Mom cleared her throat. “Do you girls want to come with us for some ice cream?”
“We’d love to, except our folks are picking us up for the newest Tom Zubins movie.” Nora wrapped her arms around herself. “Alexis, how soon do you have to go? We could hang out beforehand.”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. Maybe if I had actually read the acceptance letter, I’d have that information. “Kinda freaked out when I saw the acceptance.”
A car pulled up and honked.
“Call us, okay?” Meghan gave me another bone-breaking hug.
Then both of my friends hopped into their parent's car and speed away.
Inside I felt hollow. Like my life would never be the same. After all, last time this had happened, I was eight years old and my dad got the summons to go to Wonderland Academy and he never returned.
Chapter Two
Back home, I laid on my bed staring at the ceiling. The offending parchment that had declared me to go to Wonderland sat on my nightstand, taunting me from my peripheral. If I could, I would tear the parchment up and turn the pieces into ash. But I couldn’t. To do so would be an act of treason and I was already under some scrutiny and I didn’t need to bring any more attention to myself. However, I could get it out of my view. I yanked open the dresser drawer, stuffing it inside.
This wasn’t happening. Couldn’t be.
Wonderland Academy wasn’t a place to mess around with. Too many dangers lurked there that no one knew about. And any Wonderlanders who visited over here never said a word. Almost like the queen had control of them even past the barrier. I shivered, hauling up my blankets over me like some kind of shield.
Dad had gone there to be a teacher in their first-ever exchange type program. It was supposed to be safe for him. It was supposed to be a guaranteed thing and he’d come home every weekend and on holidays. Our family would be well-compensated and he would get to teach students – something he loved to do.
We didn’t even get word that he’d been killed over there until my frantic mom had paced outside the border, refusing to leave after he’d not come home one Friday night. It was Tuesday when they finally told us. Like we were an afterthought, unimportant in the scheme of things.
I hated them.
Hated the lot of them.
They had shifters and magic users and god knows what else. Humans were just toys to the queen of hearts. A way to keep her conquered subjects, despite being across the border, in line. The wars had been awful and wiped out tens of thousands of us until a treaty was set up in the form of the summoning. Twelve souls every decade wasn’t much. Yet, anyone called had to obey or died and another name was drawn to take their place. The queen demanded twelve humans and wouldn’t be denied. No one had ever escaped that I’d heard of. Maybe there was some way out. Something I hadn’t realized.
My heart thumped against my chest, I rolled over and snagged my laptop from the floor. Then I typed in: Has anyone not fulfilled the Wonderland Academy’s summons.
The internet flashed several dozen matches. I clicked on the first one.
Woman found dead outside the shopping mall. Two years after summons.
There was nothing in the article about it being connected to the Academy, but my instinct screamed there was. In fact, the only mention of the academy at all was the headline, as though the humans wanted to try and keep track of everything that had to do with the academy.
I chose the next one.
Boy found without his head. Police suspect the queen of hearts. Wonderland denies accusations.
Doubtful that was an accident. I picked another website.
The family was found burned to death after the son refused to go to Wonderland Academy. The forensic team says the fire started from an unknown origin.
I closed the laptop, unable to read any more. A headache beginning to pound against my temples. My mom was all I had left in this world. I couldn’t put her in danger. I couldn’t put myself in danger, either. As much as I wanted to run away, I knew I couldn’t.
With a groan, I rolled back across the bed and opened my nightstand. I tugged the parchment out of the drawer, scanning the details while my throat tightened.
Report to Wonderland Academy at 0800 on July 29th. Lateness will be penalized.
July 29th? That was two days away. My stomach heaved and I dashed to my bathroom.
Two days of my reprieve zoomed by too fast. I tried to hold onto every precious minute.
Now I stood at the barrier. My mom, Meghan, Nora, and a few other friends waved. All of them had frozen, fake smiles. They were giving me their support and encouragement as best they could. This was a no-win scenario. My gut tightened. I wished with everything in me that this was all a horrible nightmare. That Mom would wake me up. I’d be so relieved that none of this was real. I’d tell her all about the dream and she’d shake her head and we’d go make pancakes for breakfast. I wrapped my arms over myself, feeling like I was going to be sick all over again.
The warbling effect as I gazed into Wonderland was dizzying. Four members from each house stepped forward. Gold for shifters, Sapphire for magic users, Crimson for humans, and Emerald for Fae or other Wonderland-born residents. One from each house. All four of the guys were dressed in their house’s uniforms, the main colors in their ties and the cuffs of their sleeves and the handkerchiefs displayed in the top pocket. Their trousers were all dark navy.
“Alexis.” Mom drew me into a hug, her body trembling. “Please be careful. D-Do whatever you can to survive. Mind that tongue of yours, if it’s the last thing you can do.”
I hugged her back, hating that she was going through this again. I didn’t want to let go. She smelled of lavender and Mom and I wanted to hold her scent with me for as long as I could.
“Tributes, you have two minutes left to say goodbye,” a male voice rang out beside me.
My stomach dropped into my feet. Slowly, I pulled away from her and she kissed my forehead.
“I-I can’t do this.” All of me wanted to run and hide, never look back.
“You’ve never run from a fight before, so why would you start now?” She patted my arm, tears in her eyes. “Go give them hell but not in a way that would result in…. Her voice trailed off and she inhaled sharply. The breath she released was shaky, like she couldn’t contain it in her body even if she wanted to.
I force a smile and nod.
Then I stepped up to my friends, giving them hugs. Wondering if I would ever see them again or my mom. Wondering if I was on the way to meet the same fate my father had.
“Do they allow cellphones in there?” Nora lifted her chin to the barrier.
“I-I don’t know.” Because I didn’t want this, dreaded it, I hadn’t looked up anything else about the academy. What if they didn’t have electricity or TV? What if everything was controlled by magic, and because I was human, I didn’t actually have access to it? What if there was no way for me to connect with my mom or with my friends? What if I was isolated there? What if, what if, what if?
I should have done my homework. I should have prepared. A warrior never went into battle without preparing for it. And attending Wonderland Academy was just like going to battle.
“If I can, I’ll let you know,” I said. And then, I added with a forced laugh, “Surely they have computers and the internet.”
“Are those your classmates?” Meghan whispered, looking past me to a crowd of guys standing a few feet away from us. They seemed to be in a deeply enthralling conversation amongst themselves. “They are super-hot. Maybe I should get transferred there.”
I winced, but I tried not to let them see. I knew Meghan was joking, but if I had the opportunity to trade spots, I would have taken it, hot guy or not.
“Bite your tongue,” Nora snapped. “No one that goes in there ever comes back.”
“Maybe they just like it too much to retur—oh, snap, Alexis.” Meghan cringed. She stopped her joke right in the middle of it, finally remembering that I was goin
g to go away to that place where people never returned. “I totally forgot about your dad.”
“Yeah.” Was all I managed to get out because my throat closed up.
I took a deep breath. I was angry at her carelessness, but it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t have to worry. She could return home.
Me, on the other hand?
I glanced across the tracks, considering my original plan of running away. It would be so easy.
“Okay, everyone, time is up. If all the tributes would follow me.” A boy in the golden uniform led the charge.
Next to me, eleven other humans shuffled forward. All of us dreading what was to come and questioning if we would survive and what would be asked of us. My legs trembled as I moved forward. Inside a coil tightened in my chest. I took one last look at my mom and friends, waving at them and freezing a brave smile on my face, not knowing if I’d ever see them again.
Chapter Three
When I walked through the barrier that kept Wonderland from leaking out in the real world, my skin prickled. The world I’d glimpsed before was nothing compared to the colors and magic of this place.
My mouth dropped open, my eyes widening. I couldn’t help but be awed in my new surroundings. In fact, I would say that I was impressed, which isn’t something I ever thought I’d say about Wonderland. Everything was brighter, contrasting to show vivid colors that didn’t look real. The grass was dark green and swayed in rhythm with the wind. Flowers of odd shapes and sizes dotted the landscape. One appearing to look like a bell, the other a trumpet, and another a skull. I rubbed my arms and kept moving forward with the other eleven tributes. Thick trees with branches jutted out made me want to climb as I used to do as a kid. Before Dad had died. Before our lives changed forever.
I took a shuddering breath, trying to focus on what the shifter guy was saying.
“Curfew is at dusk,” he said. “Any tribute caught after sundown will be punished.”
A girl beside me let out a shaky giggle. “Let’s hope that discipline involves one of these four and a paddle.”
I rolled my eyes. How could she joke at a time like this? When we had come here and put our lives in danger. Clearly, she was in denial about what was going on here. She probably saw this as some kind of vacation when, in truth, it was a prison sentence. We were all going to die. Only a few would survive. And considering I didn’t have any magic in my blood, I highly doubted I would be alive by the end of the semester.
“Any questions?” the blond guide asked.
“What’s your name?” asked another girl with her blonde hair braided down her back.
“Maize,” he answered.
“Like the corn?” She made a face, but quickly schooled her features.
“Yes.” He smiled. “Wonderland names are unique like all of us are. And whoever can guess my shifter animal, gets ten points for their house.”
“Points can be used to buy things like pizza parties or extra visits back home.” The blue-uniformed guy patted down his dark hair.
“Cool,” one of the boys in our group said.
“Bear?” one girl offered.
“Nope. Oh and to make the game fair, only three guesses per person. I suggest you think about all the different types of shifters before you take the gamble.” Maize gestured with his arm. “Now, if you’ll continue to follow me.”
Everyone followed behind him and no one else offered to say what his shifter animal was. I watched his self-confident gait though. Almost prowling. Yet, he seemed more exotic to me with his regal voice and the way he carried himself. I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes. At least trying to figure out if what he gave me had something to do other than worry about my fate and what was in store for me
We came to a silver-colored building.
Maize strolled backward as he talked. “This is the main hall,” he said. “You’ll take your meals here, have assemblies or special training, whatever the dean wants of you. It’s a multi-purpose building.”
I hoped the expertise was more like P.E. than survival. I was a decent athlete but I knew nothing of fighting or whatever it was they taught here and I needed all the help I could get if I had even a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving.
I took a step back and looked at the rest of the buildings. My eyes narrowed when I saw with roses all over it. I shivered.
“What’s the building with red rose bushes all over it?” I asked, pointing to what I was talking about.
“The queen’s scepter,” he explained. “Any royal meetings both public and private that involve the academy takes place there.” Maize narrowed his golden eyes. “It is off-limits unless invited. Anyone caught sneaking in without a royal summons will be flogged. The second offense will be transported back to your world with a forbidden decree never to cross over again.”
Maybe I should do it just to get forbidden to come to Wonderland.
“That doesn’t sound too harsh except the flogging part,” a pale boy next to me said as he kicked at a pebble on the path.
I raised my eyebrows in agreement with him.
“Third offense,” Maize continued, a slight tone to his voice, “is beheading.”
I snapped my attention back to the three-story building and reached up to caress my neck as though I was afraid it would disappear from my head at just the thought. And with the queen’s magic confusing as it was dangerous, I wouldn’t be surprised if such a thing happened. More than that, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was what had happened to my dad? Had he tried to get into the queen’s scepter without permission and was caught three times?
Triple rows of pikes with decaying severed heads lined the stone building like some macabre garden. I didn’t notice they were heads until now. Before I thought they were something else, maybe a plant or a weed native to Wonderland I had never heard about before.
My stomach clenched and it took everything in me not to gag.
Now that I knew what they were, the strong scent of decay and withered skin burned my nostrils and I was afraid I would never rid myself of the scent.
“Now since you all are new, we’ll give you a few days to acclimate to the environment,” he continued. I risked a glance at him and realized that he wasn’t even looking at me, which meant he didn’t notice how I reacted to the sight of severed heads. Good, because he didn’t seem perturbed by them in the slightest. “Wonderland has a higher altitude than the human world, so you’ll feel sluggish and tired faster.” Maize waved a hand. “The best thing to do is to start eating our food and water. It’s the fastest way to get used to it.”
Images of poisoned potions flitted through my mind. I wouldn’t be surprised if they used such a tactic here. It was one way to control the humans who attended this school.
Now that the idea had lodged itself in my mind, I made a note not to eat any of the food here for as long as I could hold out for. I hadn’t been able to eat much since I received that damn letter and I certainly wasn’t hungry now.
We backtracked to the jagged-shaped silver building. It looked like something a toddler molded from play-dough and left. I frowned, wondering how this was built when there was no aesthetic pleasure looking at it.
Not that it mattered as long as it served its function, I supposed.
We entered through double-glass doors. Inside was a huge lobby and sitting area and beyond a cafeteria with silver chairs and tables.
A line of soldiers with crimson roses on their chest and helmet that only revealed their eyes stood along the outside. They stared straight ahead, unmoving. Even though they looked like statues, I knew the truth from mom’s stories. These were part of the queen’s guard. Tributes who hadn’t passed her trails condemned to serve the queen for the rest of their lives or else they were condemned to their deaths – which would be horrifying, painful, and unforgivable.
I swallowed hard. If I failed, I’d be one of those. Mindless and waiting for the queen’s orders. I’d be trapped here. Any hope of seeing my mother would be stomped
out. I would be forced to watch others succeed while I languished away in my failure.
I couldn’t let that happen. No matter what.
“Why are they here?” a girl next to me asked, her face pale.
“Just try to ignore them.” Maize smiled, but it looked forced, like even those who had been in Wonderland for a while weren’t particularly comfortable with their presence. I wasn’t sure why that relieved me to an extent, but it did. “After a while, you’ll forget they are even there. Besides, the cooking staff has prepared a Wonderland specialty dish for you all. Hungindosh.” Maize gestured to one of the tables laid out with silver plates full of steaming food that looked more like blue hash than anything else.
“Eat.” The word was a command though he made sure to make it sound like a suggestion.
Everyone except me rushed forward and grabbed a place. When Maize quirked an eyebrow at me, I slunk forward, grabbing the only empty spot at the front. I wouldn’t eat the food, but I still had to play the game. I had to make them think I would.
“Now, I’ll pass over the discussion to sapphire house, represented by Eithanael.”
The mage stepped forward and bowed his head slightly. His eyes were bright blue. He carried an air of power around him. His presence near the head of the table made my skin pebble in gooseflesh.
He was utterly gorgeous. I wasn’t sure how else to describe him, but even that didn’t do him justice.
“I know you all have many questions, but most will be made clear to you over the next few days.” Even his voice sent shivers over me.
Maize caught my attention, his eyebrow raised, and my entire face flushed. The girl earlier who had commented on their looks wasn’t exaggerating. All four of them appeared to be cut from GQ.
“Even though you all are humans and will be put in the Crimson house along with Zack, here, each of you will be able to train with all the houses. Chosen ones who enter the Queen’s special guard will need to have the ability to defend against any foe.” He waved a hand to the guards who hadn’t moved a muscle since we entered. “Be it shifter or mage or even a simple assassin.”
Wonderland Academy: Book 1 Page 2