Only Isadora moved, leaping up from where she’d landed atop my aunt, and spreading her arms wide as if protecting her. “You can’t, Alice!”
My brows furrowed, and slowly, the familiar sensation of anger began to bubble inside me.
This was what I’d come here for. This was what everyone wanted of me. It was expected—my part to play. And now Isadora was telling me I couldn’t kill my parents’ murderer? I couldn’t do the one thing I truly excelled at, and avenge my parents and this kingdom? But why?
She must have a reason.
Keeping that in mind, I fluttered over to the brownie, who was now giving orders for others to tie up the queen in iron-laced rope.
“What’s this about?” I asked. “You brought me here to end this, and now . . . nothing?” I was unable to keep the anger out of my tone. I felt used and useless. “This might sound selfish, but I had a stake in this too. I want to avenge my parents.”
“As do we,” Isadora said. “But not now. Not like this.”
She stepped away from the fallen queen. Only then did I notice the bruises all over her arms and the one spreading across her cheekbone. My grip around my dagger tightened. Someone had hurt her.
“Alice, we want a trial,” Isadora’s voice was softer now. “Allthe fae of Wonderland deserve to see the Red Queen fall for her crimes. Not just the ones here.”
“A trial?” I was pretty positive that, as a monarchy, a real trial had never happened in Wonderland. “You want to see her thrown in jail?” It made even less sense why they would need me, if that was what they wanted.
Isadora blew out a half-amused breath. “No, dear. No doubt she’ll lose her head for her crimes—a suitable end. But we don’t want that onyou.”
The brownie approached me and took my hand, hers slick with blood. “You gave us the strength to rise up. You opened thousands of eyes to the truth. You’ve done enough. No one needs you to draw the blade again—you deserve better. To make your own choices, to live your life how you want. If that includes killing, so be it, but we shouldn’texpectit of you.”
I blinked, unable to believe what I was hearing. My anger dissipated slowly as a lump rose in my throat.
“You can start a new life now,” Isadora pressed. “One that’s not drenched in blood, if you wish.” Her dark eyes drank me in. “You can help us—everyone here—but it doesn’t have to be by the edge of a blade.”
Dammit, my eyes were leaking. I sniffed and hurriedly wiped away the evidence of almost-tears, only to have more appear.
How had Isadora guessed what I really wanted? How was it that so many people here saw me more clearly than anyone I’d known in my old life?
The conjured dagger trembled in my hand, cold and ready to do my bidding. Behind Isadora, fae were lifting the queen, talking about preparing a dungeon cell.
The cat popped into my view, baring his strange and slightly horrific human smile. The words he spoke to me before he disappeared the night we met came rushing back.
“It remains to be seen which princess you’ll turn out to be most like.”
My fingers loosened, and the hilt of my blade slipped from my grasp as the dagger fell to the sand.
Chapter 33
The cold and damp chilled my skin as I descended the steps deep into the bowels of the dungeon. My footsteps rang through the cavernous space each time they touched down on stone, and the satchel I wore bounced against my hip.
I wouldn’t be sneaking up on anyone down here. Not that there were many people imprisoned right now. Only the Red Queen and a few soldiers who even after the enchantments had been lifted from them, remained faithful to her. Out of a whole army, there had been no more than two dozen such soldiers. They were nasty individuals who I suspected liked her violent, cruel style. These men were being kept far away from the Red Queen. And so I wouldn’t be tempted to poke them with my dagger, I wouldn’t be going anywhere near them.
When I reached the bottom of the staircase, I turned right and cruised past a stretch of newly emptied cells. The fae who had been contained here before, on death row or simply imprisoned, had been released two days prior—after witnessing my aunt’s walk of shame to her maximum security cell.
She was being kept in the far reaches of the dungeon, behind trusty bars of iron and new walls of aether that I had personally put in place. As if that wasn’t enough, a dozen soldiers, most who felt wronged by the queen, volunteered to watch over her until her trial.
The guards parted as I approached, wordlessly allowing me through. I nodded to each of them, and they bowed.
I breathed out a soft sigh. Now that the fae of Wonderland remembered my bloodline, people knew me. And they expected me to rise and claim the crown of the White line. They wanted it.
And yet, I still did not.
Although, I couldn’t deny that certain people made it difficult to leave Faerie. So, I’d decided that I’d stay, at least until I found Elise.
I passed through my protective wall of aether before turning to the guards. “I’ll take some privacy. Please wait down the hall.”
