He looked away quickly, his attention shifting to Darius.
“What happened?” His voice was gravel and ice.
“A soldier’s arrow found him,” Chester said, lowering Darius to the ground with surprising gentleness. “Poisoned, of course. She does so love her poisons. Almost as much as she loves her beheadings.”
He looked worse than before—skin ashen, lips pale, a sheen of sweat on his forehead. My chest tightened. When had I started caring this much? He'd kidnapped me. Torn through my mind. And now I couldn't look away, terrified he'd stop breathing.
Grump’s scowl darkened. “Doc. Attend him. Now.”
A young man stepped forward—tall and lean, with long white-blond hair that fell past his shoulders. His features were sharp and angular, almost too perfect to be human. Pointed ears peeked through his hair. He moved with fluid grace, a worn leather satchel already in his hands.
So the Elder Dimension had elves. Of course it did.
“Poisoned arrow.” Doc’s voice was soft but steady as he knelt beside Darius. His slender fingers probed the wound with surprising confidence. “How long?”
Darius hissed through his teeth, his body tensing under Doc’s touch.
“Too long,” I whispered.
His pale blue eyes flicked up to meet mine—ancient somehow, despite his youthful face.
Grump approached me. “Who is she? Why have you brought a stranger to the Nowhere Grotto? She could be the queen’s spy.”
I held my ground, but my pulse spiked. He moved like Angelo—deliberate, predatory, like he could snap me in half and not lose a moment’s sleep. The same cold authority. The same unspoken threat.
I groaned. “Not this again.”
Caterpillar exhaled a slow breath. “A spy... an interesting theory.” He tilted his head, studying Grump with half-lidded eyes. “Tell me—do the queen’s spies typically stop time to save their enemies? Do they freeze arrows mid-flight? Do they risk their lives for a man they barely know?”
I stiffened. So much for keeping my magic a secret. Every eye in the cavern shifted to me, and I felt stripped bare.
Grump’s scowl faltered. “She did what?”
“Time,” Caterpillar continued, not missing a beat. “She stopped it. Twice. Soldiers, horses, harpies, arrows—all frozen like flies in amber.” He blinked slowly. “If she is a spy, she is a remarkably foolish one. Saving the very people she was sent to destroy.”
Grump turned back to me, reassessing. Something shifted in his expression—not trust, not yet. But the suspicion had cracked.
“Is this true?”
“I don’t know what I did,” I admitted. “But yes. It happened.”
“Tell me. What is your name?”
“Alice. Alice Ravencrest.”
He went rigid.
The color drained from his face. For a moment, the gruff, scowling leader vanished, replaced by something raw. Something broken.
“Ravencrest?” His voice came out hoarse. He circled me slowly, his dark eyes sweeping over my face, my hair, my hands. Searching. “That name... where did you get that name?”
“It’s my mother’s name.” I shifted uncomfortably under his intense gaze, fingers brushing the gold strands at my wrist. The bracelet was the only piece of her I had left. “She died when I was three. I don’t remember her.”
The nightmare came back. Her scream. The fire. And her sacrifice to save me.
He stopped circling. His jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscle twitch.
“I’m not from your world,” I continued, unnerved by his reaction. “I fell through a looking glass and ended up here. I’m just trying to get back home.”
