by Eva Chase
It wasn’t the weirdest thing I’d seen in Wonderland. This was a place where unicorns walked around on two legs and talked, where feathered dragons might belch fire in your face, and where mirrors could transport you to other realities. But still, it was pretty freaking weird.
“That’ll work,” I said, already imagining the water rushing over me and washing all the lingering grime away.
“One of the few perks of our current living situation,” Hatter said dryly. He started to peel off his maroon suit jacket. “It’s a little slippery under the downpour. I think I’d better go with you to make sure you don’t need a return trip to that hospital, so I suppose I’m getting a wash too.”
Oh. Heat unfurled from low in my belly as I watched him shed his shirt and unbutton his slacks. Hatter wasn’t as buff as Chess or Theo, but there was still plenty to admire about his broad-shouldered but otherwise lean form. Plenty of taut muscles I’d enjoyed running my hands over and feeling against me more than once. Um. Right. I was supposed to be getting ready to wash too.
I tugged off my woven metal vest with a twinge in my wrist when I bent it at a slightly odd angle. Note to self: Be especially careful with that arm. I set it down next to Hatter’s steadily growing pile of folded clothing and reached for the hem of my shirt.
Now Hatter was watching me, everything off except for his silk boxers. A flush spread over my skin at his approving attention, especially when my small breasts jumped with the yank of my shirt over them. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen me naked before, but then it’d been in the heat of the moment. This intimacy felt much more deliberate.
When I’d stripped completely, he dropped his boxers too. He picked up a bar of what I guessed was soap, deep fuchsia in color, and guided me over to the stream’s natural shower.
The first spray of the water was warmer than I expected—not as hot as I’d have usually liked to shower, but pleasantly refreshing. For the first several moments with it rushing over me like a gentle waterfall, any self-consciousness I’d been feeling was swept away with the rivulets that trickled across the rocky floor into the pool.
Hatter rubbed the soap over his dark blond hair, the pink bar’s essence mingling with the blue-tinted water to create a lilac foam. He handed it to me, and I worked it all through my own much longer hair. God, that felt good. I scrubbed away every bit of oil and grease, leaving the pale strands squeaky clean.
When I’d washed my hair and face to my satisfaction, I moved to offer the soap back to Hatter, and paused with a playful spark of an idea. Instead I rubbed the bar over his chest myself.
Hatter set his hand over mine, but he didn’t stop me. He just leaned close enough to speak without water streaming down between us. “Thought I could use a little help, did you?”
“Not so much that you needed it as that you might enjoy it,” I said with a smile. “Or I will, in any case.”
He made a humming sound that turned more ragged as I eased the bar of soap lower, across the flat planes of his belly. His hand came up to slide over my wet hair. I tipped my head to meet his kiss.
Hatter’s mouth was hot and sweet with a hint of the water that had turned our lips slick. From the first instant of the kiss, I didn’t want to stop. I didn’t just belong in Wonderland. I belonged with this man.
Somewhere in the middle of that, I lost my grip on the soap. Hatter traced it over my curves as we kept kissing, teasing it under my breasts and gliding it over my nipples until I whimpered. He kissed me harder. His rigid cock brushed my belly, and a giddy tingle ran through me. I reached down to give that part of him a good rubbing too. He groaned and tugged me closer.
“I don’t want you to think I’m glad to have you here just for this,” he murmured by my ear in a voice full of promise. “But I did miss having you like this too. Are you sure it’s not too much?”
“We’ll just—take it easy,” I said, with a hitch of my breath as his deft fingers grazed my clit. Fuck, none of me wanted easy right now. I wanted hard and fast and everything he had in him. Whether my body was up for that in my current state of health was another matter.
Hatter walked us to the edge of the pool where the stream’s shower eased off. When he sat me on the stone ledge while he stayed in the water, he stood at the perfect height for his hips to fit between my splayed legs.
Need burned from my core, but Hatter wasn’t the type to rush. He drew me into another kiss, his talented hands massaging my breasts, my ass, until my nerves were trembling for reasons that had nothing to do with any injury.
“Please,” I mumbled against his mouth. My hand closed around his cock, reveling in the soft skin over that solid length before I urged it toward me. Hatter’s breath stuttered.
“Here?” he said with an arch of his eyebrow. His fingers trailed down my stomach to my sex. I scooted closer with a gasp as his tip brushed my opening. Then he was pressing inside, and everything narrowed down to the hot taut slide of him filling me completely.
“Lyssa,” he murmured between kisses, as if confirming to himself that I was here. “Lyssa.”
“Hatter. So good.” I let out a little cry as he plunged even deeper, pleasure sparking up from my core, and he paused with a look of concern so heartfelt it made my pulse skip a beat.
“I’m fine,” I reassured him.
“Let’s make sure you stay that way while I’m taking you someplace so much better than fine,” he said, his lips grazing my cheek.
He started to move again, steady rolls of his hips, sending bliss shooting through me with each thrust. One hand slipped down between us so his thumb could settle on my clit. As I whimpered and arched against him, he braced his other arm behind me. His fingers dipped around my ass to probe my other opening where he’d filled me once before. I was held completely, penetrated in every way.
I made an inarticulate sound, overwhelmed by the sensations he was stirring all through my body. Pleasure blazed up inside me. Just like that, I was a goner. His thumb flicked over my clit, his cock plunged into me at the perfect angle, his fingers teased my ass, and I came apart in his arms.
Hatter groaned as I clenched around him. Ecstasy rippled through my body, and he propelled it higher with a few quick jerks of his hips. Then he flooded me with even more heat.
His breath seared over my chest as he held me, his head bowed, catching his breath. I clutched him in return. I was here. Maybe up there outside these caves everything was wrong, but this moment was nothing but right.
Hatter kissed me again, so tenderly it brought an ache into my chest. He stroked his hand over my back.
“You asked me some questions, that last night you were here,” he said in a low voice. “I’m not sure I answered them adequately.”
“Questions?” I said, searching my memory. We’d talked about an awful lot of things in the time we’d spent together here.
He pulled back far enough to meet my eyes. “Watching someone walk away from you to what you think will be their death has a way of clarifying things,” he said. “And I want to say it now while I can. I love you, Lyssa.”
My arms tightened around him. A smile stretched my lips. It was suddenly far easier than I’d expected to say, “I love you too.”
“I don’t know how this will end up, with you the Red Queen and all—”
“I’m pretty sure a queen can decide to be with whatever man she wants,” I said firmly.
The corner of his mouth twitched upward. “And however many she wants?” he suggested.
“I don’t think you have to worry about me bringing in too many others,” I muttered. My thoughts leapt to Chess, and then to Theo… How could I even know what to feel about him when maybe I should be grieving him right now?
“Either way, it’ll be up to you.” Hatter touched his nose to mine. “I’ll be here helping you make your way to that throne however I can. That’s all that matters.”
I hugged him to me, and we stayed locked in that embrace until my damp skin started to cool in the open air
. My legs didn’t wobble too much when I pulled myself back onto them.
Our little interlude must have taken longer than it’d felt like, because by the time we’d dressed and made it back to the camp, Chess was standing amid the others. I couldn’t tell from his expression what he’d found, but he didn’t look upset, which at least suggested it wasn’t anything tragic. My spirits lifted.
“How did your expedition go?” I asked, hurrying over.
“In some ways better than others,” Chess said. “I couldn’t find a reasonable place to cross the palace wall. But I did determine that one old ‘pal’ of ours is still going back and forth between the city and the palace.” He grinned wide enough to show his fangs. “We’ll get in there and get our answers about the prince. Rabbit can be our key.”
Chapter Six
Theo
The smell of roses permeated the entire palace, but it hung particularly thick in the inner quarters. It practically colored the air in the hall the guard was hustling me down. Even when I breathed through my mouth, the odor seeped up into my nose. The sensation of fluttering petals and prickling thorns clouded my mind.
I sank as deep into my head as I could, holding onto the one thought that really mattered. The one goal I had to see through. No matter what my mother did to me, no matter what else her underlings flashed in front of my eyes or whispered in my ears or pricked my skin with, I wouldn’t let myself be a victim. I’d come to the palace with a purpose, and I’d see it through. One step at a time, one piece at a time.
Lyssa was waiting for me. She and all the rest of Wonderland were counting on me.
My knees ached as we drew up in front of the door to the Queen’s private chambers. They seemed to be the favorite spot of the tormentors my mother called her “doctors.” Tiny pins jabbed under the knee cap. They made a lot of use of the spaces between my wrist bones and along the line of my jaw as well. Just remembering those moments brought back shards of pain.
“Come in,” the Queen of Hearts commanded in her cutting voice. The guards around the door eased it open, and the one escorting me hustled me inside.
My mother was sitting on the throne of her private audience room, this seat a more subdued affair than the immensely grand throne in the public hall near the front of the palace—or even the portable one she had her attendants heft her along on when she left the palace grounds. A studied eye could tell it had been even simpler before. The Hearts’ craftspeople had fixed golden panels etched with roses and vines over to the elegant lines of the cherry wood frame. No doubt the gold brocade on the velvet padding was our family’s own addition too. All of it holding the throne’s power in check so it couldn’t burn this wrongful ruler like Lyssa’s sword had rejected my hand.
The vast mauve skirts of the Queen of Hearts’ dress nearly overwhelmed the throne’s base. She leaned forward as I trudged along the velvet carpet toward her. The guard’s grip on my arm tightened. He was nervous of her response. Even though he’d had no more to do with my “treatment” than the guards at the door had, my mother might very well take out any disappointment on him.
And disappointed I expected she’d be, once I’d seen my mission through and could speak freely.
We stopped a few feet from the throne. The Queen stayed seated, peering down at us with her coolly glinting eyes, her lips pursed. The coils of her copper hair framed the edge of her crown like foam escaping from beneath it. Her breath released with a faint hiss.
I looked back at her, keeping my expression slack. My right arm, the one the guard wasn’t holding, shifted against my side. Nudging the bit of machinery I’d hidden in the loose sleeve of my shirt a little closer to the fitted cuff.
“How are you doing today, Jack?” my mother said in a tone that could have been taken as gentle if you missed the barbed edge underneath. I wasn’t sure the Queen of Hearts’ had the ability to be truly gentle after all these years of brutality.
Theo, I thought. My name is Theo now. But that detail wasn’t worth arguing over, not when it would ruin the rest. I had to choose my battles wisely. And for now, I had to play to what little sympathies she possessed to get this job done.
“Rather sore,” I said. “And regretful that I’ve caused you so much distress.”
“Oh?” A gleam of hope lit in her light brown eyes.
I took a step forward, and the guard released his hold. He didn’t want to get any closer. Which served my purposes just fine.
“I was so young, and I acted too hastily, doing what I thought I needed to do,” I said. “I didn’t give enough consideration to the pain my disappearance would cause you. If I could only show you how sorry I am for what I put you through…”
I took another step and knelt by the folds of her skirts. The rose scent clogged my nose as I leaned my forehead beseechingly against them. I spread my arms wide as if offering myself up to her mercy—and my right hand came to rest on the side of the throne.
There, that was the edge of the largest panel. I’d noted how the slabs of gold fit together when I’d come before the Queen in days past. Just as I’d observed the way the golden sheen in my mother’s eyes shone brighter when she was sitting on this seat, the way that glow shivered over her body in fits and starts the longer she stayed there.
I’d been around the artifacts of the Red royal rule enough in recent weeks to recognize another one when I saw it now. This throne had once been the throne of the Red Queen, co-opted by the supposed Queens of Hearts for their own purposes. They had no royal magic of their own, but our history provided a clear testament that they took no concern in stealing the power of others.
With a subtle flick of my wrist, I palmed the device from my sleeve and jammed it into the small gap beside the panel as quickly as I could. I’d built the small but powerful contraption with every care I could in the spaces between the doctors’ attentions, out of little offerings from my older siblings, several of whom had stopped by to ingratiate themselves with our mother’s named heir. Each material on its own wouldn’t have raised any suspicions. Even if they’d consulted with each other, which wasn’t like the Hearts at all, I doubted they’d have the inventive instincts to guess what I’d put together.
“Enough of that, now,” my mother said, urging me up with a ruffling of her skirts, but her tone was partly approving. Subservience from any quarter never failed to appeal to her. “No son of mine should lower himself to groveling. What do you have to say about this foolery you mentioned before, about letting our subjects run wild?”
Only my mother could have seen easing up on executions and offering some basic freedoms as encouraging people to “run wild.” I straightened up, my mouth tightening. I’d accomplished the one small task I’d needed to carry out today. There was no need to pretend anymore, even if I’d lost any hope that my words would sway her.
The trouble was that the “treatments” she’d had her “doctors” inflict on me hadn’t been entirely unsuccessful, even if they weren’t curing me of the disease she thought I had. A stabbing pain ran up the fronts of my thighs and the sides of my forearms when I even thought the words I wanted to say. Sharp splinters of pain radiated from my jaw right up to my scalp, muddling my head even more than the rose smell did.
My mother thought the Spades had brainwashed me somehow. She’d ordered her doctors to wipe the rebellion’s influence from mind. But I’d built that rebellion. Those principles and desires were a part of me, running right down to the core. They couldn’t root them out. Their efforts only fractured who I was.
“Not run wild,” I managed to say. A thudding ache spread across the back of my skull. I could have pretended to agree, but I would not lie simply to protect my own skin, not a single time more. If I acted the part she wanted, if I supported the horrors she’d carried out, she’d only feel more certain in them. “I merely wish to see them live under a more even hand. I’ve spent a lot of time among them, Mother—I know they don’t wish to defy you. If you would just listen to me while I explain—”
The Queen jerked to her feet with a swish of her skirts. “Enough,” she snapped. Her face had flushed crimson. “This is more of the same twaddle you spewed when you first came before me.” She whipped around to aim her glare at the guard who’d brought me. “What did the doctors say of his progress? Why haven’t they cleared the awful taint from my son yet?”
The guard stiffened. His face turned as white as hers had red. “I—I believe they thought they had reduced the effect, Your Highness,” he stammered. “They said they’d bled out the worst of it and that he responded well to their re-education.”
I’d had to play along with them before they’d willingly send me before the Queen for her consideration. A head or two might roll today. After all the bleeding and the rest, I couldn’t find it in me to care very much.
“Please, Mother,” I said despite the growing headache and the pains clamoring for attention all through my body. “All I want is to see Wonderland be as wondrous as it can be—as it once was. We could be the ones to bring glory and joy to the entire realm. Don’t you want that?”
I didn’t expect her to listen, not after everything I’d already been through, but even this one guard seeing my attempt might tip someone in the right direction. All I could do was keep trying.
The Queen of Hearts let out a ragged laugh. “Glory and joy? The only glory this place is capable of happens right here. You’re still sick, Jack. I won’t hear any more of this raving. Get him out of here—and tell the doctors I want them here to account for their failure immediately.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Of course, Your Highness,” the guard said with a frantic bob of his head. He tugged me toward the door. I stumbled as I went, a wave of dizziness throwing off my balance.
