My stomach churned. This was too easy. She’d given in too quickly.
“But there’s one more thing.” She held up a finger, her crimson nail catching the light. “And this one is nonnegotiable.”
By the glitter in her eyes, I knew whatever came next would leave a foul taste in my mouth.
My hands curled into fists. “What?”
She leaned closer, her breath warm against my ear. “You must publicly humiliate Alice in front of my court.” She pulled back, watching my face. “You must reject her.”
Ice slid through my chest, slow and suffocating. “You’re not serious.”
But even as I said it, I knew she was. Alanna didn't bluff. She schemed. And I'd just walked straight into whatever web she'd been spinning.
“Oh, but I am.” She traced a finger down my jaw, and I flinched. “I want Alice to know that you never wanted her. That you used her. That everything you did—every kiss, every whispered promise—was to make me jealous. To win me back.”
My lungs forgot how to work. Everything inside me had gone still and cold.
This was almost a hundred times worse than the nightmare elixir.
Alice had never felt wanted. She’d spent her entire life being rejected—by the coven, by a family she couldn’t remember, by everyone who should have loved her. She’d finally let her walls down. Finally believed she was worthy of love.
And Alanna wanted me to destroy that. To crush her spirit in front of a crowd. To make her believe everything we shared was a lie.
This would break her in ways the cane never could.
My stomach heaved. I'd seen Alice bloody. Seen her beaten. But that—watching the light die in her eyes, watching her spirit shatter—I couldn't. I couldn't.
And I’d lose her forever. Mine—and gone.
But she’d be alive.
That was all that mattered. She’d be alive, and Grump would get her out of this dimension. Back to Earth. Back to Tinker Bell. Back to a world where Alanna couldn’t touch her.
If the queen kept her word. A big if. But what choice did I have?
Alice would hate me. God, she’d hate me with every fiber of her being. She’d think I’d used her, manipulated her, broken her heart for sport. Every tender moment we’d shared would curdle into something ugly in her memory.
But she’d be alive. And she’d be free.
Away from Alanna.
Away from me.
I looked at Alice one last time—her broken body, her bloodied hair, the rise and fall of her shallow breath. I memorized every detail. The curve of her cheek. The way her lashes fanned against her skin. The lips I’d kissed just hours ago.
This was goodbye. She just didn’t know it yet.
I hung my head, the fight draining out of me completely. “I accept your terms.”
The words were a death sentence. Not for my body—but for my soul.
Any hope of happiness, of love, of a life worth living—it all died on the spot. Shriveled up and turned to dust in my chest.
Alanna had finally won.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Alice
