Ivory turns and offers a hand to my mom.
Mom takes it, then looks back at me. “I’m safe and we’re surviving. But the heart of Wonderland is dying. The doldrums are closing in. Come soon. We’ll hold them off as long as we can.”
I try to make sense of her warning, picking my mind apart for the definition of doldrums, but it escapes me.
“Allie!” Mom screams. “Wake up . . . wake up!”
Lightning streaks across the sky and splits into my chest, slamming me back into my broken body and the reality of unquenchable pain.
Someone has propped my back against what feels like cool tiles. I’m too weak to even lift my eyelids. I inhale and strangle on the liquid filling my lungs.
“She’s dying,” Red says, somewhere beyond my closed eyes.
“As she should be,” Hart responds. “Just look at the mess she made of my paints! And she nibbled on a tart. Confounded little mouse.”
Judging by Hart’s tirade, we’re still in the playroom. The scent of her perfume suffocates me, even more potent with my eyes closed. It’s the stench of death—wilted flowers and rotted flesh.
“Let me out so I can preserve her vessel,” Red hisses.
“Don’t be cross with me!” Hart scolds. “You had to know this would be the result when you put the spell upon her.”
“No. Once the netherling side fully awoke to madness, it was supposed to absorb the human one, transform it. I could never have predicted the mortal half of her heart would put up such a fight. That it would be strong enough to hold on for so long and endanger them both.”
A whimper lodges within my throat and a bitter metallic flavor gags me. I want to clench Red’s neck, to choke her. Instead, I’m the one choking . . . on my own blood.
“It’s your spell. Simply reverse it,” the queen suggests, ignoring my struggle.
“Now that the heart is splitting in two, I know of no magic that can save her. Nothing for me to do other than pull her together from the inside.”
I moan.
“Hurry, you fool,” Red prompts the queen, desperation in her voice. “Set my spirit free.”
“I need collateral,” Hart counters. “For the trade of the medallion. I want more than one measly human life-clock. I want them all.”
One human life-clock? Who could they be talking about? Jeb? My dad? Did they catch Uncle Bernie again?
Whoever it is, one of my loved ones is in danger.
I try to move, but agony slices through me, a metal stake splitting and gouging my breastbone. To keep from crying out, I freeze in place. My eyelids seal tighter.
“I already told you you’ll get more. My bargain with Morpheus is to hand over the medallion once the marriage is official. I said nothing about leaving you here.”
“You don’t think your king will have something to say about my following you through the gate?”
“Once Morpheus realizes I’m the only thing keeping his cherished Alyssa alive, he will do whatever I command.”
I inhale a sharp breath. The air scalds and scrapes my lungs, as if sprouting thorns on the way in. The sensation dulls my reasoning; still, I try to piece things together. Red plans to trick Morpheus. He must already suspect this. He’s a mastermind. The wise and cryptic caterpillar, emerged from his chrysalis in the form of a beautiful winged fae.
But he doesn’t know what she has for leverage. He’s unaware of my dying heart, or Red’s spell on me.
Other than Wonderland, I’m his only weakness. And she’s using both.
How can he refuse her?
I’m the only one who can stop this. I open my eyes to slits and groan, trying to concentrate enough to unleash my magic. Black fog crowds my peripheral vision . . . makes it impossible to focus.
The Queen of Hearts crouches in front of me, one half of her hair bright crimson and the other side burgundy. “This is all moot,” she says to Red. “You heard what the ear mite said. The dullard girl has made a vow to the mortal. There will be no marriage betwixt her and Morpheus.”
“Everything will fall in place once we find the boy. The vow is binding only for as long as he lives. We kill him, you have the start to your human collection, and I have my royal wedding.”
“No.” I try to speak over the blood gurgling in my throat. I’ve done it again. I’ve endangered Jeb’s life more than it already was. “I . . . won’t let . . . you.”
I attempt to slap Hart’s face, but my hand falls limply to my lap.