She coughed, and then gasped. A sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead. “Wonderland. No.”
Danika shook her head. “No, Alice. Wonderland said yes. It wasn’t you, see.” She rubbed her knuckle. “It was him. He had to declare himself, had to truly fall in love. He loves you, Alice.”
For a moment, Alice’s face crumpled, then she grew calm, unnaturally still. “All that we see... or seem is but a dream... within a dream.”
It was hard to listen to Alice speak, each word forced out between labored pants for breaths.
“Alice, look at me.” Danika patted her hand, forcing the girl to work through the lethargy and open her eyes. They glimmered with tears. She licked her lips. “You can still come back.”
Alice snorted. “Dying.”
“I can take you. Wonderland will heal you. You’ll never die. Never. You’ll be perfect and healthy, with your Hatter. Always.”
The tears started to fall, each one like a blade to Danika’s heart. Alice had to come back. Not just for Hatter’s sanity, but also because the thought of such a young life being extinguished was a tragedy Danika couldn’t endure.
“Didn’t want me. He wouldn’t come...” Alice coughed, the booming sound painful to Danika’s ears. She winced in sympathy, waiting for it to pass. After a minute Alice laid back down, her lips tinted blue.
The girl had minutes. A shadow of death hovered above her, reaching out its cold skeletal fingers, ready to claim her any moment now.
“Here? He wouldn’t come here, is that what you’re trying to tell me, Alice?”
Alice nodded weakly.
“Oh, Alice. He wants you beyond endurance. He’s locked himself up in his house, the land rages beyond his door. Wonderland is in chaos. Creatures die and kill each other. The violence of his mind has exploded upon the land.” She shuddered. “Alice, he couldn’t come. Do you hear me?”
The girl was unnaturally quiet. Danika patted her cheek and Alice stirred and mumbled.
“Listen to me.” Danika pried Alice’s eyes open, forcing Alice to see her. “He couldn’t come because, outside of Wonderland, he’s not immortal. He was like you. A human who stumbled in.” She rushed through the explanation, hoping the girl would hang on long enough to listen. “Time would catch up with him. Why do you think he’s surrounded by clocks? Each Wonderland day is a month here.”
Alice’s eyes widened, trying to focus. “A month?”
Danika nodded. “A month. He’s so old now time would catch up with him in seconds. He cannot exist beyond Wonderland.”
Alice’s nostrils flared, she was trying so hard to think it through. Danika could see her struggle; see her fight to hang on to reality. “Want me?”
“Yes.” Hope leaped into Danika’s throat. “The land accepts you. Wants you. So does he. Return to him, save him, save yourself. Oh Alice, come home with me.”
Alice frowned, her eyes looking out at the door. “How will... you. Take. Me?”
Danika touched the tip of her wand to Alice’s stomach. “With magic.”
Alice shook her head. “Body? Or...” she inhaled, “just soul?”
Danika’s eyes widened. “This is not heaven, child. I cannot divide your soul from your body. All of you. I would take all of you.”
Alice closed her eyes.
Danika’s heart stuttered as she waited for the girl to take a breath. She shook her hand. Not yet, please not yet.
Alice’s family would surely worry when they came back to find an empty bed, to always wonder. But it was the only way. Alice was dead to them anyway. It was over for them. But not for Alice.
Alice’s lashes fluttered.
Good enough. Danika tapped her with the wand, shrinking them both. With a final flick of her wand, she pointed to the bed. A white letter appeared on the empty pillows, the words: I’m happy, written on it.
That was the best she could do.
She gripped Alice’s hand and wouldn’t let go as they barreled through dimensions.
Chapter 14
Wrapped in shadow, Hatter stared out the blackened window. Words from poems fell in repetitive motion from his lips.
Alice’s heart swelled, aching in her chest. To go from being so close to death, to inhaling a breath free of pain. To seeing her lover. It was almost too much.
Would he think she returned only to be saved? She bit her lip.
“Hatter,” she whispered, afraid he might not hear her.
His shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t turn.
“I...I...” She was stuttering again; he always made her feel like a girl with her first school crush. She rubbed sweaty palms down the front of her cami and shorts, the same ones she’d worn the first time they’d met. The same ones he’d said she liked her in best. Her heart flipped. “Do you love me?”
Hatter shot to his feet, his eyes wild and his hair longer than she remembered.
“Alice?” he croaked, eyes glistening with a powerful emotion that tugged at her heart, gave her feet wings.