The Looking-Glass Curse: The Complete Series

by Eva Chase

  I stayed cautious as we moved through the streets toward Hatter’s place. There might not be anything about my looks that should catch anyone’s eye, but I didn’t want to put myself in view of the guards anyway.

  My vigilance turned out to be a good thing, because my gaze snagged on a curved red helm through the window of the hat shop when we were still several feet away. My pulse skittered. I grabbed the Red Knight’s wrist and tugged him off to the side, closer to the neighboring building.

  There were two figures wearing the red helms and red-and-pink pleated tunics of the Hearts’ Guard in Hatter’s shop. I didn’t dare get close enough to make out more than that. What had they come to badger Hatter about now? Had someone pointed the finger at him like the Duchess had at Chess?

  He might need our help. I had to find out what was going on in there. I swallowed past the dryness in my mouth and motioned for the Red Knight to follow me.

  We slipped down the alley between a couple shops farther down the street and came around to the back of Hatter’s. Like the shop’s front door, the back was never locked. I eased it open, freezing at the faint squeak of the hinges. When no one came to investigate, I squeezed inside, the Red Knight right behind me, and padded across the workroom floor as quietly as I could manage.

  It looked like Hatter had been working in that room when the guards had arrived. A half-finished sunhat lay on one of the tables, the veil only attached on one side. The door that separated the workroom from the main shop stood halfway open. I nudged the Red Knight to a stop near the table and edged closer on my own, flattening myself against the wall.

  From there, I could see the back end of the counter and Hatter standing on the other side of it, but not a whole lot else.

  “But you did go out to the Checkerboard Plains,” one of the guards was saying in a voice with a snarly edge. I caught a glimpse of him as he stalked past Hatter to the other side of the shop: a beefy man with a tiger’s head. I’d seen him before, I realized—in the club, a couple weeks ago, when he’d beat up a woman until she’d bled all over the dance floor.

  He was wearing a taller helm than the guards usually did. Any of the guards other than— Oh. The idea hit me with cold certainty.

  He was the new Knave. And he was following up on his predecessor’s line of inquiry.

  “I did,” Hatter said, his light tenor only a little strained. How long had the Knave been interrogating him? “My daughter had never been out there before, but she’s been badgering me for ages. Now that we could spend more than a day taking in the sights, it seemed like an ideal time.”

  The Knave spun around and paced back out of view. I reached toward the shelves behind me and groped along them until my fingers closed around a pair of fabric shears. Not quite a sword, but they’d do in a pinch. I braced them at my side.

  “So you admit you were pleased to see Time freed, then?” the Knave said.

  “Not at all,” Hatter said. Just the slightest hint of dryness crept into his tone. “I feel for the Queen and the violation of her home. But once it was done, it was done.”

  “The Knave before me went out to the Plains with the intention of speaking with you,” the tiger-man said. “He’d gotten word that you might have other intentions there. Did you not see him?”

  “I can’t say I did,” Hatter said. “And I can’t think of what other intentions I might have had. Is there something out there I should be interested in?”

  The Knave made a dismissive sound and continued his pacing. “As you can determine from my appointment, he did not return. I think you must have some idea what happened to him.”

  Hatter spread his hands. “I can make a guess, if you want my opinion. The Checkerboard Plains have gone even wilder than I recalled. Plenty of danger if you venture from the train. I nearly lost my daughter in a sinkhole, and we saw a jabberwock from afar. Any number of things could have befallen the man. I have no intention of returning, you can believe that.”

  “I see.” The Knave stopped with a tap of his heel. “I’d like to speak with your daughter, then, so I can verify your story.”

  Hatter tensed, and a movement behind the counter caught my eye. Doria was crouched there in the shadows, out of sight, where Hatter must have told her to stay when they’d realized the Knave was coming in. If the Knave realized Hatter had been hiding her, that was going to look awfully suspicious.

  Doria grabbed a dented hat that had been left behind the counter and started to straighten up, maybe thinking she’d use the hat as an excuse for being down there. My grip on the shears tightened.

  At the first faint rustle of Doria’s dress, Hatter shot forward like he’d been stung. “Come along then,” he said, suddenly talking twice as fast. “Although it seems to me she told me that she was—”

  A second after he’d passed out of view, there was a squeal and a crash. The guards toppled into my view under the weight of a shelving unit, hats flying everywhere. The Knave gave an angry shout. My heart lurched. What the hell did Hatter think he was doing?

  Doria froze, her head just above the level of the counter. Hatter must have made some gesture, because she turned and fled through the workroom. Her panicked gaze met mine with a flash of surprise, but she kept running, her stockinged feet whispering over the floor, out the back the way we’d come in.

  As I wavered between following her for my own safety and staying for Hatter’s, the Knave heaved the fallen shelving unit to the side with a sharper thump. His sword hissed from its hilt at his side. “You—”

  “I’m so sorry!” Hatter said in a quavering voice that hardly sounded like himself. “I was distracted trying to remember, and my hand slipped—those shelves haven’t been stable in so long—I really need to get someone in to fix them up. Are you both all right?”

  “I will see your daughter now,” the Knave said, full-out snarling now.

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you,” Hatter babbled. “We could go check for her, but she told me she was going out with friends an hour or so ago, didn’t know where they’d end up. That’s a teenager for you.” He let out a weak laugh. “I understand I’ve given grave offense. Should we go to see the Queen? I’d be happy to explain to her everything I did to you. Any questions she has, I’ll say everything I know.”

  My chest clenched. He wasn’t seriously volunteering to throw himself on the Queen’s mercy, was he? Once she had him there in the palace—

  I shifted my weight forward, letting the shears drop open so I had a stabbing point if I needed it, but apparently Hatter’s reckless gamble had hit the mark after all. The Knave’s lips curled in apparent disgust, revealing the gleam of fangs much more vicious than Chess’s.

  “That won’t be necessary,” he snapped. “Clean up this mess—and see that your shop’s furniture is in order the next time I come by. The Queen has enough to do without bothering with the likes of you. I’ll stop in tomorrow to speak with your daughter. Make sure she’s here.”

  He stalked out, kicking aside a couple of the fallen hats as he went. The other guard hustled after him.

  Hatter exhaled in a rush.

  “Hatter?” I said tentatively.

  A moment later, he was yanking open the workroom door. “What are you doing here?” he demanded, in an aggravated tone and with a wary glint in his eyes that felt much more like his usual self.

  “What the hell were you doing?” I retorted, keeping my voice low. I gave him a little shove. “Are you crazy? You practically attacked the Knave—if he hadn’t bought that it was an accident—”

  “But he did,” Hatter said. “And Doria got out.”

  “You almost got taken to see the Queen.”

  “I would have managed that too,” he said, the glint in his eyes turning a touch wild. “There’s a reason they called me ‘Mad’ back then, you know. I’ve been thinking tapping into that side might not be such a bad thing when I have people to protect.”

  The way he looked at me when he said that last bit made the sha
rpest bits of emotion melt inside me. “Okay,” I said. “If you’re sure he’s gone, do you want me to help you clean up?”

  Hatter glanced over his shoulder and grimaced. “That does look like more than a one-person job. Thank you.”

  He seemed calm enough as we picked our way among the scattered hats and shattered glass from the shelves, but the tension squeezing my chest didn’t loosen. It had been kind of mad, what he’d done. Doria had already been thinking up an excuse to use. That might have worked just as well, without potentially pissing the Knave off so much he’d turned his sword on Hatter.

  I wasn’t sure being Mad was a good thing for protecting Hatter.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Lyssa

  “Do you really think coming with me is worth the risk when the Knave was just questioning you?” I murmured as Hatter pushed through the ferns beside me.

  “I wasn’t going to leave you to meet Unicorn on your own,” he said under his breath, and glanced back at the Red Knight, tailing me as always. “Or near enough to being on your own.”

  Chess had been supposed to come with me, but Hatter hadn’t seen Chess since he’d dropped by the apartment briefly last night. At least I knew the guards hadn’t caught him then. Where was he now? Why had he taken off like that?

  There didn’t seem to be much point in searching for someone who could turn invisible. And if we’d missed the arranged meeting with Unicorn, he wasn’t likely to trust us to go forward with any kind of plan. It still gnawed at me, though, not knowing where Chess was or how he was coping.

  I followed the same path Chess had that first day, skirting the mushroom farm and then slipping through the dense evergreen forest. Near the edge of the treeline, I stopped Hatter with my hand on the sleeve of his jacket. He looked down at me, his green eyes so intent in his handsome face beneath the brim of today’s bowler hat that I lost my words for a second.

  “I think you should stay here,” I said quietly. “It wasn’t really a risk for Chess to come with me—he’s already been accused. But if Unicorn turns against us after all, it’ll be better if he doesn’t know who else is involved. Okay? If it sounds like there’s any trouble, you can come rushing in and kick as much horsey butt as you want.”

  Hatter made a disgruntled face at the suggestion, but he sighed rather than arguing. “I can’t deny the logic there,” he said. “You’ll tread carefully with him?”

  “I’m pretty sure out of all of you I’m the most careful one,” I pointed out.

  His lips curled upward. “I suppose I can’t deny that either. Though you have had your moments. Maybe madness is catching.”

  I rolled my eyes at him even though I couldn’t help smiling back. Hatter dipped his head to kiss me quickly, the heat of his mouth lingering after he’d pulled back. I took a step away from him with an ache in my chest.

  God help me, I was falling for all three of them, wasn’t I? Theo and Hatter and Chess. They were all spectacular in their varying ways. Could anyone blame me?

  Melody would laugh when I told her. If I got the chance to tell her anything, even a made-up version of what I was going through. If I ever made it back.

  That thought sobered me up again. I bobbed my head to Hatter and headed into the field. The Red Knight strode along behind me without comment. I wondered if any of the previous Red Queens had taken multiple partners. Did that run through my bloodline too? It didn’t seem like the best time to ask.

  Unicorn had already arrived. He was strolling around the perimeter of the clearing, his hooved hands tucked behind his back, his equine body fully clothed in a dress shirt, vest, and slacks—yellow, red, and purple, respectively. He stopped and tossed back his sparkling mane at the sight of me.

  I hurried over to join him, and he started walking again when I reached him. His restless pace suggested he was still a little nervous of my motives too.

  “Thank you for coming,” I said. “I know it’s a lot to ask with the Queen of Hearts as suspicious as she is right now.”

  Just that acknowledgment brought Unicorn’s shoulders down an inch. “It isn’t so difficult,” he admitted. “I’ve had a long-standing excuse to come out here and run. It serves just as well for a meeting like this.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. I want you to know that I realize that even the Diamonds and the other people who stay close to the palace are just trying to survive. I want everyone in Wonderland to have a better life.” Except for the Duchess. She could go suck rocks.

  “You won’t find many who’ll argue that this is a good life, even if most of them don’t have the guts to try to change it,” Unicorn said.

  “She took eight people from the city this morning,” I said, resisting the urge to grit my teeth. “Were you able to find out anything about the timing she’s planning for the executions?”

  Unicorn slowed his pace, raising one hoof to scratch his white cheek. “The palace dungeon is almost full,” he said. “She’s already making plans for a spectacle of a trial—all the top Diamonds as the ‘jury,’ the prisoners cut down one by one and displayed in the city.” He winced. “Then she’ll send the guards out to call on the city folk to turn in the Spades among them, so they can be punished for the deaths they ‘caused’.”

  After seeing dozens of their own killed without any intervention from the Spades, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. I wouldn’t blame them. We had to save those people.

  “When you say it’s almost full,” I said, “how much time do we have?”

  “I could see her calling the trial as early as tomorrow,” Unicorn said.

  My heart sank. Tomorrow. Even if we only focused on saving the prisoners, how the hell were we going to be ready to orchestrate an escape in just one more day?

  “Is there anything you can do to delay that?” I asked.

  Unicorn sucked his lower lip under his large teeth. “I could make some suggestions for the trial, to increase how impressive it is, that would take more time to arrange. But I doubt I could buy you more than another day.” He peered down at me with his big eyes, which were an amber-brown like milky tea. “If you’re aiming to break those people out, you’ll need to make it through all the guards she has in place. It’ll take a lot of manpower. They’re so afraid of failing her, most will fight to the death.”

  The image flashed through my mind of all those figures in their pleated uniforms sprawled in pools of blood. Queasiness pooled in my stomach. Even if I fought for the throne, that wasn’t how I wanted to start a new reign in Wonderland—with just as much brutality as the Hearts had used. There had to be other ways.

  One day, maybe two. How else could we get to the prisoners? I wet my lips, picturing the palace grounds from memory. We’d managed to make it into the palace before, but under the cover of night, and at a time when no one expected an attack. No doubt the Queen would have her security on high alert around this “trial.” We’d have trouble making it past the wall.

  At least if we only had the garden wall to deal with, not the palace itself, we’d have a better chance. I glanced at Unicorn. “Do you think there’s any other way you could influence the way she sets up the trial? Could you convince her to hold it outside in the gardens instead of in the palace?”

  A thoughtful gleam came into my co-conspirator’s eyes. His mouth formed a horsey smile. “You know, I think I could. Lion and I will be due for another showdown soon. I can suggest that we begin the trial with that, out on the grounds, like a symbol of the Hearts knocking down the Spades. Properly ironic, since I’m more likely to end up playing the loser, but it’ll be the Spades who’ll win the day. If you can pull this off.”

  That was the big if. I ignored the comment. It’d seemed best to pretend I was totally confident in my and the Spades’ abilities. Our palace-dwelling ally wasn’t someone I wanted to be sharing my doubts with.

  “Buy us as much time as you can, and arrange the fight,” I said. “Are there any other ways you’ve thought of that you could help us from the ins
ide? We have our plans, but we’ll shift them if you can give us better opportunities.”

  Unicorn cocked his head. “Well,” he said, “if we’re already outside and dueling, it shouldn’t be too hard for me to create a disturbance near one of the gates. Draw the guards away to give you a clearer opening to burst through. Once I know where the trial will be staged, I can tell you which one to aim for.”

  “Perfect.” A little shiver of excitement ran through me. Maybe I didn’t know how we were going to displace the Queen of Hearts completely, but I felt so much closer to saving those prisoners. When I told Theo what Unicorn had offered, he’d have more ideas to build on those plans. We could make this happen.

  “Is that all for now?” Unicorn asked. “I would like to get in a bit of a run. On my own, if you don’t mind.” His tone turned a bit haughty, maybe to cover his embarrassment about how he preferred to run, more animal than man.

  There was one piece of the larger scheme I’d been wondering about since seeing the new tiger-ish Knave in the old shark-ish one’s place. And I didn’t know when I’d see Chess next to ask him. He might not even have the most accurate information, since it’d been quite a while since he’d chummed up to the Diamonds.

  “Just a couple more questions,” I said. “About the Queen and her claim on the throne. The Queen before her, her mother, she isn’t around anymore, is she?”

  Unicorn shook his head. “Our current Queen ascended on her death. Unfortunately picking up too many of her practices and adding awful new ones of her own.”

  “There’s a King of Hearts too, isn’t there? And they have some children—heirs.” When the Spades had talked about the murdered prince, they’d called him the Queen’s “youngest” son.

  Unicorn let out a snort. “The King is good at standing for portraits and saying encouraging words in commanding tones, and not much else. Sometimes I wonder if she’s had him beheaded and pearled, he’s so dull. And the children… There seems to be more squabbling between her and them and amongst themselves than there is cohesion. I’d imagine you can divide and conquer easily enough once she’s out of the picture.”