by Eva Chase
A dozen guards were stationed outside. My powers of trickery and distraction might be extensive, but the palace folk knew me. I wasn’t going to be able to divert all of them with my ploys, not when they knew their heads would be on the chopping block if they failed the Knave.
They’d only leave their post if they saw something they couldn’t explain, which might therefore be part of the anomalies they were pursuing. Something they had no reason to expect.
My throat constricted. I shook myself, trying to shed the sensation of hairs rising all down my back.
“There are too many of them, aren’t there?” Lyssa murmured. “Chess, it’s okay. It’s my fault for making that stupid painting. I’ll just hide as well as I can, and they’ll never know you or Theo or Hatter helped me. If they find me, I swear I won’t say anything about the Spades or the rest of it.”
Oh, this Otherlander was something, wasn’t she? Lovely indeed. Her life on the line, and her first worry was how she was risking me and the others who’d dragged her into this mess.
I’d sworn to myself I’d do right where I could. If this wasn’t a moment for that, then when was?
Besides, what did it matter anyway if this one more person found out? If she knew what was good for her, she’d stay on the other side of that looking-glass and never set foot here again.
I traced my thumb across Lyssa’s cheek, stopping at the corner of her mouth. Her lips parted. The beautiful lips that the White Knight had recently been kissing.
He had brought her pleasure. I would bring her home. In some ways, this actually came easier.
“I’ll get them away from the club long enough for you to slip inside,” I said. “As soon as you have the chance, run for it. What you’re about to see—I never want you to talk about it, not with me or with anyone else. Can you do that for me?”
She knit her brow. “Of course. But Chess—”
I tapped my thumb to the middle of her lips to quiet her. “You’re getting my secret because you’re special, lovely. Be ready.”
I turned away from her with a roll of my shoulders. My breath came out shaky. It had been a long time. Even the thought of the shift came with a stale twinge of shame.
This time I was using it for something worthwhile. For something deserving.
I hunched over and sank my fangs into the inside of my cheeks.
The pain crackled through my flesh from my head down to my toes. My skin contracted with it, bones shrinking and realigning, fur sprouting up. A puffy tail sprang from the base of my spine and snapped from side to side.
When a cat wags his tail, you know he’s mad.
On broad furred paws, I leapt into the street and dashed toward the guards. As I streaked past them, swaying my rounded body and waving my tail like a signal flag, I slipped into the in-between, and out, and in, and out. Now just my tail showing. Now just my head. A bizarre beast made of jumbled parts. An anomaly.
The guards let out a cry. I dodged one and bolted between another’s legs, sprang over a third’s snatching hands. Out of sight, back into it.
This could be your lead, lackeys. Come and get me. Make your Knave proud.
The thumping of feet behind me sounded promising. I veered into the forest, making sure I stayed where the streams of sunlight caught on my amber-and-brown striped fur. The guards chased after. I clambered up a tree and spun for just long enough to catch a glimpse of Lyssa flinging herself over the club’s threshold. With a grin that prickled the muscles of my face, I blinked out of sight for good.
When I entered the White Knight’s office for the second time that morning, he was sitting on the floor, his expression tight, picking through the pieces of his smashed device.
“Lyssa?” he said without looking up.
“She’s safe,” I said. As far as I could tell from my observations at the club. I could save the explaining of exactly how I’d ensured her safety for another moment. “Your invention?”
“I don’t know.” He let out a ragged breath. “Some of the pieces touched her when it broke, didn’t they?”
I nodded. He rubbed his hand jerkily past his mouth and then swiped it through his dark hair.
“Some of the materials…” He held up a fragment of crystal. “I don’t know how long it’ll take me to find a functional replacement if the pieces remain in this state tomorrow.”
“And we can’t get the watch without it?”
“It doesn’t do us any good getting to the palace if we can’t retrieve the damned thing from its holding cell.” He sighed and tipped his head back against the wall. “We were so close, Chess. So fucking close.”
I hunkered down beside him. “Maybe that bit didn’t touch her,” I said. “Maybe we just need one more day.” If Lyssa was foolhardy enough to return.
“She was already hesitant about staying this long. With the Knave on her heels… If he catches her…”
Was he more worried about her or his plan? Perhaps this was the right moment after all. I cleared my throat.
“About that…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Lyssa
I burst into the club so fast I nearly tripped down the floor’s slopes. The first thing I registered through the thundering of my pulse and my whirling thoughts—Chess had transformed into a cat?—was that not even the lounging smokers hung out here this early in the day. No one occupied the vast dance floor other than me and the two guards who’d startled by the basement door.
They were Caterpillar’s guards, in the uniforms I’d seen my first night here, not the Queen’s red-and-pink stripes. They looked more confused than fierce. My heart felt as if it were about to batter its way right out of my chest, but I made myself hustle over to them.
“The Otherlander has already gone down!” I said in the most urgent voice I could manage. “The Queen is furious. You have to catch her!”
I must have been convincing enough, or else they were just that scared of the Queen of Hearts’ possible anger. The guards whipped around and yanked open the door. I hurried after them as they barged into the dim hallway on the other side. As long as I kept talking and reminding them of the Queen’s supposed wrath, maybe they wouldn’t question me.
“The Otherlander doesn’t know where she’s going. There’s still a chance to catch her before she finds her way out. The Queen is on her way here right now. If she finds out you let the girl get past you— There she is!”
I jabbed my hand forward as if I’d caught a glimpse of a figure farther down the hall. The guards dashed faster.
I ducked into the thinner hall that had just appeared at my left. Theo’s instructions from several nights ago were burned into my mind. Back up into it and then go forward.
The second the sliver of the other passageway opened across from me, I darted down it. The guards’ footsteps were still pounding away from me, but I didn’t know how long it would take them to figure out they’d been tricked. The dry air scratched at my throat as I hurtled up the stairs.
When the steps flipped over, my momentum threw me forward even harder than before. My bare knees banged on the rough floor with a sting that told me I’d scraped the skin raw. Even as I winced, I scrambled onto my feet and ran into the tunnel ahead as fast as I could, hunching beneath the low ceiling.
A shout carried down the stairs behind me. Fuck. I pushed myself faster, the earthy smell of the dark tunnel clogging my nose. Left. I had to go left. Around and back to where I’d begun.
Unfortunately, where I’d begun was exactly where the guards were headed. I came around the loop and bolted past the stairs a second before they reached the lower level.
The guard in front lunged forward and grabbed my wrist. My tendons yanked. The only thing that saved me was the self-defence course Mom had insisted we take together when I started university. I’d practiced a few of those moves enough that my body reacted on muscle memory.
I spun around and kneed the guy in the groin.
He doubled over with a gasp, his grip
on my wrist loosening, but at the same time he slashed at me with the dagger in his other hand. The blade sliced a burning line across my forearm. A yelp broke from my lips as I shoved myself away from him.
The tunnel’s cool air chilled the blood seeping over my skin. I didn’t have time to do anything about the wound now. I’d lose a lot more than blood if I didn’t make it to the mirror.
Clutching my arm to my chest, I careened the last several feet to the little earthen room with its gold-framed mirror. Without a glance backward, I jumped straight into the glass.
Cold rushed over me, and then I sprawled on the floor of Aunt Alicia’s attic. My shoulder jarred. A fresh jab of pain shot through my arm. Gritting my teeth, I rolled onto my back.
It was dark outside the narrow window. I’d definitely come back a while later than I’d left. Lying there amid the familiar normal smells of the world I belonged in and the furniture with its duller colors, my mind jarred too.
I was back. This, this was my home. No one stabbing daggers at me. No one looking to chop off my head.
The adrenaline coursing through me started to ease off, and the pain in my arm dug deeper. I glanced down at myself and winced at the blotch of scarlet smeared across the front of the borrowed dress. I guessed I wasn’t returning this to Hatter.
The cut ran from the side of my wrist nearly to my elbow, narrow but deep. Looking at it, my stomach roiled. That guard really would have killed me if I’d given him the chance.
I could have died there. The cold fact of it hit me like it hadn’t even when I’d watched the guards beating up the woman in the club the other night.
I could have died, and no one here would ever have known what happened to me.
Oh, shit. Melody. Was it even the same day? Was she freaking out about me disappearing after my supposed booty call?
Pressing the side of my arm against my belly, I stumbled to the toy chest and grabbed my phone. A quick tap showed me it was still the same day as when I’d left, just several hours later. I exhaled in a rush of relief and typed out a text as quickly as I could one-handed.
Back at the house safe. Good times!
Melody texted back almost instantly. You go, girl!
My smile turned into another wince. I had to take care of my arm before the whole dress was dyed red with my blood.
I gripped the railing tightly as I descended the spiral staircase. In the bathroom, I flicked on the light and pawed through the cabinets. Aunt Alicia had band-aids and antiseptic cream, but nothing that’d treat more than a scratch. I just needed to stop the damned bleeding.
My head was feeling a little woozy by the time I made it down to the kitchen. I grabbed a dish towel from the drawer of clean ones and wrapped it around my forearm. A streak of red started seeping through the layers of fabric almost immediately.
Okay, maybe this injury was a little more than I could handle on my own. I fumbled with my phone and found the nearest hospital on the map. A half hour drive.
I stood still and turned my head from one side to the other. I wasn’t that dizzy. If I just wrapped one more towel around my arm even tighter, I should be able to make it on my own, right? It was just a cut. Calling an ambulance seemed ridiculous.
I was still wavering between my options when an enthusiastic rapping reverberated through the front door. Had I psychically summoned medical attention? I went to the door in the daze and opened it to find my best friend grinning at me.
“Lyss!” Melody said. “I wanted to get the full scoop in person. I—” Her gaze snagged on my blood-smeared dress and towel-wrapped arm, and her voice cut off with a choked sound. “Oh my God. What the hell happened to you?”
“I, um,” I said, which was about all I could manage as a thicker rush of dizziness raced through me. I hadn’t thought up a story. I hadn’t known I was going to need one. The most obvious possible lie fell out of my mouth. “I fell.”
“Uh huh. We’re talking about this more later. Come on, we’ve got to get you to the hospital.”
Well, at least that solved my most immediate problem. I let Melody haul me out to her car, just barely keeping my balance on my wobbly legs.
Had I ever felt as content as I did sitting in Melody’s studio apartment with the sunlight streaming through the skylights and hazelnut coffee warming my stomach? I couldn’t think of when. I tucked my legs up on the armchair and took another sip from my mug.
My best friend started her dishwasher running with a thrum and flopped into the chair across from me. Totally normal chairs that matched the totally normal coffee table.
With each hour that passed since I’d last been in Wonderland, it was harder to believe my time there hadn’t been a crazy, thrilling, horrible dream. That the story I’d made up about slipping with a butcher knife while I was making dinner hadn’t been the truth.
I could call a moving company and have all the furniture, including that mirror, packed up by the end of the day. Then it wouldn’t matter what was true, whether there really was some bizarre world alongside ours where trees could grow upside down and queens could lock time away in a pocket watch. It wouldn’t matter whether the Spades’ rebellion succeeded.
Hatter hadn’t believed I’d see things through anyway. Chess had told me to go home, to escape. I had no way of knowing when the Queen’s efforts to find me would taper off. If I went back, I might tumble into the pond only to meet another dagger, this one at my throat.
The thought sent an icy shudder through me despite the warmth of the sun.
I’d caused almost as much harm as good in Wonderland, hadn’t I? Theo’s device was irrevocably broken because of my presence. I’d only been a shortcut to seeing his plan through. He’d figure out another approach. And there were people here who needed me—who needed me with my neck intact.
When I wet my lips, the pressure of my tongue and the lingering sweetness from the sugar in the coffee brought back a flicker of memory: his mouth against mine as we glided through the air.
Melody cleared her throat. “You’re going spacey again. Come back to earth!”
I jerked my thoughts back to the present with a crooked smile. “Sorry. Just thinking.”
She made a skeptical sound. “Not about that jerk of a neighbor, I hope.” She hadn’t really bought my butcher knife story—I was pretty sure she figured my supposed paramour had something to do with my cut and my scraped knees. “It’s not like you to zone out so much, Lyssa. Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the hospital and ask them to check you out again?”
“I messed up my arm, not my head,” I reminded her. My fingers traveled over the stitches that dappled the side of my arm. Twenty-four of them. The doctor had announced the number like it was some kind of record. “It’s just the painkillers.”
The truth was I hadn’t taken any more of the Vicodin I’d been prescribed after the first night. The wooziness had reminded me too much of that moment in the Caterpillar’s Club when my head had stretched up toward the ceiling. I’d rather deal with the now dull ache in my arm than relive that sensation.
“I have to be at the shoot this afternoon,” Melody said. “Do you want to come along? Or you can just hang out here.”
I hesitated, my hand drifting from the cut to the key dangling from its chain beneath my shirt. The dagger wound wasn’t the only thing I’d brought back from Wonderland. As much as the last few days with Melody doting on me had been comforting distraction, I couldn’t run away from everything I’d learned. Aunt Alicia was part of this world. She’d had something to give me.
It couldn’t hurt to find out what. I owed it to her. I owed it to myself to understand what I’d been through better.
“I thought I’d go back out to the house,” I said cautiously. Melody and I had driven out there the day after the hospital to get my car, but she hadn’t left my side for a second. The woman who’d been looking after the cats when Aunt Alicia was in the hospital had taken over while I was gone, but otherwise no one had been in the place sinc
e I’d left it three nights ago.
“Lyss,” Melody started.
I waved off her protest. “I’ll be fine. I promise you, there’s nothing to worry about there. I’ve been sponging off you long enough. I’ve got to finish going through the furniture and figuring out what to do with it all, and it was kind of nice having some time in a completely new space. I won’t go see my neighbor again.” Not the fictitious one, at least.
Melody sighed. “Look, I just…” She made a face at her hands and looked at me again. “I’m really worried about you, Lyssa. I’ve seen a lot of people I’ve worked with crash and burn; I know how quickly things can spiral. I’ve taken it for granted that you’ll always have it together, so maybe I missed things I shouldn’t have. That’s on me. If there’s something else going on, if you need help, please don’t shut me out.”
My stomach knotted. Oh, Melody. There was no way she could help with this dilemma or the potential dangers on the other side of it. “You encouraged me to take some risks,” I reminded her. “I’m okay. No permanent harm done. These things happen when you let loose, right?”
“But you’re you,” Melody said. She motioned to my arm. “If you’re going this far… Something’s got to be wrong.”
An emotion more like frustration prickled up through my chest. I’d taken the risks I had with my eyes wide open. I’d just wanted something different, something weird and wonderful. How could I ever really let loose or strike out in a new direction if everyone in my life was going to step in my way because of the expectations they had of me. Even Melody wanted me to stay the same old careful practical Lyssa.
Maybe she was right. Maybe I’d already gone too far over my head. I kind of wanted her to order me to stay put so the decision would be made for me. But even more than that, the limits she was trying to set on what I could do, who I could be, made me bristle. She had no idea just how much I’d experienced and survived in the last few days.
I kept my voice calm. “I promise, nothing’s wrong, Mel. I’m a big girl. A couple more days puttering around a big old house isn’t going to hurt me. I’ll stay away from the kitchen knives.”
