“Isadora, I see that you’ve already noticed Alice Queenly?”
Isadora gripped my hand, and for the first time, I got a good look at her.
Like most brownies, she was on the chubby side, dark-skinned, and had lots of dark hair, although luckily for Isadora, her abundant tresses seemed to have grown mostly on her head. I’d never seen such a full head of hair.
“I’ve been dying to come by Henri’s place and meet you, Princess. You look so much like your mother, who I just adored.” She squeezed my hand tighter. “How are you finding Wonderland?”
“It’s . . . interesting.” The urge to pull my hand back was as strong as my desire to ask how she knew my mother. But considering the gleam in Isadora’s eyes, I thought the latter might make her emotional. I didn’t want a weepy fae on my hands, so I did neither, and instead asked a safe question. “Are you the one who sent the buns this morning?”
“Yes!” She brightened. “Did you like them?”
“March wouldn’t let her have one,” Hatter said. “You know how he is.”
Isadora broke our connection and placed her hand on her hips. “I’m going to have a talk with him! We’ve been waiting for you to return forso long, and he can’t hand over a single roll!? That hare!” She huffed and turned to the pastry-laden table behind her. “Please, take these hand pies.”
“Thank you,” I said, liking her spunk, but also intensely uncomfortable that others had been waiting for me to return to Faerie when I had no intention of staying.
My eyes shifted to Hatter. “Don’t we have somewhere to be?”
He nodded. “You’re right. Sorry for the brief meeting, Isadora, but we must go.”
“May the aether light your way,” she said.
My breath hitched at her words. Did she, too, believe that I could use the aether?
Before my discomfort could deepen, Hatter led me away from her booth. We’d turned onto a quiet street when he spoke next.
“It’s a respectful salutation. Isadora didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, relieved that a stranger wouldn’t be counting on me to accomplish the impossible.
“Let’s go back toward the house. Now that I’ve made an appearance with a client, no one will expect to see me in public until the hat is done. But still . . . it’s best to be careful.”
I nodded and followed him to the hole in the city wall that the pixies and I had entered through. Because Henri was a large man, it took some maneuvering for him to fit through, but he managed.
“So, are we going back toward the tower?” I asked after a furious dash down the path and into the forest.
“Only for a bit, then we’ll divert north.” Hatter’s hands formed a circle. “If Wonderland Island is this circle, then Heartstown is where my thumbs meet, and the tower where you entered Faerie is the point where my middle fingers meet. We’ll go to the center of the island and then north. From there, I hope we can find an old fae named Coleti. Besides the Red Queen, she’s the only aether-blessed fae on the whole island.”
“Hopeyou can find her? No one called ahead or anything?”
Phones and the internet didn’t exist in Faerie, but there should be some way to send a message. Perhaps by bird or rider?
Thinking of birds brought to mind Dee and Dum. They were supposed to be with us, but I hadn’t seen them since that morning.
“Where are the pixies?”
Hatter chuckled. “ Don’t worry about the twins. They’ll catch up. And Coleti isn’t expecting us, although because you’re here, perhaps she feels someone approaching. Sometimes the strongest aether-blessed fae can do that, and she’s the strongest in all of Wonderland.”
“Is Coleti of my line?”
Hatter shook his head. “A refugee from the Dark Court.”
“So she must be of the Dark Court’s royal line. Or a very genetically blessed fae.”
“She’s never claimed royal lineage.” Hatter shrugged. “She’s one of the few whose gifts survived the cullings.”
Historically, being able to use and manipulate the aether was a way the ruling families of Faerie had asserted their dominance. For a while, they killed those outside the family line who cropped up with the same power. And while they’d continued to do so for centuries, the ability kept popping up—albeit rarely.
