“Your human conscience wouldn’t let you leave me here after saving Thomas, even if it managed to overpower your darker side’s love for me.”
I’m about to berate his tactics, to deny any feelings for him, when he cups the nape of my neck and presses his lips to mine, velvety soft. It’s nothing but a peck, yet the flavor of the tart he sampled lingers like a warm, savory bruise—an irresistible torment to the netherling within.
He draws back and my skin glistens, radiant prisms reflected off his face and the cushions. I’m gripping his jacket lapels, yet I don’t even remember reaching for him.
“No more denials,” he says as he presses his left hand over one of mine. “I’ve seen the love in your eyes and in your actions. I felt it yesterday when I held you in my arms, and today, when you came to save me. Which is why my arrangement with Red for the medallion should not be thought of as a ploy or a bargain, but as the next logical step of our relationship.”
I release his lapels. “Logical? A wedding? So we’re going to fake it, right?”
“How can we fake it if Red is inside of you? No, it must be authentic. And eternal.” He smiles blissfully—all boyish naiveté and worldly charm in one exquisite being.
I must have a pained expression on my face, because he trails his thumb across my eye markings.
“Alyssa, we are going to have the most glorious future. You’ll see.”
It can’t happen, for so many reasons. One of them is my vow to Jeb. But there’s another obvious reason. “It’s too soon. We’re only starting to know each other.”
Morpheus’s brow furrows. “We shared a childhood.”
I knit my fingers nervously. “It was all innocent . . . playing . . . training. It takes time for a human to grow into that kind of commitment. It takes a trial by fire.”
“Ah. We will have our trial by fire. ’Tis a netherling tradition for the couple to walk through a circle of flames, to burn away the tethers of their past and start life anew, pristine. Like purifying precious metal.”
The image of us in the midst of Wonderland’s sun revisits: waltzing barefoot as our clothes catch sparks and burn away, embracing one another with no reservations.
A tingle of anticipation races through me, but I suppress it. “No. Not literal, symbolic. Giving and taking. Learning to understand and trust one another through any situation. I’ve had that with Jeb, for six years. I’m only starting to have it with you.”
Morpheus grunts, low in his chest. “I am not going to wait around and play second fiddle to Jebediah while your mortal side grows to understand and trust me.”
“You’re not second best. You and I get to have forever. Forever. Jeb has one life. It’s only fair I spend it with him.” I dance around the truth, as close as I’m willing to get.
“Fair? All this time, he’s been with you during your waking hours. I’ve ever only had you in your dreams. I want you in reality. I’ve waited for what feels like a thousand years already. It is time for our forever to begin.”
He’s not thinking this through. “Do you really want to start our life together while I’m harboring Red’s spirit?”
“We both knew you’d be carrying her out of this world.” The statement is matter-of-fact, but compassion softens his voice. “And you will still defeat her. The only thing that’s changed is she wants assurance you aren’t to abandon your royal responsibilities again. She knows if we’re wed, you’ll ne’er leave Wonderland. It was the one way I could get her to agree to hand over the medallion. And she refuses to make the exchange until the marriage is official. Surely you can see I had no choice.”
Ivory’s vision clambers through my mind with the sound of a toddler’s footfalls, knocking my worst fear loose: Red’s found a way to get everything she ever wanted. To have me marry the only netherling who can give her access to a dream-child, and to be ringside in my body as it happens. She’s planning to use our offspring for her revenge. But how?
I get to my feet and back away. “I thought that for once you had no ulterior motives. You’re no longer under Deathspeak. No longer trying to prevent Red’s destructive tide across the nether-realm. Your only motivation was to leave AnyElsewhere, repair Wonderland, and have me beside you there.”
“That is my only motivation.” His bejeweled eye markings are the sincerest shade of crystal, like human tears.
I back up more, my boots dragging on the shag carpet.
He stands cautiously, as if I were a wild animal he’s trying not to spook. “Alyssa, we’re shut inside a room with four walls. It’s not as if you can run from me, or whatever this is you’re accusing me of.”
I groan. “The reason Red lured Alice into the rabbit hole was to change the very foundation on which Wonderland is built. She wanted to introduce dreams and imagination into the bloodline, so netherlings would no longer have to depend on the human realm for them.”