by Eva Chase
Theo emerged from the tower just then with an armful of supplies. He caught my eye with a tip of his head, and I waited for him while he distributed more tubes and thread and a substance Wonderlanders apparently used to make casts. Then he strode over to meet me.
With his head high and the sun glancing off his chestnut curls, he looked every bit the prince. Even heavy, my heart still fluttered seeing his commanding presence, even though technically I held more authority than he did now.
“How are you holding up?” he asked, coming to a stop a few feet away from me. That was the one area where he wasn’t so assured anymore—navigating his closeness with me. He wouldn’t have felt he needed to leave that much space before. I’d appreciated the consideration at first, but suddenly it made me weary.
We had so many enemies and troubles in front of us. Why let the past hurts linger on any more? I knew why he’d done what he had; I knew how honorable and devoted he was at heart despite it.
“Well enough,” I said, which was the most I wanted to admit where the wounded Clubbers could hear me. “I just wanted to see how everyone here is holding up. I thought I owed them that.”
“I’m sure your concern helped raise their spirits,” Theo said with a smile.
Mallo passed us and paused to bob her head to me. For the first time, even though her former leader was standing right next to me, her gaze fixed on me instead of Theo.
“I think we’ve taken care of all the injured as well as we can, Red Queen,” she said. “What else can I do that would be useful?”
There was no irony or bitterness in her tone. She actually wanted my opinion. I guessed she was glad now that the Spades hadn’t offered me up to the Queen of Hearts in sacrifice all those weeks ago. Part of me wanted to laugh, but all of me was glad to see I’d managed to make an impression on one of my harshest critics along with the Clubbers.
“Are there any other supplies we need gathered?” I asked Theo.
He shook his head. “I have that covered.”
I turned back to Mallo. “We can’t trust the Queen of Hearts to stick to the timeline she gave us. The more people we have patrolling the edge of the city, the better. Sound the warning if you see anything at all that worries you, okay?”
“Of course,” she said, and darted off.
“Winning over hearts and minds,” Theo said after she’d disappeared from view, sounding amused. He motioned for me to walk with him farther down the street, away from the resting patients. “You didn’t need much time.”
His praise brought a flush into my cheeks that was probably not very regal. “Apparently I was born for this. And it’s not all that hard to look better than my counterpart, is it?” That being his mother. Maybe not the best point to raise.
Theo didn’t look insulted. It wasn’t as if he liked the Queen of Hearts’ methods any more than I did.
“You sell yourself short,” he said. “I know it’s been hard. I know it must be even harder now, with the Knave’s new plot. You’ve held your own better than most people would have. Born for it or not, this is you.”
I swallowed thickly. “Thank you for helping me get my focus back during the battle. Seeing people from back home here—seeing how he was treating them—it was hard to think clearly.”
“I only said what was true,” Theo said simply. “I’ve been part of this struggle for ages longer than you have. I’ll always speak my mind if I see a strategy I think we should use. And then you get to decide whether you listen to me, my queen.” The corner of his lips curled slyly with that last comment.
We ambled around the corner onto a quieter street, and I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Theo… You know I’m not at all angry with you anymore, don’t you? I don’t have any doubts about which side you’re on. I don’t have any doubts about whether you care about me. It’s never going to be the same as when you were the White Knight and I was an Otherlander, lost and confused, but you don’t have to hold yourself back with me. In case that wasn’t clear.”
Theo’s smile softened. He stepped closer, setting his hands on my waist. “It is different now,” he said, his voice low. “You are my queen. And I’m from the family that destroyed yours.”
I made a dismissive sound. “At least one member of my family abandoned Wonderland instead of taking up the crown she was meant to. I’m pretty sure we’re past judging each other by our ancestors. And I’m not just the queen. I’d better not ever be just the queen. I’m still the woman who was falling in love with you.”
“Was?” Theo repeated lightly.
“I think we can say I’m finished falling.”
He closed the last few inches between us and kissed me, one hand rising to trace his fingertips over my cheek. I leaned into him, wishing I could enjoy this connection for more than just a moment, knowing I couldn’t.
Theo pulled back only slightly, his head still bowed. “I’m not perfect,” he said. “I’m still her son, along with everything else I am. I think I’ll have to grapple with the impulses of that heritage as long as I live. But after today… I have no fears at all that I can’t overcome them. The rest of me is stronger.”
“I know,” I said. “You wouldn’t be here at all if that wasn’t true. Did you only just figure that out?”
His lips twitched with another smile. “I suppose it’s taken me a little while to find my feet again. A prince never shows his weaknesses, you know. It simply isn’t done.”
I wrinkled my nose at that comment and gave him another quick kiss on the mouth. “Maybe not, but Theo had better know he can.” I glanced down the street. “Where are we heading? I’ve got an awful lot of plans to make.” The weight of the Queen’s timeline and the threat that came with it pressed back down on me.
“I asked Hatter and Chess to meet us at the hat shop,” Theo said. “I thought maybe, in light of the stakes, you’d prefer to talk things through first with those of us you know best rather than a whole crowd of Spades. Although if you’d prefer more or less or to be left alone to think it through, just say the word.”
“No,” I said, wrapping my hand around his. “Talking it through with you three sounds just right. I think it’s going to take a lot of talking.”
Anxiety crept back through my body as we made our way through the streets. It loosened a little when we stepped into the shop to the sight of the other two men I loved. Chess was perched on the edge of the counter, his legs dangling, and Hatter leaned against the glass display case next to him. He nudged today’s bowler hat up over his spiky blond hair as he straightened up to greet us.
“So,” he said. “We have quite the conundrum. I’m sorry, Lyssa.”
The apology sounded like more than just an expression of sympathy. I blinked at him. “It’s not your fault.”
He grimaced. “It might be, in part. I noticed when we took this place back from the guards that Alicia’s sketch of her house—your house—was missing. It never occurred to me the guards would have taken it, but… That has to be how they got to your mother and your friend. Whoever went through the looking-glass used it to focus on their destination and arrive there.”
And Mom and Melody—and the mover—had still been at the house in the aftermath of my disappearance. It might have been only hours for them since I’d leapt back into Wonderland.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “You couldn’t have predicted the Knave would use it that way. What matters is he’s got them now, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
“What have you been thinking, lovely?” Chess said. “Ramble on all you want. I find I often make my way to an answer if I just keep talking toward it.”
I wasn’t sure any of my thoughts so far would get us anywhere. “I don’t know. I just feel torn.” I raked my fingers through my hair. “We can’t surrender. The Queen of Hearts will slaughter me and all the Spades and who knows how many of the Clubbers—and I’m not naïve enough to think she’d even spare Mom or Melody once she’s gotten her way. But I can’t just mar
ch right back to the palace and risk her killing them to punish me. They never asked to be part of this. They shouldn’t be part of this. It’s my world, but it isn’t theirs.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her to order them killed as promised,” Theo said. “Not at all. But I will say that she’s clearly scared of you. If she’d truly felt she had the upper hand, she’d have demanded your surrender immediately. But then you could have called her bluff, and if she’d killed them right away, she’d have lost her only bargaining chip. She didn’t believe her guards could hold our forces back if we’d taken up the charge with full commitment again.”
“So she left me to stew on it,” I said.
“And she bought herself more time to rally her own defenses,” Hatter said. “No doubt she’s got another cartload of pearl-heads on the way.”
“Then if we’re going to strike again, we should strike as soon as we can, before she has much chance to think up other ways to screw us over.” I let out my breath. “But we can’t get any prisoners out of the palace without storming it and forcing her hand in the first place. It doesn’t matter how scared she is—I still have to make sure Mom and Melody get out of this.”
Theo set his hand on my shoulder. “We’ve only just started talking. Between the four of us, and the minds of all the Spades and the city folk if we need to turn to them, we’ll find an answer. That’s what being a leader is—finding an answer that satisfies every side of the equation. The land itself is on your side. I know you can find your way through.”
Hatter’s eyes gleamed bright as he took my other hand in his. “And we have advantages the Queen of Hearts will never even think of,” he said. “She approaches every problem in the same old standard ways. Make threats, try to bully everyone into submission. We’re ready to do anything. All we have to do is find the right wild, mad plan, and she’ll never know what hit her.”
Chess scooted closer along the counter and bent over to brush a kiss to the top of my head. “And no matter what comes, you do have all of us. The Queen of Hearts orders everyone from a distance because she rules with fear. You’ve already got all the respect and love you need to put you on that throne. I’ll think with you in whatever which way we need to until the right idea sparks.”
My throat tightened with all the faith and affection surrounding me. I gripped Hatter’s hand harder, leaned into Theo’s touch, and squeezed Chess’s knee as I glanced around at all of them. Even with the massive threat looming over me, it felt important to take a moment to say this one thing to the three so different but all so important men who owned my heart.
“I’m going to want you all to stay with me, you know. If—no, when—I take that throne. I don’t know if any queen of Wonderland has had three partners before, but I don’t really care what’s normal. I want all of you by my side. We’ll make Wonderland wondrous again together.”
“Lyssa…” Hatter kissed my cheek, his voice abruptly choked. Chess embraced me from behind. Theo just beamed at me. That was all I needed to know they wanted to be with me as much as I wanted them.
Maybe they would have said more, except right then the door burst open to reveal a panting Kip.
“One of the jabberwocks came back,” he said. “We need our queen before it charbroils the whole street.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Lyssa
T he jabberwock’s burbling moans carried several blocks from the edge of the city where it had started its rampage. I picked up my pace to a run, sliding my scepter from its carry bag as my feet smacked the cobblestones. Kip sped up too, waving his arm to show me the right direction. My three lovers loped along just behind me.
An all-too familiar sickly sweet scent tickled my nose. I hesitated, my fingers tensing around the scepter’s staff.
“Did the guards dump more roses here?” I asked.
Kip shook his head, wrinkling his nose. “There was an old batch in an alley out here we managed to miss. The drug is mostly faded by now, but some of the residents are still pretty dazed. We figure the smell is what drew the jabberwock. It’s the palace folk they’re really not happy with. Wish this one had taken its anger out on the guards instead.”
No kidding. As we dashed closer, the faint prickle of smoke reached my nose as well. If the jabberwocks I’d encouraged to come to the city had hurt anyone else here… Guilt twisted my gut.
We came around a bend to the scattered buildings along the edge of the city. The jabberwock fluttered its frail, useless wings and let out a belch that sent flames licking over the side of the nearest house. Its head wove from side to side on its feathered, serpentine neck, and its clawed feet clattered against the group. I could tell at a glance it wasn’t angry so much as distressed. Although an unhappy jabberwock didn’t look very different from a raging one.
The Spades and a few of the Clubbers were hustling residents out of their houses and away down the street. Some of the locals, like Kip had suggested, swayed on their feet, their expressions dazed with growing confusion. This was not a sight I’d have wanted anyone to wake up from a drug-haze to.
My nerves shivered when the jabberwock swung its maw toward us with a rasp of its jagged teeth, but I clenched my jaw and strode into the middle of the street. Figures amid the trees caught my eyes with a stutter of my pulse. A couple of the drug-dazed Clubbers had wandered into the forest instead of deeper into the city. One stumbled over a branch just a few feet from the jabberwock’s lashing tail. Its head snapped in their direction at the sound.
“Jabberwock!” I called out quickly, raising the scepter in the air. The tingle of its calming, clarifying energy washed over me and flowed out toward the massive creature with the ruby’s crimson glow.
At my voice, the jabberwock turned back to face me. As the glow touched it, its body stilled, its gaze focusing completely on me. It let out another moan, but this one sounded more questioning than distraught.
One of the Clubbers behind it scrambled onward through the forest on unsteady feet. The one closer to us had stopped. The woman rubbed her eyes as if she’d just woken from a sound sleep. Her gaze settled on me, her eyes abruptly sharp with attention. Then she registered the jabberwock and leapt backwards with a squeak of shock. Despite being startled, she managed to keep her balance.
I glanced from her to the jabberwock. How had she come out of her daze?
A suspicion crept up through my mind. The scepter’s energy might have washed over her too as I’d sent it toward the jabberwock. Had it cleared the drug’s effects from her mind, just like it’d cleared the jabberwock’s frantic impulses?
If I’d known that was possible, our job recovering the city would have been a whole lot simpler. Of course, maybe I’d have worn out the scepter’s magic if I’d tried to bring the entire population out of their daze in the course of a day.
Right now, I had to deal with the jabberwock first. Keeping the scepter held up between us, I took a step closer to the creature. It bowed its head to meet me.
“Hey,” I said in a soothing voice. “There’s no danger here. There’s nothing to fight. But it’s good that you came back to us. We can still use your protection from the ones in the red-and-pink uniforms—the Queen of Hearts’ men. Will you help us again?”
The jabberwock let out a sound that was closest to a sigh and nudged its muzzle against my extended hand. A smile touched my lips. It wanted to serve this land, to free it, just as much as I did. The creatures just needed a push in the right direction and guiding words to keep them on track.
“Will you call the other ones back before we march on the palace again?” Theo asked from where he’d stopped a little behind me.
I patted the jabberwock’s nose and pointed along the line of the forest. “Go to the road and keep watch there. You know how to warn me.”
As the creature lumbered off, I turned back to my companions. Chess was grinning, Hatter’s eyes gleaming with a mix of awe and worry for me. Theo studied me, waiting for my answer.
“If we com
e up with a plan where I’m sure I can keep control of them, I will,” I said. “They’ve been valuable allies. It wasn’t their fault that they got confused during the battle. I was confused.”
The woman who’d come out of her drugged state eased tentatively toward the buildings now that the jabberwock had left. “Is it safe?” she said, sounding totally alert.
“It should be,” I said, and remembered the possibility that had occurred to me earlier. “Where are the rest of the Clubbers who are still recovering from the drug?” I asked Kip. “I want to see them—I think I might be able to help.”
“The others were just taking them a couple of streets over,” he said. “We figured staying out in the fresh air was the best thing if they’re going to come out of it soon.”
“Let’s see if I can bring them out of it right now.”
I brandished my scepter, and he led the way. Theo fell into step next to me. “What are you thinking?” he said.
“The scepter calms creatures down and brings them to me by clearing all the distractions out of their minds,” I said. “The same way it can push back literal darkness. I think it accidentally had the same effect on one of the Clubbers who was still under the drug’s influence. I’d like to see if I can do it again.”
And if I could… The start of another idea trembled eagerly at the back of my mind.
Like Kip had said, the other Spades had ushered the drugged city people to a nearby street. They drifted over the cobblestones looking aimless and anxious at the same time. I adjusted my fingers around my scepter and held it out again, picturing the drug’s tendrils retreating from all those minds.
“People of Wonderland,” I said steadily but gently. “Remember what matters to you. Remember yourselves. Come through the fog and back to me.”
The ruby’s glow grew, filling my eyes and spilling out across the street. My breath caught with the energy streaming through that light. Gasps and startled cries sounded all down the street.