by A. K. Koonce
And he’s proving that now as Elders slash into the rebel army with so much thundering power I know it’s not their own.
Blankly I follow their destructive moves. When the fur is ripped away from them, they scurry away into the shadows, but for the most part, the Elders cut us down.
One. After the other. After the other.
My teeth grind with rage, and when I turn, Liddell greets me with a smile.
And so does Alice.
“I didn’t expect visitors s-s-s-so soon, Madison.” The pull of his lips is a conniving sight while Alice’s is more aloof. Lost as always.
“Johnathan Liddell, tell your men to stand down,” I instruct through clenched teeth as if he’s not my blood relative.
Crawling laughter shakes from his chest, and it chimes in time with the laughter of other people I can’t see among the storm of inky blackness.
Clashing blades, groans and screams echo through the silence as shadows and rebels alike drop to the ground in a pool of blood.
A shaking breath hits my lungs. My fingers dig into the hilt of my new sword, and I lift my chin once more. “Stop your men. Now.”
That smile slices deeper into his smooth features. He leans in close, intimately close. “No,” he enunciates with mocking clarity. “This battle, this war, this bloody massacre you’re leading, will not end until you’re in that castle and the newcomers are where they belong.”
Where they belong.
And then I snap.
My body lunges before my brain even processes the movement. My fingers wrap around his throat with crushing force. My other hand pulls back to drive the blade into him, but he’s quick, snatching my hand in place with tight control. His other hand grasps my hair, pulling me back as I press forward.
Small hands claw at me, a feminine voice screaming for me to stop. It’s a clutter of sounds and pain and total determination.
Until her scream slices through the chaos. A single delicate fragile little sound breaks my focus, and I look back into the forest to find Alice clawing at Cat’s angered features, nails raking in hard enough to bleed. The two of them are a push and pull of blows, but Cat gets the upper hand. Preston appears from nowhere and tries to pull Cat away.
“She’s just a little girl, stop it. We’re not here to harm anyone!” Preston shoves at Cat as if he can’t stand to see someone so grown up hurting someone so small, but Cat barely sees him as she crouches over Alice with sharp claws and deadly intent.
My wrist twists, and my heavy sword tumbles out of sight. Scorching pain licks at my skin as shadowy hands pull me off of Liddell, and still I can’t tear my eyes away from Alice.
Alice is the One. She’s innocent. Wonderland was made for her.
“Cat, stop,” I yell, but the destruction all around only rises up and suffocates away my words. “Cat, stop!”
A glinting blade catches the moonlight. My blade. It’s a quick gleam that registers too late in my mind.
And it rails all the way through Cat’s slender frame, halting her assaults in the span of a single dreadful heartbeat. Her fingers loosen from around Alice’s delicate throat, her hands lifting and trembling around the bloody blade that’s holding her up. And Alice holds that blade like it’s the only thing keeping her alive right now.
All I see is red.
“Cat,” I breathe out.
The quiet sound of her name stops Brody in his tracks. He shoves off the man in front of him, and he follows my line of sight until he sees what I see.
A fearful gleam is in her eyes. Fear. I’ve never seen fear in her eyes before.
Alluring happiness, shining taunting amusement, total love and joy.
But never fear.
I hate that look in her eyes. And I hate how hard I have to fight to get to her. Power radiates out of me with every person who so much as touches my arm or looks my way.
I drop to her side, and when she slumps to the ground, I slump right along with her.
“Cat,” I whisper again, a sob shaking through my tone.
Brody lowers her to the ground slowly, so, so slowly. His eyes are big and searching across every part of her face. His lips part, but no words come out immediately as she struggles for a simple breath that seems just out of reach.
“You’re going to be okay, Kitten.” His shaking hands take hers, and it doesn’t take long before he’s holding her against his chest, blood soaking his shirt as he just strokes her messy hair back from her face. “You’re okay, baby.” He cradles her head with both hands and keeps whispering those empty words over and over again as she chokes on the air itself.
Moonlight shines across his damp eyes, and I know fighting and chaos is all around us, but I can’t pull myself away from the one person who needed someone in her life.
Anyone.
“I love you. I love you. I love—I love you,” Brody sobs into the night.
The night is the only one who hears him though.
Because Cat’s eyes close. And her body stills.
And my heart fucking breaks. Pain erodes away at the pounding muscle in my chest until I can’t even breathe through the sharpness of it. It tears through me until hot tears are streaming silently down my face.
She’s gone.
She’s gone, and it’s my fucking fault.
My eyes open with that thought.
No.
She fucking killed her. She killed her!
I stand and spin on my heels to find a small blonde girl staring up at me from the ground. She’s still holding the blade in her hand, blood running down the length of it.
Cat’s blood.
I pull the sword from her hand, and with little effort she releases it, her features as shocked as mine were when I first saw what she’d done.
I swallow that thought down as the weapon weights my hand.
A figure steps in front of me. His wild eyes look at me as I stare at her.
“This isn’t her fault. You n-n-n-never should have come here. You and your friends caused this. She—”
With slashing intent, I bring the blade up, and it slices through his neck so easily it almost startles me when blood sprays from his throat and across my face.
A scream scratches through the air, but I barely hear it.
He drops to the ground, his hands clinging to the gaping wound across his neck. He falls face forward, and still I just stare vacantly at the small girl before me.
The clashing sound of blades quiets. The thrashing of fighting and screaming comes to a slow standstill as everyone notices the Elder lying face down in the dirt.
It’s a slow crawl, but my gaze eventually finds the dead man and his blood that litters the ground at my feet.
“We asked you to stand down,” I whisper, but the wind sweeps away my words.
Steady fingers slip across mine, and I look up to find Alixx at my side. He tugs against the hilt of the sword, but I don’t release it to him. His gaze is filled with concern, and he lingers there at my side.
“You won, Sweetheart. Put down your weapon.” With both hands he holds on to me and the blade that’s still steady in my palm.
My attention pulls back to the girl in front of me. “Not yet.”
“What—what are you going to do with me?” Alice asks in the smallest voice.
Dry leaves crunch beneath my bloody boot as I take a single step closer. Blood stains her hands and her pale blue dress, seeping into the pretty fabric. In the shadows, she doesn’t look as innocent and kind as everyone said she’d be.
In the darkness, she looks just as dangerous as the shadow men fleeing the forest now.
And she is.
And I’ve made my decision.
“Off with her head.”
Fifteen
Alixx
She hasn’t stopped staring at the bedroom door they took Cat’s body into since we arrived at Liddell’s estate. I linger in the hall with Kais and Lighton, and none of us are stupid enough to say a word as we watch her.
&nbs
p; But she’s sinking into herself. I can see it.
She killed Liddell without thought or remorse.
He deserved it, sure. I’m proud really. She did it flawlessly, almost better than if I’d done it myself. It was a beautiful blow.
But it wasn’t one I wanted her to have to experience. She shouldn’t be so numb to something so dark.
She’s too young. Too innocent. Too sweet.
And now she has a teenage girl locked in the dungeon of this old fucking castle like she’s ready to send her to the guillotine at dawn.
I’m honestly not sure if that isn’t her actual plan.
Her bright eyes shift toward us, and all three of us straighten at once from her short attention alone.
“Kais, escort King Constantine to Wanderlust and start the preparation of settling our people into Wonderland.” Her bloody hair wafts over her shoulder when she looks at me abruptly, and the stiff formality of her cold tone alone makes me want to scream. “Alixx, take Lighton and the rebels—aside from Brody—and start making your rounds through Wonderland. Things are not how they once were, and if anyone has a problem with the merging of the two Kingdoms…”
Off with their heads?
“Bring them to the dungeon,” she finishes on that same flat tone.
I make my way slowly toward her, lowering my head down to meet her vacant stare. My palm lifts, and I intertwine our fingers, but she pulls away within seconds.
“I’ll be arranging a mass funeral for our fallen. The girl’s punishment is to follow.” Her hollow words echo in the dimly lit hall as she turns her back on us.
And then she walks away.
Sixteen
Kais
King Constantine doesn’t make idle conversation as we trail back to Wanderlust once more. The morning sunlight is on the horizon, just kissing the orange and crimson skyline. It’s too early to talk, and neither of us have had enough sleep.
He makes it easy just to completely fucking dwell on everything that happened, everything that will happen, and every little thing I can’t stop from happening.
“You’re losing her,” he says in a quiet voice.
I arch an eyebrow at him, but he never glances my way as he pushes aside a thin branch in front of us.
What does that even mean?
“How’s it feel to finally meet someone as reckless as you are, Kais?”
“Madison isn’t reckless,” I say, my words coming out as stiff as my shoulders feel.
“I used to think you weren’t either. I thought you were as straitlaced as they came. I thought you were my most trusted advisor.” At that, he does look at me, his words setting eerily within me. “Then I realized my trusted advisor was also a Rebel Heart.”
Leader…but I suppose my title as a rebel isn’t something I should mention right now…
I pause on that, not with stunned realization but with curious afterthought. Every telling interaction I’ve ever had with this man starts to circle in my mind.
“You knew?”
“Not right away, no. It’s actually one of the few secrets I’ve ever kept from Konstance.”
He and I walk a slower pace as we grow nearer to the Wanderlust Kingdom. I can’t explain it other than needing a moment to finally clear the air after decades of half-truths and full lies.
“You hired Alixx though. He killed so many Rebel Hearts.”
“The radicals, yes. The ones who set our Kingdom on edge. Our people needed steady leadership. You, you were good for them, Kais. You reminded them they had something to live for.” He turns to me then, his eyes studying me and every scarring number his sister’s ever etched into my skin. “Sometimes people just need to be reminded.”
My heart’s pounding hard, and he turns abruptly from me and makes his way toward the cliffside stairs.
And all I can think of is Madison.
Seventeen
Madison
My hands hang between my bent knees, and I’m slouched so far onto the hall floor that I’m starting to look like one of those ugly gargoyles Constantine had in his garden.
I remember how white and glimmering everything was there. White roses seem too happy. Too innocent for what’s happened in the last twenty-four hours.
Paint it all red. In memory of the blood of our people that was lost. And for what? For these fucking Elders to understand that one life doesn’t hold any more value over another?
She died because they were too entitled to share the world with newcomers.
I swallow that thought down as whispers echo through the room she’s resting in.
Brody’s whispers.
They crawl around that room and slip beneath the door until I’m listening to just his pain and her memory on repeat. It’s the sound of lost love and hurtful heartache.
And I just let it suffocate me as I sit here staring at the dark grains of the wooden door.
“Let’s get up,” a smooth voice whispers. It’s a calming and familiar tone, but I can’t focus on it.
Warmth slips into me as a steady arm wraps around my shoulders and pulls me against a hard chest. The feel of his heartbeat thrums against me.
Even his heartbeat is a calming pace.
Lighton.
“Let’s go get washed up,” he says quietly against my ear, his breath washing over my neck.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re covered in—” He cuts his words away but quickly recovers. “Let me clean you up, Cupcake.”
“You’re supposed to be dealing with the Elders.” I still don’t look at him, but I worry about all the things we should be doing.
Even if I don’t have the energy to stand up and actually do them.
“And we did. It was a quick meeting really. Sixty-five percent of them are in the cellar, Sweetheart.” Alixx’s tone isn’t coddling or gentle. All facts and a hint of happiness are in his words.
I bet he loved putting those people in their place after all that they’ve done to him.
“That was fast,” I murmur.
“Just have to know your audience. Send a warning to really get people listening,” the assassin states.
“You cut that first guy’s hand off,” Lighton says in a stunned tone.
Alixx makes a flippant breath of a sound. “And the others got the warning.” His words are quiet, and I feel them both looking at me. “Let’s get you washed up before everyone gets here. They need to see you as someone they can follow. Someone strong and—”
“I am strong.”
“That’s true, but your hair has dead leaves and what I can only assume is rabbit droppings in it. Your throat is bruised just slightly, your clothes tattered and torn. And…you’re covered in Liddell’s blood, Sweetheart. In my opinion, you’ve never looked sexier, but I know my opinion is never quite like anyone else’s.”
“If that isn’t a kettle calling a kettle a kettle,” Lighton mumbles to himself.
Tormented whispers crawl in around us. It’s a slithering sound of I love yous and I’m sorrys that just settles right in my chest until I can’t breathe around the whispers lodged there.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Lighton’s body melds with mine, and in a flash of a second, he’s cradling me against him and striding down the dimly lit hall. Alixx trails behind us, his eyes filled with concern as he studies my face just over Light’s shoulder. It’s easy to just rest my head there. It’s easy to just let them take care of me.
Just for a moment.
Warm water slides across my shoulders, and a hot towel follows the path the droplets leave. A flowery scent clings to my skin as Lighton washes away every dark memory from last night. Alixx lingers at the edge of the shining white bath tub, tilting his head this way and that. And then he lifts his long leg, fully clothed, and sinks down into the hot water. He faces me with that taunting smile I always loved so much.
It’s off though, like it might fall away at any moment.
He slides his palm across my calf and massages there before pre
ssing perfect pressure to my ankle and the arch of my foot. Warmth cascades down my hair, and soap follows, white bubbles sliding down my deep red locks until all I smell is flowers.
Roses.
“What are your plans?” Alixx finally asks after the silence seems to hang around us for almost an hour.
“What do you mean?” My throat’s drier than I realized. It hurts when I swallow even.
“I mean you did all of this. You destroyed the barrier. You brought together the Rebel Hearts in the most successful way. And you brought down a tyrant of sorts. Are you…intending to do more?” His words are as smooth and well thought out as ever, but I still don’t really know what he’s getting at.
“Wonderland already has a ruler though,” Lighton tells him.
Alixx cocks a dark eyebrow at that. “No, Wanderlust had a ruler. Not a very good one, considering how his Kingdom fared. Wonderland had a group of Elders. And those Elders need to be reevaluated for council. I think it’s time for a new reign, don’t you, Madison?”
His long fingers glide across my skin, stroking up and down along my leg as he holds my gaze with bright intensity. He always has so much interest in things, picking them apart until he can see all the angles, all the details, all the flaws. And me, he’s always had too much interest in me.
All of this is too much too fast.
“I’m not Wonderland’s Queen.”
“Maybe I should ask Profit about that.” There’s a challenge in his tone, but I can’t feed into it. Not giving in to Alixx Stone is so damn hard.
It’s his languid tone. Or maybe it’s just simply his fluid body language. I don’t know, but the pull of my heart physically wants to give into him.
Even if my mouth refuses.
“I just want to focus on the funeral. I already have other things to face directly after; I don’t want to think about cleaning up an entire Kingdom. I’m not that person.”
His gleaming gaze holds mine for so long it’s like he’s still arguing with just a single look. When Lighton’s steady fingers stop massaging my soapy scalp, I dunk myself beneath the hot water.
