“Gladly,” Flint snarled.
“No—“ Alice tried to twist away from the scarf Steel wrapped around her mouth, but he was faster.
Flint had her hands and ankles bound in seconds. I tossed her over my shoulder and ran. Her scent hit me—green, alive. Like growing things. Like sunlight on grass and earth after rain.
My chest tightened. I knew that smell. From somewhere the queen hadn’t touched yet. Somewhere I couldn’t remember but my body did.
The forest blurred. Trees became streaks of shadow. We tore past a cluster of soldiers.
One of them spun around. “Did you feel that?”
“What?”
“The wind—something just?—“
But we were already gone.
Alice squirmed on my shoulder despite the bindings. I tightened my grip. She pounded her bound wrists against my back, muffled sounds tearing through the gag.
A fighter. Which made her more dangerous, not less.
Chapter Three
Alice
I thrashed against Hatter’s shoulder, but there was nowhere to go. Bound. Gagged. Helpless.
Not that screaming would help. Who would come? I didn’t know a soul in this dimension—except Ari. And if he found me first, these three would be the least of my problems.
The world blurred past—streaks of green and shadow. He was moving impossibly fast.
My magic pulsed beneath my skin, begging to be used. But if I couldn’t control it back home, what would it do here? And if it backfired—if it did something strange or terrible—the man with the blade would have all the proof he needed that I was dangerous. I’d seen what happened to people Angelo considered threats. Something told me this one would be even less forgiving.
Hatter skidded to a halt.
“Damn it,” he muttered.
I craned my neck to see what had stopped him.
Through the trees, I spotted them—soldiers in gleaming armor surrounding a massive, twisted tree. Its trunk spiraled toward the sky like a corkscrew, ancient and impossible. The soldiers had their swords drawn, their movements precise and coordinated.
And their hair. Every single one of them had long white hair that flowed past their shoulders like silk.
No guns. No radios. No helicopters.
It was like being dropped into aLord of the Ringsmovie—except this was real, and I was gagged and bound over a madman’s shoulder.
Hatter went rigid beneath me. His grip on my legs tightened until it hurt.
“No,” he breathed.
I didn’t understand at first. Then it hit me—the tree. That twisted, ancient tree. That’s where he’d been taking me. That was his hideout.
And the queen’s soldiers had found it.
“They’re inside,” someone said behind us. Chester. I hadn’t heard him approach. “Flint and Steel?”
“I don’t know.” Hatter’s voice was ice. “I told them to scatter if?—”
