The murky water blinds me. Warm brininess seeps into my nostrils and the seam of my lips. Grappling for the diary and key at my neck, I’m relieved to find them still there, though I can’t remember why. My arms, legs, and wings go limp and I fold.
A warm pressure grips around my waist, startling me to alertness. The sands release my legs. Jeb holds me in his arms and we surface together. I gulp air and cough up salt water.
After dragging us to shore, Jeb collapses beside me, sputtering. The ocean laps gently under his instruction, as if it wasn’t trying to tear us apart seconds ago.
My wings wrinkle beneath my back and I absorb them, skin prickling against the sand. All my clothes are gone—everything but my lingerie, sopping wet and clinging to me. My pulse spikes as I realize Jeb’s clothes have vanished, too, other than a soaked pair of periwinkle boxers that look a lot like the fabric of his tuxedo shirt.
Propped on his elbows, he turns me to face him and rakes wet snarls of hair off my face. He loops the diary and key behind my neck so they’re no longer between us.
Water beads along his whiskered jaw and gathers around the edges of his labret. “Didn’t I tell you never to scare me like that again?”
My mind clears instantly: That’s what he said when we weathered the original ocean of tears in Wonderland.
“You came back for me.” I press myself to him, fill the words with as much awe and gratitude as when I used them to respond a year ago.
His hands cradle my head. “I’ll always come back for you, Al,” he whispers.
I hold his wrists and our heartbeats slam between us. “And that’s why you’ll always be a better man than your dad.”
His features soften to a poignant frown and he leans in to skim his mouth along mine, leaving a warm imprint of salt so illusory it could be a teardrop. The moment I start to respond, he breaks contact and pushes away.
I bite back a sigh.
He sits on his knees, appearing far too pensive for my liking. I’ve seen that look before. He’s about to scold me for taking risks.
“I won’t apologize for being reckless.” My defensive rebuttal leaps out before he can even open his mouth. “The more I think like a netherling, the more conniving and strong I become. How’s that a bad thing here?”
“You’re right.” His confession shocks me. “Listening to your darker instincts is the only way to survive and master these worlds. I get it now.”
Of course he does. He’s been around since I was an awkward kid in middle school. He knows the human side of me better than anyone. And now, after becoming a netherling in his own right, it’s given him new insight into the Wonderland side of me, too.
Goose bumps coat my arms as a breeze blows over me.
He stands. His bared skin glistens in the starlight, each chiseled line brushed with water and sugared with sand. “You’re cold. Let’s get you some clothes.”
As I start to take his hand, his eyes pass over my lingerie slowly.
“Where the hell did you get those?” He obviously recognizes the fabric. “How does that cockroach know your measurements, huh?”
I frown and drop my arm. “I could ask the same thing about your boxers. You can’t even sew a button onto a shirt. You’ve always had Jen around for that.”
He pauses, jaw clenched. Thankfully, the diary at my neck flickers and distracts him. He lifts its string. “This book . . . it has something to do with your great-great-great-grandmother, doesn’t it?”
“How do you know that?”
“You used it against her magic inside me. I saw it glowing red from across the ocean. It caused the surge. I—I even feel different.”
“You do?” I flip his wrist to study where his tattoo glows.
“Yeah. I still feel her power. It’s just . . . tamed.”
I furrow my brow. “These are memories she forced herself to forget. They’re enchanted. They hate her and want revenge.”
We both look at his palm where the diary left its imprint. He drops the string so the tiny book dangles at my neck again.
“Al, do you know what this means? You don’t have to let Red inside you to fix Wonderland. Maybe Morpheus hasn’t realized it yet—or maybe he’s too big of a jerk to care—but you have the key to reversing her destruction right there. And you’ve already learned how to master it.”
I inhale a sharp breath. Why didn’t I think of that? I can pit her memories against her damaging spell over Wonderland, use them to put everything back the way it was.
There’s a nudge inside my chest, a reminder that I have to face Red, fix my heart, and end this thing between us. But my top priority is healing Dad and leading him, Morpheus, and Jeb into Wonderland to help Mom. I’ll reverse Red’s spell on the landscapes, then come back and finish things here.
“Okay”—I sort out the new plan aloud—“all we have to do is get Dad’s cure, then we can get out of here.”
Jeb looks down on me. “You can get out.”
“Jeb, please.”
“I’ve got nothing to go back for.”