Wanton Wonderland

by Eva Chase

  This was my land, and I had thousands of people to save. I was ready to claim the role that had made me hesitate when the Red Knight had told his story.

  It hadn’t been safe to try out the artifacts properly in the caves around the stream—I might have hurt someone or brought the ceiling down on us. Here, far enough from the Queen’s reach that my worries about discovery had faded too, anticipation hummed through my veins. I set down the scepter and hefted the sword. Warmth streamed from the grip into my palm. The ruby gleamed, and a smile crossed my lips.

  “You’re holding it well already,” Theo said. “Maybe you won’t need much of my help after all.”

  “The Red Knight taught me a few things,” I said, with a twinge as I thought of the eccentric old man. He’d been clinging in his devotion, but he’d believed in me before I’d believed in myself. He’d given his life to save me. I wasn’t sure what I believed about spirits and an afterlife, especially in a place like this, but I hoped there was some way that he was watching now. That I’d give him a victory to show his sacrifice had been worth it.

  “I’ll just stay here and admire the view,” Chess said with a playful smirk. He’d volunteered to join us so he could stand guard while we were focused on testing the artifacts. I’d gotten the feeling he felt uncomfortable hanging around in the caves while the twins murmured together about the horrible news he’d had to bring them.

  I swung my arm, the sword guiding my hand as much as my hand guided the sword. Its tingling energy spread up my arm and through my chest. Suddenly I was picturing the Queen and her tiger-headed Knave who led the Hearts’ Guard, the Duchess and the other haughty Diamonds, standing across from us at the other end of the clearing.

  I wanted to be rid of them. I wanted them and their influence lifted from my people. I wanted the joyful Wonderland I’d thought I’d landed in way back when returned to me.

  My arm whipped out. The blade sang through the air. The warmth against my palm turned into a blazing heat—and a sharp ripple of magic shot from the gleaming edge.

  A shimmering light raced across the clearing. It walloped the trees so hard their branches shook and the bark dented around a slash across their trunks, leaving a cut deep enough to leak sap.

  The hum of power reverberated in my chest for a few seconds before it faded. I sucked in a ragged breath, staring at the damage I’d done. Excitement and horror jarred together inside me, making my lungs tighten.

  “Wow,” Theo said. “That was spectacular. Can you summon that magic again?”

  A good question. He’d probably also like to know whether I could summon even more. I gripped the hilt harder and tried to gather the anger I’d felt in that moment, but the sight of the scored trees dampened it.

  I hadn’t really hurt our enemies with that slash. And even our enemies, I didn’t really want to defeat by spilling their blood all over the palace, the way they’d slaughtered my ancestors centuries ago.

  I sliced the sword through the air again, but this time the ruby only glowed faintly—like before. I frowned at it, but I didn’t need to ask what the problem was.

  “I have to be fully committed,” I said. “I am now—to being queen. I’m just not sure I want to be the kind of queen who wins that way.”

  To my relief, Theo didn’t push. “You know more of what you’re capable of,” he said. “If the moment comes when you need to use that power, you’ll be ready. Do you want to go through a few basic exercises to get more comfortable with the sword in general?” He grabbed a fallen stick about the same length as my blade. “I can make do with this for training purposes. I’d like to know you can defend yourself the old-fashioned way too.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. We circled the clearing one way and then the other, practicing parries and feints and jabs, until sweat was dampening my blouse under the metal vest. Chess was still watching us, his head cocked to listen for any sounds of approach.

  “What about that ruby rod of yours?” he asked, pointing his foot toward the scepter in its bag. “Got any idea yet what magic that can stir up?”

  “No, but I’d certainly like to figure it out.” I set the sword down in the grass and took out the scepter. Like the sword, it felt more secure in my grasp than it had the last time I’d tested its powers. And the warm wood topped by its crown of gold and ruby spoke of a power less violent than what I’d get with a blade.

  “The Red Knight said he saw his Red Queen use it once to tame… some kind of creature. I didn’t recognize the word he used for it.” I tipped the scepter one way and then another. Even before I’d found it, I’d worked a sort of power like that on a jabberwock on the Checkerboard Plains. An echo of that sensation quivered through me—the sense that I could connect and calm, compel the fear and anger from another being’s mind, convince it to see me as a friend rather than a foe.

  With that memory thrumming through me, I stepped toward the trees, looking for any animal I could test the magic out on. I held out the scepter as if the intensifying glow of the ruby might light my way—and the shadows fell back from the base of the tree trunks.

  I stopped, blinking. At another wave of my hand, the patches of darkness retreated farther into the forest. It wasn’t that the ruby’s light fell that far. Its glow was condensed around the stone, and no red shine colored the trees or grass. No… I’d simply urged the darkness to give way. Cleared it the way I’d cleared the rage from the jabberwock’s mind those weeks ago.

  Chess let out a low whistle. “That’s something and a half.”

  I didn’t know how useful it would be, but I had to smile anyway. “It isn’t what I meant to try. Now, where…”

  A sparrow fluttered from one branch to another. It peered at me warily with beady black eyes. I raised the scepter between us, holding its gaze over the top of the ruby and its gold enclosure. A tremor of encouragement traveled over my tongue.

  “Hey, there,” I said. “There’s nothing dangerous here. Come to me?”

  The bird hopped to one side and then back again. I extended my hand slowly, willing my good intentions to flow with it the way I had with the jabberwock. Theo and Chess didn’t make a sound.

  The ruby glowed softly, its light drifting over the sparrow. The bird ruffled its feathers. Then it sprang off the branch and swooped down to land on my outstretched hand. Its tiny clawed feet gripped my finger.

  I beamed at it with a rush of giddiness. “Thank you,” I said. “Go safely.”

  It darted away into the forest. I let out the breath I’d been holding, and a laugh came with it.

  “They work,” I said. “The artifacts respond to me. I really—I really am the Red Queen.”

  Somehow, despite all my conviction and determination, that fact hadn’t felt totally real until this moment.

  Chess stepped away from his tree. He rested a hand on my waist as he lowered his head next to mine.

  “Of course you are, lovely,” he said. “This land will be yours, and you’re going to make it the wonder it should be. I can already see how it will be every time I look at you.”

  His touch, his words, and the admiration in his eyes sent a flush of heat over my skin. “Is that why you’re here?” I said teasingly.

  “No,” he said, his voice dipping. “I’m here because you’re you, wondrous as that is, queen or no. Whatever you want. Whatever you need. How can I brighten your day, Your Majesty?”

  I made a sound of protest at the title, and then the desire swirling through me took over. I set down the scepter, brought my hand to his jaw, and drew his mouth to mine.

  Chess grinned into the kiss. Then he tucked his arm around me and pulled me right up against him, angling his head with a slide of his lips that set off sparks through my nerves. His kisses were always sweet, but there was something a little more urgent to this one.

  It had been only days since we’d fallen into each other like this in my memory. For him it’d been weeks, and for most of that time he’d thought I was dead. Knowing that loosened
any hesitations I might have had about seeing this moment through to the end I was already yearning for.

  I curled my fingers into the rumpled waves of Chess’s soft hair, kissing him harder. Aiming to make up for the time apart, to show him how much I did want him. With a pleased rumble in his throat that was almost a purr, he flicked his tongue across the seam of my lips. They parted for him. A needy whimper worked its way up my throat as his tongue twined with mine.

  Chess’s hand slid to my side and tugged at the base of the armored vest. As I stepped back to pull off that much too solid barrier between us, my gaze caught on the other one of my lovers here with us.

  Theo was watching from a few paces away, his expression unreadable. I thought I saw hunger flash through his eyes, but he schooled them back to their usual steady warmth so quickly it was hard to be sure. He wet his lips and flipped the stick he’d been using as a makeshift sword in his hand.

  “I can give you some space,” he said, his attention never leaving my face. Waiting to judge my reaction so he knew what course I needed him to take. “If you’d feel more at ease without me here.”

  Something twisted at the base of my heart. The doubts I’d felt about getting close to him again snapped and shattered. All they left behind was a pang of longing.

  What more did he have to do? He’d gone through weeks of torture rather than give in to his mother, he’d declared his loyalty to me in front of the people who’d mattered most to him, and now this man who could be so commanding was tossing away any intimate claim he might have put forward, not even asking, just assuming when I was ready, I’d let him know.

  Chess’s hand lingered on my side, his thumb tracing a teasing line over the silky fabric of my blouse. He wouldn’t mind the company. He’d told me he preferred having another man there, taking some of the pressure to perform off of him. He hadn’t been intimate with anyone one-on-one since the Duchess had nearly murdered him for her own gratification.

  So there really wasn’t any reason to deny myself.

  I dropped the vest beside the other artifacts and motioned Theo over. “I’d feel best with you right here.”

  The elation that lit up his handsome face only reinforced my decision. He crossed the space between us with two swift strides. Chess eased to one side of me, trailing kisses from my cheek to my jaw, and Theo captured my mouth.

  I’d never been with two men at the same time before I’d come to Wonderland. It should have been overwhelming. But having two pairs of lips branding my skin, two sets of fingers tracing over my body, only made me feel more solidly in place.

  Yes, this was where I belonged. Right here, between these two very different but oh so enticing men.

  Chess’s hand traveled up over my blouse to cup one breast and then the other. His thumbs circled my nipples and drew them to stiff peaks. Theo grasped my hip. He released my lips to kiss a path down my neck to my collarbone, and then Chess was devouring me again with a light pinch of his fangs. The tiny prick of pain amid the pleasure left me moaning.

  Theo continued his journey downward. He yanked my blouse and bra aside and sucked the tip of my breast in his mouth. I gasped, clutching Chess’s shirt, Theo’s shoulder. The heat of their bodies on either side of me was like a furnace, but if I burned up, I couldn’t help thinking it’d be an amazing way to go.

  Theo’s tongue worked some kind of magic against my skin, and Chess lifted my hair to nibble his way around to the back of my neck, and oh God, I didn’t know how I’d spent so many years satisfied without this rush.

  My White Knight, my prince, lifted his head just long enough to brush his lips against mine once more. “I promised you I’d worship you,” he murmured in a voice rich with promise. Then he sank to his knees, charting a path farther down over my belly to my waistband. Chess nipped my shoulder and eased up my skirt, clearing the way. My hips swayed toward Theo instinctively with a desire I couldn’t suppress. He smiled, tugged down my panties, and pressed his mouth to my core.

  “Oh, fuck,” I muttered, and then all I could get out was a sigh. Chess ground against me from behind, his cock temptingly hard against my ass. He kept one hand splayed against my thigh, holding up my skirt. The other brushed over Theo’s dark curls, half caress, half urging him on. Theo didn’t seem to mind, and the sight turned me on even more.

  Theo grazed his teeth over my clit and swiveled his tongue around it until I was panting. Pleasure pulsed from my core, making my legs wobble. He reached past my hip to yank the fly of Chess’s slacks open, and I just about caught fire right there.

  Chess chuckled and slid his fingers over my slick folds. I edged my feet apart to give him more access, leaning into Theo’s mouth, braced between the two men. With the utmost care, Chess aligned our bodies and eased his straining cock into me one delicious inch at a time. Theo suckled my clit harder.

  The dual sensations of being filled within and worked over without tipped me over the edge. I came with a hitch of breath and stars behind my eyelids. Theo steadied me, Chess pulled back and drove into me even deeper, and I shuddered around him with a sharper cry.

  Theo drew back with a gleam in his dark eyes. Chess’s thumb replaced my other lover’s tongue in an instant. The Prince of Hearts looked ready to rise up again, but as the aftershock of my orgasm trembled through me, another desire took hold. That wasn’t where I wanted him.

  I nudged him down and bent over him. Chess followed me, lowering himself to his knees as I did, adjusting his angle and driving into me far enough to hit the most sensitive spot inside. I gasped at the wave of bliss, but I wasn’t going to be deterred from my current mission.

  “Lyssa,” Theo said as I snapped open his slacks over the bulge of his own erection. His voice was ragged. “I—You don’t—”

  He sounded like he was considering trying to talk me out of it. I caught his gaze. “I want to have you. Let me see how much you’re mine.”

  Putting it that way appeared to release any concerns he’d had. He sank back on his elbows as I freed his cock. I ran my tongue up the hard, faintly salty length of it from base to tip, and a groan escaped him.

  The leader of the city folk, the Spades, and the Queen of Hearts’ chosen heir. I had him sprawled back and lost in pleasure, completely at my mercy.

  I took him all the way into my mouth, and then I felt filled from head to toe, Theo’s musky rose flavor tickled over my tongue while Chess set off fresh bursts of pleasure with each thrust behind me.

  Chess’s breath stuttered as he leaned closer to my back, one arm looped around my waist, the other stroking over Theo’s thigh. A thought hit me, sending my desire spiking higher even as it brought a lump of emotion into my throat: We were in this together. Not just them with me, but all of us, finding bliss in each other.

  “So fucking lovely,” Chess said around a hitch in his voice, and then his hips were jerking, heat flooding my core. Those last few thrusts of his cock sent me crashing into my second release. Ecstasy crackled through my body, and I closed my lips tighter around Theo’s length as I rode out the wave. He groaned again, bucking to meet me. Then, with a whirl of my tongue, he was flooding my mouth with his cum.

  We sprawled on the grass together, me between my two lovers, but not separating them. Theo kissed me hard and then glanced over at Chess as if checking in, giving the other man’s arm a brief caress before offering me the same. Chess kept his arm around my waist and nuzzled the side of my neck. He alternated between trailing his fingertips over my belly and grazing his knuckles against Theo’s chest in a languid gesture of affection.

  “Our queen,” he said, brightly but so firmly you’d have thought I was sitting on the throne right now. I started to squirm toward him, wanting another kiss from those sweet lips, but his head snapped up. He knit his brow.

  “Someone’s coming this way,” he said.

  I scrambled up, straightening my clothes and grabbing my sword as quickly as I could. Chess had barely zipped his pants when his shoulders relaxed. “One of
ours,” he said.

  A few moments later, one of the Spades from the secondary camps emerged through the trees. If he noticed anything odd about the three of us with our flushed cheeks and mussed hair, he was too caught up in his own concerns to react.

  “We thought you’d want to know,” he said, looking to Theo first, and then to me, as if he wasn’t sure who he should be addressing. “It looks like Dee has gone missing.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lyssa

  When we reached the main camp in the caves, a few of the Spades, including Mallo, were standing around Dum, all of their faces tense. Dum was shaking his head as if in response to something one of them had said. He looked up as the three of us came into the alcove, but his expression stayed dour.

  “What exactly happened with your brother?” Theo said without preamble, his stance rigid and his voice taking on that princely commanding tone. I didn’t mind him jumping in to take the lead here. He’d seen the twins as his responsibility, and he knew both of them way better than I did.

  “We gave him some space, seeing as he was so upset,” Mallo said. “He went into one of the cabins. But he was supposed to go up to the city with me an hour ago, and when I went to see if he was up to it, he wasn’t there.”

  “He must have slipped off without talking to anyone,” said the man beside her, a young guy who went by Kip. “No one’s seen him since the morning. We looked through all the passages nearby before we thought we should let you know.”

  My stomach knotted. The usually cheerful twin had been distraught about his mother’s capture—of course he had, especially after Chess had revealed where he’d seen the guards taking their earlier captives. Whatever he’d decided to do, he probably hadn’t been thinking very clearly.

  “Where do you think he’d have gone?” I asked his brother.

  Dum rubbed his mouth. He glanced at his companions. “Give us a moment?” he said.