I clutched his tensed shoulder. “I don't mean find a new hiding place in the Elder Dimension. We'll never be safe here. We need to escape to Earth."
Steel shook his head. "The Uncrowned will never leave. This is our home. Our fight."
I met his fierce gaze. “Alice can't stay here. Alanna will stop at nothing to capture her."
"And you," Flint added quietly. "She'll never let you go, Hatter. You humiliated her in front of the entire court."
He was right. Alanna's rage would be legendary.
"I don't care what happens to me." I clenched my jaw. "But Alice—I have to get her out."
"The queen now knows how powerful she is, Hatter." Flint's expression darkened. "She may not just want to torture her. She might want to harness her power."
"Alice would never work for her." But even as I said it, a chill ran through me. Alanna didn't need willing servants. She had ways of breaking people—of twisting them until they didn't recognize themselves anymore.
Flint clasped my shoulder, his grip tight. "She would if she thought the queen would hurt you."
The words stabbed me like a blade to the chest.
He was right. Alice had already bound herself to Ari to save us. She'd crashed a royal wedding. Blown through magical doors. Frozen an entire throne room.
There was nothing she wouldn't do to protect the people she loved.
And Alanna would use that against her.
I looked around, really seeing our surroundings for the first time. The gnarled trees. The twisted roots. The way the branches reached toward the sky like grasping fingers.
Then I saw it. The tree with the deep gash in its trunk. The bark still scarred from the impact.
My heart stuttered.
"I don't believe it."
"What?” Flint asked. “What is it?"
"This is where I caught Alice." I walked toward the tree, running my fingers along the damaged bark. Memories flooded back—her body tumbling from the sky, the weight of her slamming into my arms, the force of it throwing us both backward into this very tree. The crack of wood. The way she'd looked up at me, dazed and terrified and beautiful. "She fell right here. Out of nowhere. The impact threw us into this tree."
I looked up into the darkening sky. Stars were beginning to pierce the twilight. Somewhere up there—invisible, hidden—was the portal.
I'd almost belonged to Alanna forever. Almost been chained to that monster for eternity. But now—maybe—I could be free.
"The portal is above us,” I said. “If Alice could open it from this side..."
"We could escape."
I spun around, my wings flaring.
Ari stood behind us, having materialized from the shadows like the snake he was. His red eyes gleamed in the fading light.
Flint's hand tightened on his sword. "Don't sneak up on us like that."
Ari ignored him, his gaze fixed on me. "I'm right, aren't I? If the witch can open the portal, we can all get out of here."
I hated that he was right. Hated that our escape was intertwined with the bastard who'd bound himself to Alice with dark magic.
But he was right.
We had a chance—one chance—to escape Alanna's clutches.
