have hurt Kisa's feelings, but now wasn't the time for pleasantries. "We need to figure out how to get the ghosts out of the house. Zapping them seems to work, and I have a theory. Did you ever see that map that Death and Mike drew, the one with the overlapping circles?"

Dana nodded.