by Eva Chase
“There might be more inside,” I murmured to the others. “Chess, can you check what we’re up against?”
He tipped his head to me and vanished. When he returned a few moments later, his expression was pleased but puzzled. “The place is empty. I could hear Caterpillar snoring in the upper rooms. Let’s dance by right under him, shall we?”
The dance floor was indeed vacant, only a dim purple light drifting over us from a single fixture still lit on the ceiling. At the basement door, I glanced at the others. “Wait here. Shout if anyone comes.”
Hatter’s mouth slanted as if he wanted to argue, but he just grasped Lyssa’s hand. “Safe travels, until next time.”
“I’m already looking forward to it,” she said, and the corners of his lips twitched upward to answer her smile.
Chess claimed her hand next and pressed a kiss to her knuckles with a sweeping bow. “May the journey be smooth both there and back, lovely.”
I pushed open the door and slipped into the hall right behind her. Lyssa followed the path with practiced steps, to one side and the other, up the stairs and catching herself just before she tumbled down off them, through the thicker darkness of a low tunnel that made my back start to cramp. Her steps sped up as we passed the stairs again. I knew with a sudden shiver of awareness that we were almost there.
Before I’d quite thought through what I was doing, I caught her elbow. With one swift step, I’d pressed her up against the wall and lowered my mouth to hers.
Lyssa leaned into the kiss with an eager sound that sparked through every nerve in my body. Her lips were soft and pliant, a faintly sweet flavor lingering on them that I could have enjoyed for hours, if we’d had that long.
I might not mind if she enjoyed the company of other men, but I could admit I had a competitive streak. Perhaps it was genetic. When she thought about Wonderland, when she dwelled in the memories that called her back, I wanted my touch to be the one she missed most.
Her fingertips teased up my neck to graze my jaw, and I coaxed another pleased murmur from her throat. When I eased back, her hand fell to my chest.
“If you’re trying to convince me to stay, you make a very good argument,” she said teasingly.
“I’ll make plenty more the next time you’re here.”
“Good. I’m starting to think I’m not going to be able to hang back for very long at all.” She slipped ahead of me again, down the second tunnel. “You had perfect timing. The mirror is right—”
She cut herself off with a little cry. I stopped in my tracks at the edge of the little room.
The looking-glass was there waiting for us still. Only it waited in broken shards on the floor. Someone had smashed the mirror right out of its golden frame.
As a chill washed over my skin, my mind darted back to the guard hustling away. To the Queen’s harsh shout while the other guards had battered at the door. Break it! Break it now!
She hadn’t been talking about the door.
Lyssa recoiled from the pieces as if afraid of stepping on them, and then froze. A pained laugh spilled out of her.
“It doesn’t matter if I touch them,” she said. “Time is freed. The mirror will never reset. It’s just broken.”
That was true. My throat constricted, but underneath my dismay, a tendril of relief unfurled.
I got to keep her, without the guilt—other than the guilt that thought sent prickling through me.
I shoved those conflicting emotions away as I moved to her side and touched her arm.
“Lyssa, there are other looking-glasses.”
“Any we have any chance of reaching tonight?”
“No,” I had to admit.
“Okay. It’s okay.” She rubbed her hands over her face. A breath trembled out of her. Then she drew herself up as determined and regal as a queen—the kind of queen we should have had. She even managed a wry smile. “I guess my next time here is happening right now.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Lyssa
Somehow or other, we all ended up in a little rooftop garden I hadn’t known existed at the top of the Tower. The city’s lights created a cloud-like haze beneath us, and stars I’d never seen before glittered across the vast expanse of the sky over our heads. No sound rose that high except the whisper of the breeze through the plots of flowers.
I sprawled on the soft grass, leaning against Theo’s side with his arm tucked around my waist, absorbing his warmth. Hatter sat nearby, stripping the leaves from a daffodil he’d plucked, his expression pensive. Chess lolled on his back as he gazed up at the night sky.
“One more predictable day,” he said. “After that, we won’t be able to count on sunny blue skies anymore. We might even get seasons again. I believe we used to have seasons. Maybe it’ll rain—I can’t wait.”
A giggle tickled out of my throat. “You’ll probably get tired of clouds and rain pretty quickly.”
Chess shook his head. “Not a chance. I will savor every shadow and every drop. Especially the ones that dampen the helms of the Hearts’ Guard.” He grinned.
That remark made me shiver. “The Queen of Hearts couldn’t capture time all over again, could she?”
Theo’s thumb stroked over my hip with a reassuring pressure. “Definitely not. It won’t be tricked like that more than once.”
“Lands only know what new act of tyranny she’ll come up with next,” Hatter muttered.
I nudged him with my foot. “Let’s not talk about that right now, okay?”
He glanced up, regret stark in his gaze. “I’m sorry.”
He wasn’t just talking about the comment. He meant that I was stuck here at all. I swallowed hard. But the truth was, when I’d seen the shattered mess of the mirror, something in me had been a little… glad.
The choice had been taken away from me. And maybe this was the choice I’d have wanted to make after all, if I’d let myself think just about what would make me happy and not how everyone back home might react. Based on how time had passed during my last two visits, I’d have a couple weeks here before Melody expected to hear from me.
A little more time to see how wonderful this land could be as we pushed back against the Queen. A little more time to explore the weird but exhilarating emotions these three guys had stirred up in me.
Which meant it might be a good thing to make sure we were all on the same page.
I lifted my head, reaching to tilt Theo’s mouth toward me. Without a second’s hesitation, he claimed my lips. His kiss flooded me with warmth, and a quiver of excitement raced through my chest, knowing the other two were watching us. Knowing that if I had my way, next it’d be Theo watching me with them.
As I drew back from the White Knight, Hatter swallowed audibly. I shifted onto my knees and reached for him. A flicker of surprise passed through his eyes, and then he was moving to meet me, tugging me even closer as his mouth found mine.
Theo’s hand trailed up my back as Hatter parted my lips with his tongue, and it was a miracle I didn’t melt into a puddle of goo right then. Ecstatic goo.
When Hatter released me, my cheeks were flushed, my pulse thrumming through my body. I turned to face Chess. He was still stretched casually on his back, his head propped on one arm as he took in our PDA. I still couldn’t read his expression well enough to know for sure whether he wanted to be part of it. But his gaze didn’t leave mine as I scooted closer, stopping just shy of touching his side.
Maybe I shouldn’t be trying to decipher his reaction. I could simply own mine, and let him do with it what he would.
“Chess… I want you too,” I said, my cheeks flaring as the words came out.
Chess hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, long enough that I was already bracing against my disappointment when that beautiful grin stretched across his face.
“Then come have me, lovely,” he said in his lilting voice.
My pulse skipped a beat. I leaned over him, and he pushed himself up a little higher, sliding his fingers into my
hair as our lips met. His kiss was gentle yet intoxicating, as if I were drinking down a glass of sweet liqueur. When I eased back, I’d lost my breath.
They were all mine, if only just for this moment. I didn’t know how I’d gotten so freaking lucky.
I settled down onto the grass between them, not wanting or needing anything more than those kisses right now. My head was getting fuzzy with exhaustion. Just lounging there surrounded by the three most fascinating men I’d ever met was a thrill in itself.
I should have been content to leave things there for the night, but I was still Lyssa Tenniel, Miss Organized and Prepared. When the question started niggling at me, I knew it wasn’t going to back down until I got an answer. So I had to glance over at Theo and ask, “Where exactly are these other looking-glasses, and how hard is it going to be for me to get to one?”
Theo grimaced. “I actually only know of one with any certainty,” he said. “And the last I knew of it, the Queen was keeping it in her private chambers, which are always tightly guarded.”
His words sank in slowly. “The Queen of Hearts?” I said.
“That would be the one.”
Oh, fuck.
WICKED WONDERLAND - BONUS SCENE
Did you wonder how Hatter’s return to the Spades might have gone? This bonus scene from his point of view is set after Chapter 21, showing what happened after he told Doria he’d join her at the next meeting.
Hatter
Doria shot me a wary look before she tipped her head toward the slanted building that was apparently our destination. She still wasn’t convinced my motives for joining her were entirely pure. Fair enough.
“You can’t treat me like a kid in there,” she reminded me.
I resisted the urge to ruffle her hair. That definitely wouldn’t go over well. “Consider me on my best behavior.”
I needed to be, and not just for her. If I was going to step up from the sidelines, I had a lot of trust to regain. It’d been twelve years since I’d attended one of these meetings, but it felt like several lifetimes. Ages ago when I’d earned the “Mad” my fellow Spades used to add to my name, when March and May would have stood beside me in eager anticipation of whatever new mission we were planning.
Eons since I’d watched their lives ripped apart without any way of defending them that wouldn’t have made the tragedy even worse.
Stepping into the dim basement room behind my daughter felt both unnervingly familiar and yet like an intrusion. Half of the faces that turned toward us, I didn’t recognize except from glimpses on the streets. There’d been a lot of turnover in the rebellion over the years. Of the half I did know from my past involvement, most either tensed or darkened or both at the sight of me.
Retreating from the rebellion hadn’t endeared me much to my former colleagues. Some of them might blame me for March and May’s fate. Why not, when I did too?
A cowardly part of me wanted to relive my previous retreat right now—up the stairs, past the trick door, down the street, and back to my shop where I could focus on protecting the things that mattered most to me. Except, of course, that what mattered most to me was Doria, and I had no illusions about convincing her to leave.
I’d joined the Spades for a reason. That reason hadn’t gone away. The Queen of Hearts was even more a terror than she’d ever been. I wanted a better life than this for my daughter—and for every other Wonderlander, really.
I wanted to be better than a sour shut-in who accused other people of his own failings.
The thought of Lyssa offering herself to this cause that was barely even hers, of the stubborn compassion I’d seen so often amplify her beauty, gave me the last kick of courage to walk up to the table. We had a chance of winning now—even I couldn’t deny that. If I could make some small bit of difference toward that victory, I might as well be a traitor not to try.
“Hatter,” one of the old-timers said with undisguised skepticism. “I didn’t expect to see you here again. Have you come to tell us we should all just give up like you did?”
My instinct was to bristle, but I held that impulse down. These people had a right to be irritated that I’d backed off while they’d kept sticking their necks out for all these years. I’d told myself it was for Doria’s sake, but it’s also been to protect myself from more heartbreak, more shame.
“I came because I’m not ready to give up,” I said. “I’ve hung back for too long. If there’s some way I can pitch in and help see whatever the White Knight’s new plan is through, I want to hear it.”
“Hear it and then turn tail to run for the hills again,” someone at the back of the gathering muttered.
“Hey!” Doria raised her chin and set her hands on her hips. “That’s my dad you’re talking about. I’ve heard enough stories to know that when he was with the Spades before, he took a ton more chances than most of the rest of you have. He stopped because he was worried about looking after me. And maybe lately I’ve been pissed off about his over-protective tendencies, but I’m not going to say I wish he’d been hauling me along on missions when I was a little kid. So… shut up. He’s here now, and we’re lucky he is.”
She shot me a quick smile, warm enough to offset the chill of the others’ welcome. Pride and gratitude swelled inside me. While my withdrawal from the Spades had been a lot more complicated than that, a lot of it had been for her, and I’d never heard her acknowledge it quite that way before. Coming here was worth it if only just to hear her defend me so vehemently when these days I was normally the one she was telling off.
No one made any more snarky remarks after that. The couple dozen rebels gathered in the basement room shifted on their feet uncomfortably and then fell back into the murmured conversations they’d been having before. Doria ambled over to join the one twin—I hadn’t gotten to know them well enough to tell them apart, but from the way she smiled at him, I probably should start paying more attention—and the other younger Spades he was chatting with. No one seemed to be in charge of the present gathering.
Of course not. The figure who’d claimed that role had yet to arrive.
It didn’t really matter what any of these people thought of my return. The only person in the Spades who had any real say over who stayed and how involved they became was the man everyone here was waiting for.
The man who strode into the room as that though passed through my mind.
Even though the sight of the White Knight sent a prickle of that old irritation through me, thinking of how easily he’d taken over from his mentor and swept up so many Wonderlanders—including my daughter—into his dangerous schemes, I had to admit he had a presence. A hush fell over the crowd the second his footsteps sounded in the room. All eyes turned toward him. He held himself with an easy yet authoritative confidence I couldn’t help envying. There was no doubting who held the power in this room.
The other twin came in a few seconds behind him. No sign of Chess, which I supposed meant he was still roaming the city in search of Lyssa. He’d said he’d scour every street for her, looking about as serious as you could expect to get from Chess. I could hope he’d already found her.
Hearts take me, if something had happened to her because of my outburst… If there wasn’t any sign of her after this meeting, I’d take up the search again myself.
The White Knight’s gaze skimmed over the gathering with a tip of his head here and a flash of a smile there before his attention settled on me. If he was surprised to see me, he didn’t show it, as if he’d always known it’d just be a matter of time before I turned up again. Somehow that irritated me even more. Had he ever really considered any of the criticisms I’d made of him and his approach to the rebellion?
“Hatter,” he said, all benevolence, and offered his hand to shake mine. “I’m glad you could join us. We may be on the verge of finally achieving the freedom we’ve been denied for so long, and I’m sure any assistance you’re willing to offer will only speed our plans along.”
I bit down on the des
ire to make some dryly sarcastic remark and accepted his hand. I hadn’t come here to spit that peace offering back in his face.
“I thought it was about time,” I said. “Whatever disagreements I’ve had with you over the years, it’s nothing compared to my desire to take down our common enemy. What do you have up your sleeve now?”
“I’m not sure you’ll fully approve, but I can promise I’ve given these plans all the careful contemplation they’re due.”
He stepped up to the table and unfurled a roll of paper across it. Everyone stepped closer to study the drawing on it. It was a blueprint for some large building—or part of one, anyway. The shape of it sent a twinge of nervous familiarity through my chest, but I couldn’t quite place it.
Theo ran his hand over the lines on the paper and gave me another thoughtful look. “Your skills may be particularly useful for this operation, if you’re willing to dive all the way in on your first outing back. I assume you still know your way around a lock with those hatpins of yours?”
My fingers itched to grip one just thinking about it. A small grin crossed my lips as I remembered all the doors I’d opened for the Spades, each with practiced ease. “My hands remain as nimble as ever. Where are these locks you want opened?”
Everyone glanced toward me at that question, watching for my response to his answer. Clearly they already knew. A prickling ran down my spine.
The corners of the White Knight’s lips curled slightly upward. “If we’re going to win this war, we need to take it straight to the Palace of Hearts.”
Ah. That was the shape I’d recognized in the blueprint. The breath rushed out of me. For a second, I could only stare at him as the words sank in. The prickling shot straight down to my gut.
The palace—the center of the Queen’s power. By the lands, that was diving all the way in.
But from beneath the prickling, a quiver of something giddier raced through me. A twinge of adrenaline that hearkened back to the mad capers I’d told myself I’d left behind me, more eagerly than I’d ever have expected. Despite my hesitations, my grin widened.
