by Eva Chase
“It doesn’t sit right with me,” he said after that momentary hesitation. “The Duchess sounded as if she’s in charge, and she’s never cared about anyone other than herself in all the time I’ve known her. And… they were talking about appeasing someone, about avoiding the greater threat. They didn’t say enough for me to be sure what they meant, but… I think they’re more likely to assume the Queen of Hearts will win against you and to be coming up with a scheme to prove their loyalty to her, than to be afraid of you beating her. They don’t know you like we do. They’ve always been terrified of her.”
“They saw how Lyssa took her on during the trial,” Theo pointed out. “And how could they hope to turn this in the Hearts’ favor?”
“I don’t know,” Chess admitted, his head ducking. “If they know when we mean to march or what signal to look for, they could betray us. But that was only my impression. I’ll admit I may have biases at play.”
I didn’t think his feelings about the Duchess were biases. They were instincts created through experience—horrible experience. An ache crept through my chest at the thought of giving up this chance, but I believed in him. He wouldn’t have tried to sway my hopes if he hadn’t been awfully worried.
“All right,” I said. “We do this without the Diamonds. That way we don’t owe them anything. A little more bloodshed on the Hearts’ is worth it if it means we don’t have to worry about getting stabbed in the back. Come on. We’d better let Unicorn know.” I paused, my mind spinning. The ache dug deeper, but I felt the rightness of my next thought all the way down to my bones.
I glanced at Theo. “Do you have enough of your devices ready for us to have a real shot at making it to the throne?”
His eyebrows rose, but he nodded. “I haven’t put together everything I was thinking of, but I started with the most important pieces.”
I dragged in a breath. “Then I’ll tell Unicorn. Chess, you stay with me—you’ve done enough running. Everyone else, round up all the city people who are willing to march on the palace, and set them up with whatever weapons and armor you can. Right now the Diamonds expect us to be considering their offer, not already marching. So we march now and take them all by surprise.”
Unicorn looked briefly startled when I told him my decision, but his expression quickly steadied with determination. “I can’t blame you for hesitating,” he said. “If we’re not fighting alongside them, then I’m staying here to fight on this side with you. If you’ll have me.”
It was my turn to be startled. “Of course,” I said. “We’ll need all the help we can get. Thank you.”
A hint of a smile curled his equine lips. “Thank you, Red Queen, for coming back to us before the Hearts completely destroyed Wonderland.”
Outside the ice cream café, a crowd was already gathering. Spades ran this way and that, bringing equipment to the city folk. Most of the Clubbers had shaken off their drugged daze, but those who’d agreed to join us for the march shifted nervously as they shrugged on makeshift armor and tested the weapons the Spades had found for them.
We were really doing this. We were going to take back the palace, take back the throne the Hearts family had viciously stolen all those years ago. Despite my nerves, a rush of exhilaration filled me. Now my ruby necklace glowed against my chest, but its heat was encouraging, not alarming.
Chess had followed me out. He touched my arm to draw me to the side. “Can I talk to you for a moment before we rush into the fray?” he said.
Did he have some other concern he hadn’t wanted to mention in front of the others? I followed him to the edge of an alley away from the noisy activity on the main street. Chess stopped in front of me. He touched the side of my face, bowing his head so his nose brushed mine. My pulse hiccupped giddily as his breath grazed my lips.
“I should have said this last night,” he said. “But precision has never been my specialty. Let’s just pretend I did.”
“Chess,” I said, meaning to reassure him, but he shook his head gently to stop me.
“This is what’s true,” he said. “For most of my life, I’ve never known where I was going, so the path didn’t matter much. You changed that. From here on, the only way I want to go is where I’ll find you, for as long as you want me with you. I love you too.”
I hadn’t needed to hear the words, but the sincerity in his voice washed everything away except the love I felt in return. I tipped my head up to kiss him hard. He kissed me back just as passionately. Then his arms slid around me to hug me close.
“Now let’s see you all the way to that throne,” he murmured.
“I wouldn’t have a chance of getting there without you,” I said.
He made a dismissive sound, but he was beaming when we rejoined our growing army.
The crowd was ready within an hour. I hopped up on a crate to look out over the swarm of figures who’d joined our cause. Yes, we could do this. And we would do it now.
“We’ll march together up the road to the palace as quickly as we can. I’ll take the lead with the jabberwocks to blast open the gate and push back the nearest guards. The Spades will handle as many of the others as they can. All the rest of you need to do is defend yourselves and keep going until we reach the palace. This will be the last day the Queen of Hearts reigns through fear!”
A nervous cheer rose up. I caught Theo’s eye at the other end of the crowd, and he nodded.
We set off through the streets, the thump of footsteps behind me gaining confidence with each block. When I held up my hand and the jabberwocks moved to join us at the edge of the city, another cheer rose up, more forceful this time. We barreled on toward the palace.
Guards massed around the main gate as we approached. Some of them were no doubt pearl-headed Clubbers. My stomach twisted at the thought of them charred or sliced by my sword’s magic, but I squared my shoulders. There was no way to help them now, and I’d given the guards who still had their real heads plenty of opportunities to come over to our side.
Our charge sped up. I slid my sword free from its hilt. Just as I was about to order the jabberwocks forward, the striped head of the Knave appeared on the parapet next to the gate.
“Halt, Red Queen,” he hollered, “or lose what you love most.”
What I loved most? I had no idea what he was talking about, but he sounded so sure my pace faltered.
A guard hauled a man into view beside him—a bearded guy in a logo-etched polo shirt who looked only vaguely familiar at that distance. Then the Knave’s comrades shoved two more figures into view, and my heart stopped.
Standing side by side, their faces bruised and arms bound behind their backs, my best friend and my mother stared back at me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Lyssa
M y sword arm sagged, dropping my weapon to my side. At the same time, the Knave gestured, and the guards brought the blades of their daggers to the throats of the three hostages along the wall. They weren’t careful about it. A bead of blood streaked down Melody’s pale throat. She winced.
Around me, the jabberwocks shuddered with uneasiness. “Hold,” I murmured, my voice coming out hoarse. I could hardly pay attention to them, hardly think of anything except the faces of my mother and my best friend in the last place I’d ever have expected to see them. The last place I’d ever have wanted to see them.
The guy next to them… It was one of the movers who’d been helping haul the furniture out of Aunt Alicia’s house. The Knave must have gone back there and grabbed whoever he could find.
How had he— Where had he— When—
The questions jostled in my head, but none of them really mattered. All that mattered was getting those deadly edges away from Mom and Melody’s throats. And the mover guy’s. He didn’t deserve to be here anymore than they did.
I had no idea how to save them, though. The guards could slit their throats in an instant. No one, not even Hatter, could move that fast. Fuck. The smell of the roses in the palace garden drifted over the
wall, clogging my nose and making me want to vomit.
The army behind me was stirring restlessly, the metal pieces of their makeshift armor clinking. They had no idea what was going on. I didn’t know what to say. The Knave must already be able to tell he’d landed his blow well. Did I want him to know just how much?
He’d managed to get his hands on the two people on the other side of the looking-glass I cared about most.
“Not so hasty now, are you?” the Knave called down. His tiger mouth pulled back into a sneer, his fangs glinting in the midday sun. “Will you sacrifice these three in your bid for the throne?”
He didn’t know that only two of them were particularly important to me, then. I didn’t see how I could use that fact either. My thoughts were too scattered; my chest clenched tight.
Theo eased closer behind me. “Lyssa?” he said under his breath.
“My mother and my best friend, from back home,” I said, just as quietly. “The guy, I don’t really know.” My gaze didn’t leave them for a second. The words “back home” felt strange coming out of my mouth. I’d claimed Wonderland as my home. My bond with the ground beneath my feet rang through me even now when I reached for it.
But the Otherworld had been my home for much longer. I’d already been torn up with guilt over running off on Mom and Melody, leaving them wondering where I’d vanished to. Now they knew where I was, and that was so much worse.
I was a queen here. I had to remember that. I was the queen. I tried to summon the resolve and certainty that had carried me to the palace.
“If you have any honor at all, you’ll release those three,” I said, raising my chin. “You know they have nothing to do with our conflict. Or is your supposed queen so afraid of me that threatening random civilians is the only way she can think to protect herself?”
Some of the Clubbers snickered at the jab. The Knave’s sneer tensed, but he didn’t care about the Queen of Hearts’ pride half as much as she did.
“It looks as though you’re the one afraid now,” he shot back. “You call yourself a queen, do you? Interloper. Otherlander. What do you think the ones you left behind feel about the danger you’ve brought down on them?”
He motioned to the guard holding my mom. My stomach dropped as the guy eased his sword a little lower and shoved her right up to the edge of the wall. Mom blinked hard, her face sickly pale. Her shoulders trembled.
“Lyssa?” she said. “What on Earth… What is this place? Who are these people? What have you gotten yourself caught up in?”
A lump filled my throat. “There’s too much to explain right now. I’m so sorry. I had no idea… I’m sorry.”
“Can you make them stop? Tell them we’re not part of… whatever this is. Give them whatever it is they want. Whatever you’re doing here, it can’t be worth it.”
Her voice wavered with the last sentence. I swallowed hard. She had no idea how much rested on my shoulders. What the men holding her and the woman who commanded them wanted was to crush every person behind me, every person in the city. They wanted another two hundred years of battering Wonderland’s spirit, if this place survived that long.
It was worth almost anything. But how could I say it was worth these three lives? Mom had raised me, even if she’d needed some help along the way. Melody had been there for me every time I’d turned to her, even if she’d turned to me more often. I’d shared so much of my life with them. I loved them.
The guard behind Melody shoved her forward next. “This is crazy, Lyss,” Melody said. “These fucking people—whatever they think they’re doing, they’ve gone way over the top. I really think they’ll kill us. This is some scary shit. I don’t know what to do.”
I didn’t know what to tell her either.
Was I a queen or wasn’t I? The answer felt suddenly out of reach. How could I say I was the Red Queen, the ruler of all Wonderland, if I’d give up the whole battle for three people who weren’t even of this place?
How could I say I was a human being worth living if I let them die?
The moving guy sputtered when the guard nudged him. “She’s right, this is fucking crazy,” he said. “I don’t even know who you are. Why the hell am I even here?” He twisted his head toward the Knave. “You’ve got to let me go. I was just there on a job.”
The Knave raised his hand with a jerk, and the guard silenced the guy with the touch of his dagger to the guy’s throat.
Another restless rustling spread through the crowd behind me. A prickle ran over my skin. The Knave hadn’t made any demands. He hadn’t even told me to stop fighting in so many words. His threat was obvious, but he wasn’t pushing the issue—why?
My heart started pounding even faster. What else could he want from this stand-off?
“Well?” he shouted. “What will you do, little queen? Would you like to chat with them some more about how they’ve been treated here? Get a better idea of their fate?”
Of the men I trusted most, Hatter was the only one I could see nearby now. He might know where Theo had moved to in the crowd—Theo could get a better read on the Knave. “Hatter,” I said in a low voice. “I have a bad feeling. Can you—”
I was cut off by a torrent of motion. A squad of guards burst from the trees along the side of the road, swinging swords and spears at my army of Clubbers.
I whirled around, my fingers clutching the grip of my sword. The force must have left through a farther gate and slunk through the woods while the Knave distracted us. No.
A woman near me shrieked. A teen in a metal helm that looked like it’d once been a pot toppled as a guard stabbed him. More cries rang out from the other side of the road where a matching force was charging at us. We were boxed in by enemies on both sides.
I slashed out with my sword instinctively, but my heart was heavy, my emotions in disarray. The ruby didn’t flare to life. No magic leapt from the blade. I only managed to cut a tear through the red-and-pink tunic of a guard right in front of me.
The royal artifacts didn’t respond unless I was completely committed.
My shaken confidence rippled through the other connections I’d forged. The jabberwocks spun around, their violet eyes flashing with a testy light, their maws snapping. One lashed out at the incoming wave of guards, but another sent a frantic spurt of flame into the crowd of Clubbers. Someone screamed.
No. I had to get control of the beasts I’d summoned. Planting my feet on the cobblestones, bracing myself in the midst of the chaos, I grasped my scepter and held it up over my head.
Maybe I was afraid of the consequences of this battle, but I knew this land belonged to me. I knew every creature living on it should respond to my command.
“Jabberwocks! Only the ones in pink and red. Only the guards with their helms. The rest of us fight with you, not against you. Please.”
The last word dropped from my throat as the jabberwocks wheeled and groaned in clear confusion. The road had turned into a mass of struggling bodies. Billows of smoke puffed up where someone had tossed several of Theo’s smoke bombs. The creature closest to me gouged its claws through the road, wrenching up cobblestones in its wake. Another whipped this way and that, more flame dancing over its lips.
They were trying to listen, but the commotion was too much for me to get a proper hold. One snapped its jaws around a woman from the city, and my heart wrenched.
The best I could do was get them out of here before they did our side any more damage.
I waved the scepter in the air. “Jabberwocks—away! Into the trees! Leave us until I call on you again.”
Smoke coated my throat. I coughed and stumbled as a body collided with mine. I could barely make out who was friend and foe with the haze swirling around us and sunlight glancing off blades in every direction.
We’d lost our advantage. The thought of abandoning Mom and Melody to the Queen of Hearts made me queasy all over again, but I’d really have abandoned them if I died here and there was no one left to fight for them at all. All I c
ould think to do was pull away, retreat from the crush of guards on either side, back to the shelter of the city where we could regroup and decide how to deal with this new threat.
If we even could make it back.
“Retreat!” I cried out raggedly. “Spades and Clubbers, back to the city, now, as quickly as you can move!”
The crowd shifted one way and another. I smacked aside a lunging guard with the flat of my sword. The mass of bodies heaved a few steps in the direction of the city, but it was hard to tell if that was even on purpose or just part of the turmoil of the fray. More smoke surged up from somewhere to my left.
My straining eyes couldn’t make out anyone I recognized. Theo, Hatter, Chess—they were all lost to me in the chaos. If my heart had been heavy before, now it weighed on my gut like a boulder.
I’d led all these people here, and if I didn’t pull them together fast, this march would turn out to have been an invitation to a slaughter.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Theo
T he Knave on the wall today might not have been the Knave I’d grown up with—my mother had gone through at least a couple in the time I’d lived in the palace, and more since then—but I could sense from his stance as he had the guards prod their captives to call out to Lyssa that there was more at stake here than rubbing his ruthlessness in my queen’s face. He was making some kind of play.
I took a step back from Lyssa, scanning the road. We were surrounded by sparsely forested hills on both sides with the main palace gate looming straight ahead. I couldn’t see far enough along the wall to make out the next gates farther away. While we’d been charging forward, our force had seemed unstoppable. Now, as the gathered city folk waited on restless feet for further orders, the sensation of being boxed in crawled over my skin.
We’d lost our element of surprise. Our enemies could watch our every move while our line of sight was cut off in every direction except behind us. No, this didn’t feel secure at all. I didn’t like it one bit.