“Fine,” she said, equal parts wanting to cry and wanting to pick up a rock and throw it at the back of his head. But she did neither; instead she limped along behind him, her gashed heel stinging every step of the way.
Moments later, Alice was surrounded by a swarm of dancing fireflies. They zipped in and out through trees, lighting the canopy of leaves with their golden liquid radiance.
Hatter stopped. “Stay here.”
Their rest stop didn’t look like much. There were trees and glowing mushrooms, the spotted glowing kinds you’d see in cartoons and in an assortment of colors. A large swarm of fireflies congregated in and around them. She wiggled her toes, wanting to moan at the lush smoothness of soft grass beneath her feet. She needed to sit. Now.
“Whatever,” she groaned and plopped down. Her feet were a mess, covered in dirt and oozing blood. If there was a time to cry, now would have been the perfect time for it.
Instead she watched Hatter reach out and swipe at one of the bugs. It bounced around in his palm frantically.
He was saying something. Growling it actually, but she couldn’t hear and really, she didn’t care.
Mad as a hatter.
Why had she ever thought that was sexy?
Chapter 4
“What kind of black magic is this?” Hatter hissed.
Danika’s wings fluttered against his palm as she shoved and pushed at him. “Hatter!” she squealed, “for the gods sakes, open your palm! Damn you, man. You’re bending my wings.”
He shook his fist and eyed the little ball of light hard. “I told you not to bring her. Not only do you bring her, you bring her! What have you done? She should be old and withered, and yet she looks the same. How is that possible?”
The muscle in his jaw ticked when she didn’t answer quickly enough. He shook his hand harder.
“Open,” she roared, “or you’ll get no answers from me.”
He flung her from his hand. She rolled in a ball through the air before finally righting herself and glaring at him. Danika pointed her wand at his chest. “How dare you!”
“I dare much,” he growled. “What have you done, Danika?”
How could Danika have done this? How could she have returned that venomous, viperous woman back to him? How was it even possible?
How could he have these feelings for Alice, these soft feelings that made him face a snake’s constricting coils to help her? He should hate her, he did hate her. After all she’d done to him, he wanted to shake her, kiss her, whisper his undying hate in her ears. Hatter grabbed his skull, willing himself to ignore the huddled bundle on the grass behind him. Up is down, down is up. Emotions made no sense. No sense.
“Look at me, I say.” Danika snapped her fingers.
“What?”
Danika’s face crumpled. “Are you not pleased, Hatter?”
“Pleased.” He wanted to roar, wanted to stomp on Danika’s mushroom home and smash his fist through her tree. “Pleased?” he asked again. “Why have you returned her? How have you returned her? Wonderland said no. No. No.” He grabbed his head again. Dizzy, gods he could smell her. Like caramel and the salty brine of sea.
When she’d clutched his jacket and pressed her nose into his back, he’d been aware, so very aware. Every inch of his body screamed for her. Wanted her. She was his Alice, the one he’d surrendered his heart to years before. Wicked, wicked Alice. She’d whispered of love, touched his body, made him yearn and need.
Betrayer. His nostrils flared. Evil little Alice with the forked tongue, just like the snake. He should have let the snake have her. Damn her.
“It’s not her, Hatter.” Danika grabbed his fingers, peeling it away from his eye.
He shook her off. “Of course it’s her.”
“No.” Her curls bobbed around her tiny head. “That Alice is nothing more than a withered husk.”
For a moment, a yawning chasm of ice filled his empty, shattered soul.
Danika pointed over his shoulder. “That is her great granddaughter.”
Not the same Alice? “But her eyes, and the face. Pretty, pretty hair. Long and black with a widow’s peak. The itsy-bitsy spider crawls up the water spout...”
A sharp slap stung his cheek. “Snap out of it. Now is not the time to lose your wits.”
Hatter blinked. “Why her? I hate her.”
“Hatter, no.” Danika petted the cheek she’d slapped, her cold little hand soothing. “You do not hate her. You do not know her. She is not the same. I swear it.”
He grabbed his head, trying to recall why he’d been so angry. Trying to hang on and remember, lest he lose the thought like he’d lost so many others. “You reached into the same bloodline. Why didn’t you tell me?”
She gave him a soft smile. “Because I know you. If you’d known, you’d never have come to get her.”
He took a breath, and Alice was there, her sweet, caramel warmth permeating the breeze. Hatter looked over his shoulder. She sat huddled on the ground, staring at her foot, a tiny frown marring her brows. He’d been cruel, forcing her to march without shoes. Forcing her to follow without speaking a word.