However—stubborn, difficult man that he was—he was offended by the very notion of a godmother. Which made her job all the more difficult.
Danika knew that beneath Jinni’s icy exterior flowed lava, a spark so hot it consumed. If a woman could ever get into that cold heart, his passion would burn as bright as the desert land he hailed from. However, there was still the minor problem of his near invisibility.
But she was not here for Wolf, Hook, Jinni, or even the lovely, thickheaded Gerard.
Hatter slouched even farther in his seat, his stare a mile long. Apathy clung to him like second skin.
She tsked.
Wolf stilled, sniffed, then looked up. The others followed suit.
“Fairy Godmother, here to grace us with your presence. Oh, goodie.” To the untrained ear, Hook’s greeting smacked of sarcasm, but she knew the raven-haired brute well.
She dropped to the center of the table, dwarfed by heaping trays of food and enveloped by the scented aroma of tea and spices.
Danika walked toward him, gossamer skirts swishing in her wake. “Were you hoping maybe for Tinker? Heard tell you had a thing for waifish blondes.” She patted the back of her bun, pointing her wand at her chest. “I could always turn myself…”
“Bollocks,” he growled but couldn’t quite hide the smile twitching the corner of his full lower lip. “I’ve a Pan to conquer, madam, so do let us hurry.”
“Ravishing as always. And is that stardust? Why, Danika, you shouldn’t have dressed so formally for us.” Gerard smoldered, his words layered with sex and decadence. Promises of dark seduction and wicked nights danced in the air.
Her stomach quivered and heat bloomed in her cheeks.
He smiled and scratched his own. The rascal. She’d find a woman to bring him to his knees. Too bad Belle had fallen for the Beast—she’d seemed so perfect. But alas…
She turned to the Hatter. He looked even more bedraggled up close. His tie was undone and skewed. She flitted to him, attempted to tuck back the dark strands of hair in his eyes, but it was useless.
Finally she sighed. “What has happened to you, Hatter?”
There were no emotions on his face and no smile to betray a hint of what he felt. “Life happened, fairy. Surely you know. Or haven’t you heard? Cursed I am. The sky is gray, the sky is light, and still the Hatter bemoans his plight.”
That voice made her think of hot nights, cool sheets, and heady moans.
A choir of mingling voices began to sing. “The Mad Hatter bemoans his plight. Oh nay, oh my, the Hatter bemoans his plight…”
“I hate those flowers. Enfer, why did you plant your abode here, Hatter?” Gerard’s French lilt grew rough with annoyance, and he chucked a bone toward the garden of singing dandelions.
Shrieks resonated and then flowery roars reached a cacophonous pitch as they cursed him full of boils, warts, and pustules.
“I do wish you’d hurry this on, starflower,” Jinni said with an exotic inflection that rolled over her skin like heated honey.
Dizzy and slightly breathless, she returned to the center of the table. Too much testosterone, too many fine pairs of eyes studying her. Heaven help the women these men paired with, they’d be the devil in the sheets for sure.
“As you know, I’m your godmother, and as such I’ve duties to fulfill.”
“Mon Dieu,” Gerard groaned. “Must we abide this horror every year? Be done with it, fée. It’s not worked yet.”
“Again?” Jinni crooked a brow.
Hook fiddled with the end of his mustache. A glint of something in his dark blue eyes led her to suspect he was not as opposed as the rest.
The Wolf gave a moaning growl—human in its whining undertones.
Hatter jerked. It was the first reaction she’d seen from him so far. She might have been pleased were it not for the threat of violence that quivered through the air like the strike of a finely honed blade.
“No more. I told you last time: no more, fairy.”
She held her chin high. “And I’ve given you leeway and your space. But it is more than time to get back in the game. We will keep searching until we find your Alice. We must.” The lie settled heavy on her tongue. Alice had been already been found, and she knew without a doubt he’d be irate. Danika raised her chin. She would not give in to fear though, not now.
Gerard threw himself back in the chair, causing the legs to rock precariously, and laughed, a great big booming sound that rent the night. Pigwidgeons scattered like falling rose petals in a thousand different directions.
Gerard picked his teeth. “Mates, I’m in. I’ll take three; no, make that four. All blondes. Big”—he framed his chest—“and no readers. Dieu, I hate readers.” His nose curled as he grabbed his magically full tankard again.
“One will do. And that goes for all of you.” She eyed Jinni hard.
His tipped his head. “In my kingdom, we are expected to maintain a full harem, O magnificent one.”
“Aye, well…” She stomped her foot, wagging her finger at him. “Women from Earth will not abide that arrangement. Besides”—she grinned, recalling one in particular who would be perfect for him—“she’ll be more than enough for what you need doing.”
“Earth?” Hook roared. “Never!”
The Wolf licked his lips.
“Enough, enough.” She raised her hands. “You’ll not have a say. It is my duty to see to your needs. Happy endings are not the sole domain of Prince Charming.” She bristled, remembering the heated battles between herself and her kind.
Love might never tame the beast fully, but it would certainly temper the wildness in each of them.
The Hatter’s face could have been carved from ice. He was as still as a snake ready to strike. She took a step back; he was certainly crazy enough to do it. Heart thundering, feigning a boldness she did not feel, Danika shook her head. “No, Hatter, not even your madness will affect my decision. It is as I say. When the clock strikes midnight”—she waved her wand and a golden, antique clock stood before him, its metrical ticks making Hook shudder—“she will be here.”
“Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.” Hatter’s voice was whisper soft but full of some hidden torment.
Filled with an ache to hold him, she clenched her teeth. She could not. She had a task, and she’d see it through.
“Be… be that as it may, she will come and you will mate with her.”
He didn’t seem to notice she’d spoken. “But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”
She frowned, looking to the others for help in deciphering some meaning behind his cryptic words. The Wolf blew air through his muzzle. Gerard only shrugged.
Hatter was worse, no doubt. There used to be a time she could at least piece together his meaning. Now—oh dear—he truly needed his mate. She knew he was tired of searching. So was she… Especially after the last Alice. The great-grandmother Alice Hu.
Danika clenched her wand tighter. What if the girl looked like the original? She swallowed hard. The last Alice had been cruel, a charlatan. She’d fooled them all. Especially Danika. She’d fallen prey to the girl’s outwardly loving exterior. But she’d soon learned they had a viper in their midst. The girl had wanted nothing more than the power of Wonderland. She’d never wanted the Hatter.
A reality made all the more sad because she’d never seen Hatter so taken. He’d made a fool of himself—in his mind anyway. He’d shown Alice the wonder and strange beauty of Wonderland, expecting her to love the talking flowers and vaporous, cat-shifting loons as he did. But she’d despised it all, wanted to change everything; she’d rejected his uniqueness as madness and mocked him behind his back to others.
Once he discovered her deception, something in him fractured; where once he’d been irreverent, often laughing, he’d turned moody and withdrawn.
Now Danika was set to bring him another Alice, knowing this one to be the
right one, but what would he feel knowing this Alice came from that Alice? Would he even give the girl a chance? Would he hate her because of who she was? The thought made Danika sick.
If the magic hadn’t demanded Danika find him an Alice, she’d have brought him a blasted Jane, and to hell with all the Alices everywhere.
“Yes, just so.” She sighed in answer to his nonsensical ramblings.
Gerard snorted. “Only bride who’ll have him is one freshly buried. Honestly, fée, cruel torture.”
She planted hands on her hips in her best authoritative pose. Not easy for one barely ten inches tall. “Your turn will come soon enough, Gerard.”
He shuddered and she nodded, pleased her words hadn’t faltered. “Now, off with the lot of you. Freshen up, get sober, and for the gods’ sake, wash.” She eyed Gerard in particular.
They all sat staring at her.
She glowered. “Go, I say!” And gesturing at them with her wand, she lifted them from their seats. Wolf yelped the loudest as Danika tossed them from the garden.
“Blast you, démon de sorcière.” Gerard’s thick growl rose above the grumbles of the rest.
She grinned and twirled toward Hatter. He was staring at her, eyes full of pain, of hunger, of something he felt would be forever out of his reach.
“Cursed,” he whispered.
She patted his cold fingers. “Hatter, you are not cursed. We just haven’t found the one yet. But we will. I swear it.”
Danika’s words sounded sure, but in her heart she trembled. What will he do was now the chanting mantra tattooed in her skull. She didn’t have a choice—he was unwell, and he didn’t have much time. She bit her lip.
“Let me be, Danika.” He stood. “I do not want a mate out of necessity or one chosen for me by this crazy up-is-down and down-is-up world. I will not do this again.”
“I love you, Hatter, but hear me well. I’ll never stop.”
He clenched his fist, brimstone burning in the depths of his cold black eyes. Then he blinked and smiled, a slow, curling grin. “Do you know, fairy?”
She frowned. “What, my dear?”
His eyes were glazed, his body swaying. “The answer to the riddle?”
Danika’s lips thinned, heart bleeding. He couldn’t even hang on to his anger before the madness claimed him. She swallowed hard. “I do.”
“And?” He lifted on his toes.
“Poe, dear.” She touched his bristly jaw. “Poe.”
He snapped his fingers and, with a sharp nod, walked off muttering, “I knew it.”
If Miriam hadn’t told truth, if this wasn’t the right Alice, Hatter wouldn’t survive another year. Alice Hu had to be the one, because without the Hatter, Wonderland could never be the same.
Chapter 2
The bell above the Mad Hatter’s Cupcakery and Tea Shoppe rang as the last customer of the day walked out.
Alice heaved a huge sigh of relief, ran around the counter to the door, and turned the sign. She giggled—the place was a mess with napkins scattered everywhere, tons of plates to wash and clean in the back, and yet she felt like she’d just completed the Honolulu marathon. Her giggling had a frantic pitch to it. They’d done it. They’d started a business and made money. Lots of it. She hadn’t counted, but she was pretty sure they were well on their way to being in the black.
In another two years.
Her frilled minidress was covered in powdered sugar, her hair smelled of a million different varieties of tea spices, and she didn’t care. A sense of accomplishment filled her: they’d done it.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that she’d landed the sweetest location in downtown Honolulu—right across from world-famous Waikiki Beach, aka Tourist Mecca. That meant one thing: a constant stream of customers.
Tabby—her baker’s assistant—squealed, grabbed both of Alice’s hands, and jumped up and down.
“Girl power,” Tabby sang. “We so rock!”
“I know!”
It took at least five minutes before exhaustion finally worked its way through Alice’s brain. Grabbing her forehead, but still wearing a goofy smile, she dropped down in the seat nearest her.
“Oh my gosh, we did it.” Her words were quiet, more thoughtful, as the full impact of what they’d done finally started to settle in.
“Yeah,” Tabby agreed. “Wow.”
Tabby planted her hands on her slim hips and grinned. “I think this calls for a celebration, don’t you?”
“Can you believe it, Tabby? We’re true-blue business owners.”
“Look out world.” Tabby nodded, a smile as radiant as a burst of sunlight tightening her face. “Feels good, yeah? After all these years, all the tears, all the sacrifices? And our moms thought we’d be good-for-nothings.” She snorted, reached into the cupcake display case, and grabbed two desserts.
Alice groaned as another dull throb shot up her left calf muscle. She kicked off the four-inch heels Tabby had sworn were appropriate cupcakery attire, and massaged the stiff kink from her thigh-high-clad leg.
She’d felt slightly ridiculous in the frilly blue dress that barely covered her butt cheeks, but as Tabby had said time and again: sex sells, even in cupcakeries. Apparently it was true. Easily half the customers today had been men.
She’d not eaten anything all day, too anxious to get food down. But now it was seven, the day was done, and her stomach suddenly reminded her how neglected it was.
Tabby sat across from her. “Mad Hatter’s Surprise, or Hooka’s Delight? Hmm? Hmm?” Tabby wiggled the plates under Alice’s nose. The creations were mini works of art.
The Mad Hatter was a vanilla-bean-based cupcake. At its center was a caramel-covered slice of jalapeno—the Hatter’s surprise—but it was the tequila cream cheese frosting that made Alice have a mouthgasm every time. She gestured for the Mad Hatter.
Tabby handed it to her and then, picking hers up, said, “To a wildly successful day and to many, many more.”
“Hear, hear.” Alice nodded agreement; they tapped cupcakes together and then bit into them with simultaneous groans.
“Oh em gee, Alice.” Tabby’s eyes were twin saucers of joy. “I’m beyond happy that you decided to waste your life and become a professional baker.”
Alice snorted. Her mother’s words. Mom had had different thoughts in mind for her fourth and youngest daughter. Each Hu child had become something wildly successful. Her oldest sister, Verona, was Honolulu’s most renowned cardiologist. Alma—second oldest—the vet. Tanya—White House correspondent.
Then there was Alice. Head in the clouds Alice. Nose always in the books Alice. Well, one book in particular. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
As a little girl, she’d thought it was cool to have a book named after her. Of course, she hadn’t known it wasn’t really, but by the time she figured it out, she’d already fallen in love with the dark and quirky prose of the book.
Always imagining it was she—Japanese goddess Alice Hu—who’d fallen into Wonderland, met the white rabbit, become both big and small, met and… since the Tim Burton adaptation had come out… kissed the Mad Hatter. Yes, he was certifiable, but after seeing Johnny Depp play the part, crazy had never looked so yummy.
She licked the frosting swirl and moaned as her taste buds erupted with sharp hints of tequila and notes of lime.
“I love this.” Tabby chuckled and blew out a puff ring of smoke, thanks to a nifty trick Alice had learned at culinary school. Pop rocks flash frozen in dry ice. “We’re gonna be rich. Oh hey, did you hear?”
After ten years of being best friends, Alice had grown used to Tabby speaking in stream of consciousness. She peeled the paper off her cake. “What?”
She nibbled, content to be lazy and eat slowly. The kitchen could be on fire and she doubted she’d get her tired butt off the chair. Her feet ached and her toes tingled. She wasn’t sure that was totally normal, but at the moment, she couldn’t even muster up a grain of “care.” She was blissed out.
“K1
News Now called this morning, wants to do an interview with you tomorrow.”
When the words finally registered through the fog in Alice’s throbbing head, her pulse fluttered and she sat up straighter in her chair. “No way! And I’m only hearing this now?”
Tabby shrugged as she popped the last bite of her cupcake in her mouth. “What? We were busy. Not like I had pet mice to do my bidding. Some of us”—she pointed at her chest and raised a brow—“were actually working.”
“Cinderella had mice, not Wonderland.”
“Pssh, who cares? I get them all confused anyway.”
“Sacrilege. Off with her head!” Alice shrilled in her best Red Queen impersonation.
Tabby rolled her eyes. “And that’s why you never get laid anymore. You. Are. Weird.” She patted Alice’s hand. “Honey, you do know they don’t actually exist, right?”
Alice chuckled. Tabby always gave her grief about her love of—okay… obsession with—all things Wonderland. “What? You mean to tell me the face-painted man who crawls in my window and makes wild monkey love to me every night isn’t actually real?” She tapped her finger to her chin. “That could be a problem.”
Tabby chuckled. “I’ve got dishes to clean. I’d like to get home before ten anyway.”
“Ooh la la.” Alice winked and sat back. “Another hot date with Mr. HPD?”
Tabby bit her bottom lip, a shy look in her eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
Alice giggled and rubbed the back of her neck. “Then I suggest you get those dishes done.” She winked.
Tabby ran back, a spryness to her step Alice couldn’t hope to match. She was exhausted.
Not “I was out working in the garden exhausted” either. More like “I’ve run ten miles, hiked Mount Kilimanjaro, all while carrying twenty-pound dumbbells” tired. She rubbed her nose, feeling the beginnings of a headache spreading behind her eyes and shooting down the back of her neck. She winced.
[Kingdom 01.0 - 03.0] Kingdom Series Collection Page 2
