Wicked Wonderland

by Eva Chase

  I did not treat Wonderland well, Lyssa. I fell through the mirror and got caught up in that wild wicked place: in the thrill of joining a growing rebellion and spurring it on toward victory. I threw myself into their turmoil as if it were an exciting new game, not a struggle where real people might live or die by the outcome.

  I didn’t really know or understand how I fit in there or what my true purpose was. When the pieces all collided, I panicked. I ran away and I shut up that attic room. I kept you away, and I made a hash of things with your mother, all in the name of what I thought was protecting you.

  I was wrong.

  Only you can decide what you do there or whether you return at all. But the truth is that, for me, abandoning Wonderland is my greatest regret. I left behind friends. I broke promises. They were counting on me, on the things I said I’d bring back from this world, and I simply never arrived. Maybe they overcame the Queen of Hearts without me. I’d like to think so. But I can’t comfort myself assuming it.

  I can’t tell you how ashamed I am that I let them down, even after all the decades I tried to bury those memories. It may be I let myself down too. I never got to find out who I could have been, other than a coward. If you see any of them who might remember me—the White Knight, March and May, Hatter, Carpenter—it would mean a lot to me if you told them how sorry I am, and that I realize those words don’t come close to making up for my lack of faith.

  Let me be clear, Lyssa: My mistakes are not yours to fix. I place no load on your shoulders. Even when I knew you, you’d had enough of that. I only want you to be aware of one way a choice can play out. I hope knowing will help guide you as you go forward.

  I wish I could explain more about you and me and the Tenniel family’s connection to the mirror upstairs, but whatever magic runs through our bloodline has strict ideas about what we must discover for ourselves. I can give you the ring. I can warn you that the way won’t be easy. And I can tell you that I wish I’d picked Wonderland.

  If you’ve remained like the little girl it was my greatest pleasure to help raise, I know you will be strong enough.

  Regards and my love, always,

  Alicia

  I sat there staring at the last page for several minutes, letting my grand-aunt’s words sink in. Suddenly Hatter’s anger and accusations made a lot more sense. He’d said Aunt Alicia had left not long before the Queen had trapped time. God, was it her fault that Wonderland had ended up trapped in that awful loop?

  Why would he trust me after the last Otherlander he’d known had gone back on her promises?

  Not everything Aunt Alicia had said totally made sense, though. What had she found out that had scared her off? It sounded like she meant more than just the violence that had shaken me. Something to do with our family’s connection to the mirror and Wonderland…

  Had there been other relatives of ours who’d gone through? My gaze drifted to the framed family tree on the wall beyond the nearest bookcase, but it couldn’t tell me anything on that subject.

  I picked up the ball of filigree and found it encircled the top of a gold band. The ring her letter had mentioned. When I found the catch, the sphere snapped open to reveal a large ruby setting. The brilliant gem had the same shape as the symbol on the box and on that ruin near the Topsy Turvy Woods.

  Almost the same. A little point rose up in the middle of the stone. I ran my thumb over it instinctively to test it and let out a yelp at the prick of pain.

  A drop of blood welled from my skin and slid across the ruby’s surface. In that second, a glow rose up through the gem as if from within. A warm shiver shot through my nerves, so potent I almost dropped the ring.

  Then the light faded, the blood vanished, and the stone looked perfectly ordinary. Well, still gorgeous, but hardly magical.

  Okay, then. Aunt Alicia really couldn’t have explained even a little more about that? I glowered at her letter.

  She was right, though. I’d known before I even arrived at the house that I’d be making a choice—if not today, then soon. Because the longer I put off deciding, the more that evasion became a decision in itself, avoiding the fact that Wonderland existed at all.

  I set the key on the desk beside the box and fit the filigree back around the ruby. Then I strung the ring on the chain I’d used to hold the key before. Wearing jewelry that might slice me open if my hands slipped seemed unwise, but I wasn’t going to leave some magical artifact just lying around either.

  If I went back, maybe Theo or one of the others would know what it meant.

  That was the choice right there, wasn’t it? If I went back.

  My body balked. There were so many reasons to say no. The Hearts’ Guard was out for my head. I still didn’t understand much about the world I’d wanted to help. If I went, I didn’t know how easily I could get back again. There might be a hundred guards between me and the Caterpillar’s mirror next time.

  And if I was stuck there too long—God, Mom would get into such a panic. It’d break her heart, thinking something horrific must have happened to me. Melody would freak out too. How could I risk it?

  Even as those worries passed through my head, I was remembering Hatter’s rare smile, the scones and tea left on a bedside table, the intensity in his eyes right after we kissed. Chess’s glib remarks and effervescent grin, the swiftness with which he’d come to my defense over and over again. Theo’s unshakeable certainty that I could be everything he saw in me, the ease with which he’d offered me the freedom I’d needed the other night.

  They’d risked so much for me. How could I not take on a little more in return, when just being there might free them?

  Was I really going to help them, though, when my special powers appeared to be allowing built things to stay built and causing broken things to stay broken, and I’d already broken the wrong thing? Well, and growing and shrinking with the bite of a mushroom, so incredibly useful—

  I paused with my hand braced against the edge of the desk as an idea lit like a spark in my head. Oh. Oh.

  Maybe Theo’s plan to retrieve the pocket watch wasn’t broken after all.

  A rush of resolve coursed through me with my next breath. I let it carry me onto my feet. I didn’t know if the sensation would last, but right then, what I could offer didn’t feel like a burden at all. It felt like a gift.

  This wasn’t about me trying to prop up a floundering family or a failing relationship. This was all of us coming together to set something right that had been horribly wrong for too long. I could see the plan through with Hatter, Chess, and Theo, because that was who I wanted to be, not a woman who’d be writing letters of regret to her grand-niece fifty years from now.

  I paused for just long enough to type out a quick text to Melody to buy me the night—Going to bed early, kind of wiped, didn’t want you to worry if I don’t answer right away!—and then I dashed for the spiral staircase.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Lyssa

  The first two times I’d swum up through the pond, I’d been aiming for speed. This third time, I spread my arms through the cool water to slow my ascent. The current tickled around me as I floated up toward the rippling surface.

  I didn’t know how safe it was going to be out there, and even if this was the craziest decision I ever made in my life, I intended to hold on to my head, thank you very much.

  Only a thin light danced across the surface of the pond. The still-healing wound on my arm twinged. It’d been more than forty-eight hours since I’d gotten the stitches, but somehow I suspected the doctor hadn’t anticipated me taking a swim in a big salty pond when he’d given his instructions. Oh well.

  When I eased my head above the level of the water with the softest breath I could manage, I saw why. The sky was turning purple with the coming evening. It was later in the day here than it’d been back home. Whatever day this was.

  I swam quietly to the side of the pond rather than heading for the end by the path. My caution paid off a second after I’d sli
pped out onto the rocks. Just as I ducked into the shelter of the ferns, a couple of guards in red-and-pink uniforms stalked into view over there. One of them scowled.

  “Why does this pond even matter?” he muttered to his companion.

  “The Queen says we guard it, so we guard it,” the other replied.

  They trudged back out of sight along the path. I crouched among the ferns for another minute, watching and listening. My hand came to rest on my chest to check the lump of the ring beneath my shirt and confirm I hadn’t lost it in the fall or the water.

  When the coast seemed reasonably clear, I slunk off through the vegetation with careful steps. I aimed myself on a diagonal to reach the road.

  As the ferns started to thin ahead of me, I slowed and peered between their fronds. Another guard was striding along the blue-and-yellow cobblestones, a baton dangling at one hip and a sword at the other. The skin around my neck quivered.

  I drew back a few paces and set off toward the city parallel to the road. The way had been pretty straight from what I remembered. How I was going to keep out of view once I reached the city, I could figure out there. Clearly the Queen’s search hadn’t been called off completely, however long it’d been since my escape.

  My damp clothes clung to my body, cooling with the evening air. I fought off a shiver. The khakis and baby-blue tank top weren’t bright enough to fit in with Wonderland wear, but I didn’t want to stand out right now anyway. At least they were easy to move in.

  The forest of ferns gave way to a narrow field before the city’s buildings rose up. There was no sign of any guards. I darted through the hissing grass and ducked into the thicker shadow under the awning of a now closed shop.

  Keeping close to the buildings and staying in the shadows as much as I could, I crept through the streets toward the Tower. Whenever any of the locals came into view, I froze until they were out of it again. Thankfully, there weren’t many out on the streets at this hour. I guessed most of the Wonderlanders in the city would have headed to the club already.

  A few members of the Hearts’ Guard marched by, but the city wasn’t flooded with them or anything. They’d loosened up their patrols since my dash out of here.

  I held my breath as I sprinted the last several paces to the base of the Tower, only letting it out when I was safe behind its silvery door. “Twenty-seventh floor, Lyssa coming calling,” I told the elevator.

  The air beneath my feet didn’t budge. “The Inventor is not in,” an automated voice murmured.

  Shit. Where could Theo be? Had they gone out to the palace to make an attempt of some kind without me? Had the Knave realized he’d been sheltering me and brought him to the Queen?

  I hesitated and then tried the only other inhabitant in the building I knew. “Twenty-eighth floor, Lyssa coming calling.”

  The air beneath my feet propelled me upward. I guessed Mirabel was in. I hoped she wouldn’t be disturbed by my unexpected visit.

  When the elevator deposited me at the White Queen’s apartment, I gave the door a couple of careful knocks. “Mirabel? It’s Lyssa. I—”

  Mirabel whipped the door open. She was wearing a silvery dress that looked as if it’d been made out of heaps of tinsel, her hair piled high on her head like before, her eyes wide. “Of course, I wouldn’t delay you,” she said. “I could tell it had to be a short visit.”

  Was she looking backwards through time now? I fumbled for the right thing to say. “I’m looking for Theo. He isn’t in his office. Do you know—?”

  She was already nodding. “That’s right. I’m not sure the exact building, but I know he has his meetings somewhere nearby. I wish I could be of more help.”

  “He’s at a meeting with the Spades?” I said. Thank God—that meant the Knave hadn’t arrested him.

  Mirabel cocked her head with a dreamy smile. “You found the key and brought it with you. Such a good thing you had it on hand.”

  The key? How far into the future—or past—was she looking now?

  “I think I’d better go,” I said. Before Theo launched a plan that might not work without my help. “Thank you so much.”

  “Don’t worry,” Mirabel said, patting my cheek. “I’m sure we can sort this out.”

  I guessed you just didn’t have straight conversations with the White Queen. What did the Queen’s guards make of her?

  I descended the Tower and stepped out just as a guard came around a corner down the street. With a lurch of my heart, I threw myself around the side of the building and flattened myself against the cold metal wall.

  No shout came. I exhaled slowly. When the guard had strode out of sight, I ventured into the street again.

  A meeting place in a building somewhere nearby. None of the stores or houses around me looked particularly more promising than any of the others. I treaded softly down the street, peering through windows.

  I’d only made it past a few when the door of one of the shops ahead of me opened as if by some invisible force.

  Chess? I hurried over as the door tapped shut. At my tug, it opened to a small foyer. The inner door in front of me didn’t budge.

  I paused and looked around. Very little in Wonderland was exactly as it seemed. I traced my hands down the wall to my right, testing it here and there, and then switched to my left.

  My finger hooked into a notch my eyes hadn’t made out. I pressed on it, and a flap opened in the wall by my waist. I crouched down and clambered through.

  The space on the other side was so dim I almost fell down the steps before I realized I’d come out at the top of a staircase. As I eased my way down, voices carried to me from the room below.

  “Is there no plan we can initiate without this Otherlander?” a woman was saying. “We were on the verge of action.”

  “Action doesn’t serve us well if we have no chance of winning,” Theo replied in his smooth baritone. I’d found him—and a meeting of the Spades, it sounded like.

  “We have to do something,” another man said. “The Otherlander obviously isn’t coming back.”

  A fourth voice spoke up in a familiar tenor with a bit of bite to it. “We don’t know that yet.”

  Was that Hatter? Meeting with the Spades? Defending my absence?

  “I told her it might not be safe for her to return for a few days.” That was definitely Chess’s light and languid voice. “Time moves differently between the lands. I agree that we shouldn’t count her out yet—but we need a revised plan either way.”

  My feet hit the floor at the bottom of the steps and sent a stray pebble rattling. “Hey!” someone snapped, just as I came around from the stairwell into the wide low-ceilinged room.

  “Maybe I can make a few suggestions,” I said to the twelve Wonderlanders now gaping at me from where they stood around a big wooden table under jaundiced light.

  Chess was there, and that was Hatter, blinking at me from beneath the shade of his derby hat. Doria bobbed on her toes to catch a glimpse of me over the shoulders of the taller women she was standing near. The stout red-haired guy I’d seen her greet the other day stood near Theo with another young man whose face and hair were identical but the colors on his clothes inverted.

  Theo recovered first, of course. A smile spread across his face, as if he’d never doubted I’d appear and I couldn’t have come at a better time.

  “Lyssa,” he said. “I’m glad you could join us.”

  From what I knew about his device’s crystal and all this talk about revising plans, it didn’t seem like a stretch to say, “Your pocket-watch retriever is out of commission?”

  “I’m afraid so. And it was a rather essential component of our original plan.”

  “That’s okay,” I said, ambling over with my arms crossed loosely over my chest. “I’ve got another idea.”

  Theo emptied the pouch that had been hanging at his hip onto a small table in the corner of the room. “Just touch all of these and work your Otherlander magic on them,” he said with an affectionate squeeze of m
y arm. Then he was swiveling to face the others, his voice turning commanding in an instant.

  He motioned to the redheaded twins. “Dee, Dum, swing by the club and pick up the rest of the supplies we need. Meet us by the wall. Everyone else, make sure you’re clear on your part in the plan and you have whatever you need. We move out in ten minutes.”

  The twins dashed up the stairs. I eyed the devices Theo had laid out: five of them like little eggs with a crinkled metallic surface, a couple of wire-woven cubes, a coil of metallic string, a disc of overlapping steel plates, and a folded cloth that was surprisingly heavy in my grasp.

  I wasn’t sure how any of these were going to come into play, but I trusted that Theo knew what he was doing. I snatched up each of them in turn, holding them for as little time as I figured it’d take for my presence to affect them.

  I was just setting down the last one when Chess sauntered by. “Hey,” I said, darting around the table to catch his arm. I hadn’t gotten a chance to really talk to anyone in the middle of all the planning. Before I thought about what I was doing, I’d pulled him into a hug.

  Chess hugged me back, his mouth curling into its habitual grin where it brushed my temple. “You know,” he murmured in his breezy way, “a small part of me was hoping you’d be smart enough to keep your distance from this mad place. But the rest of me couldn’t be happier to see you, lovely.”

  My throat tightened at those words. I hugged his brawny form harder, remembering the lengths he’d gone to so I could get home. My last memory of him involved a burly ginger tabby cat blinking in and out of sight as it wove all through the line of guards outside the club.

  He’d asked me not to talk about it. Did anyone else here know what he could do? I guessed it didn’t matter. If the passage to the pocket watch wasn’t wide enough to fit an arm through, his cat form would never have made it either.