“I’m from another realm called Earth,” I said. The words sounded weak, even to my ears.
The first guard cocked his head, his sunken eyes narrowing. He drew his thin, cracked lips back in a sleepy scowl. “I’ve never heard of such a place.”
“Such a place does not exist,” the second guard said, as soon as the first finished speaking.
“I need to speak with the Queen.” I forced myself to focus hard on my words to keep from turning around and making a run for it. Nothing about this felt right, and I knew I needed to leave, but it was too late. I chanced a look at Grayson, who was watching the scene unfold with narrowed eyes, his body tense, seemingly ready to jump into action the second things went sour.
“Who are you?” the first skin walker asked.
“The Queen demands an answer,” the second skin walker said, in the same droning croak.
I swallowed the rising ball of nerves in my throat, as my heart thudded in my chest. “My name’s Alicia. I’m a white witch. I don’t mean anyone any harm but—”
The first man seized my arm, squeezing painfully, his long fingers grinding bone and muscle together. “A witch cannot be allowed to threaten this realm.”
“A witch cannot threaten the Queen,” the second man croaked directly on the heels of the first.
“She’s not a threat!” Grayson said, stepping forward. The second guard took him by the arm, and despite my first impression that these skin walkers were weak, the creature held him back easily as he fought. “She just needs to speak with the Queen!”
“Let go of me!” I twisted hard, trying to break free, but the guard just strengthened his grip and twisted in the opposite direction. I wailed. It felt like he was trying to rip my arm from the socket.
The guard dug his free hand into a bag at his waist, not perturbed in the least by the volley of kicks I directed at his shins, knees, and crotch. It was like kicking a solid wall. He pulled out a handful of black sand and blew it right into my face. Startled, I drew it in with my next breath. It burned much more than the moonshine tea. It’s fire spread in every direction. All my muscles slackened at once, my legs giving out from under me as the light began to fade from my vision. Before my sight went completely black, I looked at Grayson, who was still struggling against the guard who held him back.
“I told you we should have turned back!” I shouted, but the words sounded whisper-soft to my own ears. In a rushing, furious sound, the light left me completely, and the dark rose up to claim me.
CHAPTER 7
~
I TOOK IN A DEEP, gasping breath—my lungs burning in my chest and my heart skittering behind my tender rib cage. Opening my heavy eyes, I groaned and my throat felt scraped dry. I was sitting upright against a stone wall with my ankles and wrists weighed down by iron shackles that were bolted to the wall. I tried to pull myself free, but the solid tethers dug painfully into my skin, drawing a whimper from me.
Where the hell was I?
There was a small window a few feet above where I sat chained on the ground, letting a tiny sliver of light into the darkened room. I made a futile effort to draw from the magic welling inside me. It was there—I felt it stirring the same way it had since I was a young girl—but not surprisingly, I still couldn’t access it.
The Queen had to be much more powerful than any supernatural I’d ever encountered in order to press all the energy out of the air and block creatures from accessing the magic they’d been born with.
Loud footsteps thumped down the corridor outside of my small cell. I froze, holding my breath, expecting them to come for me, but they ignored me and kept on walking. Keys jangled and a door creaked as it was opened close by.
“Please!” a man cried, his voice hoarse and shivering. “I haven’t done anything wrong! I only wanted to speak with the Queen!”
“Silence, mage,” a second man said, the contempt dripping from his words. “You shouldn’t have brought your magic into this kingdom, if you didn’t want to face the consequences.”
“But I didn’t have a choice!” the mage wailed. “I thought I was going home. The portal brought me here on its own.”
My eyes widened in my dark cell. Another traveler who’d been brought to Wonderland against his will. It wasn’t much of a comfort, though, considering we were both currently being held in this dank dungeon.
The guards chuckled cruelly amongst themselves. “Tell all the stories you like, mage. The Queen wasn’t fooled though, was she? You dared to challenge her, and now she’ll have your head for it.”
“I did no such thing!” the mage insisted. He continued, speaking very quickly. “I can’t even use my magic. It hasn’t worked since I arrived in this realm. I’ve never harmed anyone. I only explore worlds as I find them. I make a point to leave no footprints behind me. That’s the traveler’s rule!”
“They get funny when they know they’re about to die,” one guard said, presumably to his partner. “The stories and lies get very vivid.” They shared another deep chuckle.
“Please!” the mage cried. “All I want is a way to go back to my home world.”
I tried to pull my arms from the wall where they were chained, but the manacles dug into my flesh, stopping me short. “I’m a traveler too!” I shouted. “Where are you from? What’s happened to you since you’ve been here?”
But the man didn’t have the ears to listen to me. He’d started sobbing in between bouts of begging his captors to release him.
“I’m innocent!” he wept, as the guards snickered at him. “Just let me explain!”
“Don’t worry, mage,” one of the guards said, his words so cheerful in this damp, echoing prison. “You won’t suffer long.”
The second guard picked up where the first man left off, “The blade’s sharp, and the executioner’s strong. You’ll be without your head soon. Maybe then you’ll shut up.”
“Let him go, you assholes!” I screamed, the heat rising to my cheeks. I pulled hard on the chains binding me, but they didn’t budge an inch. “Magic doesn’t even work in this realm! How could he have threatened anyone?” That well of magic was boiling within me now. But I couldn’t access it, couldn’t use it to free myself from these damned chains or to even open the door to my cell. The guards kept dragging that poor bastard away, cackling and teasing him while I shouted after them.
The door to my cell suddenly flew open, smashing against the stone wall with a thunderous crack.
I flinched back, but I couldn’t move a muscle. I could only watch, shaking with rage and fear as two guards rushed into my room. They were dressed in black and scowled down at me. The first man leaned down to stick his hideous face very close to mine. His skin was pasty white and pockmarked, and his dark eyes shot fire at me.
“You’d do well to shut up, witch,” he hissed, his foul breath invading my nostrils. “Or it’ll soon be your turn to die.”
I gagged and turned my head away, gasping for fresh air. The other guard hooted laughter as they bent to free my wrists and ankles from the chains. They tugged so hard at my limbs that I had to grit my teeth to avoid crying out. I would not give these assholes the satisfaction.
The guard with the vomit-inducing breath took hold of me under one armpit and hauled me to my feet, his bony fingers digging painfully into my skin. Before I had time to get used to standing, the other guard took me by my upper arms and started dragging me out of the cell. They were unusually tall—well over seven feet—so that their pulling me along had my toes barely touching the ground. The dead air told me nothing—the energy refusing to trigger the little hairs on the back of my neck. I could only use my regular senses, and my nose was being assaulted by the intense body odor emanating from these guards. The solid wall of stench made it difficult to string my thoughts together. As they dragged me from the cell on the tips of my toes, my legs scurried to keep pace with their long strides. Out in the corridor, I noticed that there were several more cells up and down the narrow hallway. The door to the one next to mine was ope
n, the mage I’d heard begging for his life just a few minutes ago, long gone.
“Where are you taking me?” I demanded, trying to drag my feet. But they only jerked me up harder, lifting my feet from the ground completely. I bucked wildly in their hands, which only made them tighten their grips, exerting bone crushing pressure. I had to bite the inside of my cheek hard to keep from screaming in agony. A hint of copper filled my taste buds. The pain in my arms knocked the fight right out of me.
A stairwell at the end of the corridor led up into wherever this was. I couldn’t just dangle here and let these bastards take me up to be executed. I bided my time, staying limp in their grasps, as we approached the stairs. As soon as we got within range, I swung my legs, launching my body up into a horizontal position, placing my feet onto the stone wall beside the stairs, and then shoved backwards as hard as I could, screaming behind clenched teeth from the effort.
The guards hadn’t been expecting that. I knocked them back a few shuffling steps and slid right out of their fingers. One guard went down cursing, and I landed on him, elbows first. I was thankful that the stinking shape of him broke my fall. The other one regained his balance quickly, and seized me by both arms again, this time twisting them hard. I couldn’t hold back the cry of pain as his iron fingers dug into my skin.
“This one has a death wish,” fish-breath hissed as he and the other guard pulled me up onto the tips of my toes again. “Try that one more time, witch, and we’ll slit your throat where you stand.”
What difference did it make if they ended my life here or some executioner did it in a public square outside?
“You’re going to kill me either way,” I said.
They carried me to the stairs as I fought them, kicking their legs as hard as I could and bucking back and forth in their arms in an attempt to loosen their grips enough to escape. I put my feet up on the wall again, struggling to keep from being carried to whatever dark fate awaited me outside of this dungeon. But the second guard—the one that had done me the involuntary solid of breaking my fall—slapped them down by slamming his solid hands onto my thighs. I bellowed for a second time at the twin flashes of pain while they laughed at me.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked for the second time, shouting the words into fish-breath’s face.
He sneered, flashing his jagged, yellow teeth in the low light of a candle flickering in a sconce hung from the stone wall.
“You’re going to see the Queen,” he said. “She’s the one to decide whether you live or die.”
They didn’t wait for me to respond. They just dragged me the rest of the way up the stairs while I sputtered breathless curses.
CHAPTER 8
~
THE GUARDS KEPT ME ON the very tips of my toes, dragging me for what felt like miles through shadowy hallways. The castle was enormous, a maze of empty corridors and closed doors that appeared to lead nowhere. I tried to take in everything—the oversized, gaudy décor and the direction we were going each time we made another turn—in hopes of being able to escape later, but by the time we reached the throne room, my head was swirling, and I was completely disoriented.
The guards released me without warning, and I nearly fell onto the gleaming, checkerboard floor. I looked up and drew in a sharp breath at the sight of the Queen.
She sat on a throne that appeared to be made from the shiny, volcanic rock in the last world I’d visited. She was rail-thin and tall in her chair, her head rising to the level of the guards standing to either side of her. These men weren’t skin walkers like the rest of the guards. They were much larger, with rippling muscles, blank faces, and dead eyes that matched the energy in the room. The Queen paid them absolutely no mind. Instead she chose to stare at me through large, gleaming black eyes that were made even more startling by the pale, paper-white skin of her face. Her lips were cherry red to match the vibrant color of her hair, and heart-shaped, even pursed as tightly as they were now. Her high cheekbones were almost pointed at the top, just below her dark eyes. The light flooding in from the windows all around room, made her seem even whiter.
In her lap, an ugly cat with golden stripes that shimmered in the sunlight sneered up at me. Its green eyes gleamed with an impish light and its full mouth spread wide to show razor sharp teeth. My eyes widened at the sight of it. This was the little bastard that had attacked me in the orchard. It was much smaller than I remembered—the size of a regular housecat in my home world. The Queen petted it lovingly with one long fingered hand, her pointed nails shone blood-red against the cat’s fur. The cat clung to her, pressing its body to her chest with its smiling head resting right beneath her chin.
“On your knees,” the Queen said in a deep, booming voice.
I didn’t get the chance to respond before hands dropped onto my shoulders and shoved me down to the ground. My legs folded under me, and I had to put my hands out to keep from sprawling flat onto the checkered black and white floor. I looked up at the Queen again, trying to draw from that deep, overflowing well at my center. I could feel the power stirring there, but I couldn’t manage even the simplest spell. I was going to die in this realm. I could plainly see that by the look on the Queen’s pale, pinched face.
The Queen’s dark eyes never stopped assessing me. She didn’t even attempt to hide what she was thinking. The deep hatred in her eyes filled the room, like a physical force that squeezed the air from my lungs. The energy in the room began to buzz, no longer laying still as it did everywhere else in this realm. I could feel it swirling around my body, overloading my senses, and making me dizzy. This woman was extremely powerful. I shouldn’t forget that she was blocking the rest of the magic in this realm for some unknown, but likely terrible reason, while she continued to bask in the undeniable strength of her abilities.
“Who are you?” she asked in the same soaring voice, her words boring into my ears. Staring into her eyes felt like leaning into a deep, dark abyss—one that if I fell into it, I would never crawl out of again.
“My name is Alicia,” I said, struggling to make my voice heard in the crush of all that expanding energy. As soon as I spoke the words, the immense room swallowed them. “I’m a traveler from another realm.”
The Queen’s pinched face tightened even further, her blood-red mouth sneering. “Do you have proof that you are who you say you are? How do I know you aren’t an enemy of this realm?”
“I saw a picture of this world in a book. It was very beautiful.” I paused, unsure of what else to add, but positive I was only hurting my case. The more I spoke, the more furious the Queen became. She looked ready to order me torn in half. “There are many realms depicted in that book. I use it as a guide during my travels.”
The Queen sat back in her chair, stroking the ugly ass, murderous tabby cat grinning in her lap. Its eyes burned with insane glee. “Show me this book.”
Of course, she’d want to see the book. I should’ve known better than to even mention it. “I don’t have it. I had a bag with me before I woke up chained to a wall downstairs. The guards must have taken it from me.”
A hideous smile spread across the Queen’s pasty white face, her white teeth flashing brilliantly in all that golden sunshine. The tide of the energy turned around me. I had to sit back on my feet to keep from falling to the ground at the strength of it. I’d never been around a being this powerful before. The castle sat at the heart of this realm—I could feel it. The Queen pulsated and throbbed with the power running through her—the power that should have imbued Wonderland with life and energy. Somehow, it was all centered on her, in her.
“How convenient,” she said, and her cat smiled wider, showing every tooth in its mouth. “Do you have any proof that you aren’t an enemy of this realm, here to do us harm?”
I scrunched my face into a deep frown and shook my head. “Everything I have is in that bag.”
“You have been accused of spying for the White Queen,” she said, her voice echoing up into the high ceiling. “How do you p
lead?”
“What?” I asked. “I don’t even know who that is!”
The Queen sat up a little straighter in her chair, dumping the cat onto the floor where it purred and clung to the solid shape of her dress—the fabric such a deep crimson that, even in the full light of day, it looked black. The beast kept its glinting green eyes on me. Its sneering grin as hideous as its mistress’s.
Now that the cat had vacated the Queen’s lap, I could see the charm hanging low from her neck and resting just between her small breasts. It was a black heart pendant, broken nearly in two, just like the drawing in the Terra Magicarum.
“I hereby sentence you to death for your crimes against this kingdom,” the Queen proclaimed, her voice rising so it echoed severely in the great hall and made the walls tremble. “Collusion with the White Queen will not be tolerated.”
“I’ve never even met this White Queen that you speak of!” When I tried to rise from my place on the floor, a pair of hands closed over my shaking shoulders and held me down with crushing force. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
The Queen smiled again, wide enough that I could see the pointed tips of her sparkling white teeth. Her eyes widened, the black in them expanding, eating away the whites in her eyes. She looked like a predator about to strike weakened prey.
“How should I order your execution?” she asked, sounding amused by the prospect. “You don’t seem to know much of anything about where you came from, or who you’ve colluded with in order to bring down this kingdom. Perhaps beheading is the best method. You aren’t using your head much anyway.”
The guards positioned around the room chuckled lightly when the Queen did, the sound beating against my ears. That energy was swirling harder, moving outward in electric waves with the Queen at its center. I wanted so badly to tap into that power, to join it to what was swelling inside me. At the very least, then I could go down fighting.
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