A scream echoed from somewhere beneath the tree. Male. Agonized.
Hatter flinched like he’d been struck.
The soldiers dragged out a man with long dark hair. Smoke wreathed his body, drifting from his nose, his mouth, curling off his skin in lazy spirals. His eyes were half-lidded and distant—either the calmest prisoner I’d ever seen or high out of his mind.
“Shit,” Hatter muttered. “They got Caterpillar.”
Caterpillar? That was actually his name?
“Chester,” Hatter lowered his voice. “Disappear. We need to split up.”
Chester’s grin flickered—the first time I’d seen it waver. But then again, I’d just met him.
“The Sleeping Dormouse,” Hatter said. “We’ll regroup there.”
I struggled again, but Hatter took off and the world whizzed past. My stomach lurched. I could scream—the soldiers might hear me. But then what? They’d throw me in a dungeon. Joy had told me about the queen’s dungeon. People went in. They didn’t come out. At least with these lunatics, I was still moving.
He finally slowed.
Through the trees, lights flickered—lanterns strung between crooked buildings that leaned against each other like drunks. Cobblestone streets wound between shops with hand-painted signs. It looked almost normal. Almost safe.
A town meant people. And people meant someone who might know where to find a portal back home.
Hatter lowered me to my feet. I glared at him.
“Maddenvale.” He studied my face, and I got my first real look at him. Long, dark, curly hair fell past his shoulders, framing a face that was sharp angles and silver eyes. He was built like a fighter—broad shoulders, lean muscle, the kind of body that moved like it knew exactly how to hurt someone. The kind of man who’d be devastating if he weren’t completely insane.
“We have allies here but also spies.” His fingers twisted in my hair, yanking my head back. “I’ll find out soon enough whether you’re friend or foe, Alice Ravencrest. Betray me—” His voice dropped. “You’ll be dead before you hit the ground.”
My heart stuttered, but I held his gaze. This close, his silver eyes were unnerving—cold and bright, like moonlight on a blade. He meant every word. I could see it.
He undid the binding around my mouth.
I shook my head and gasped for air. “I’m not a spy,” I said through gritted teeth.
He untied the bindings around my feet, then my wrists. My muscles tensed. The second I was free, I’d run—find an alley, a doorway, anywhere to disappear. Before I could run he seized my arm and dragged me through the trees. “Come with me.”
Night had fallen over Maddenvale. He pulled me through narrow alleys, keeping to the shadows. Ahead, guards strolled down the main street, torchlight glinting off their armor.
I could scream. Call for help. But I remembered what Joy had told me about this place, about what happened to her here. I kept my mouth shut.
Hatter pressed me gently against a wall, his body shielding mine.
“Kiss me,” he murmured.
I scowled up at him. “Kiss you? I don’t even know you.”
“Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable. They won’t look twice at us.”
“I don’t?—”
“Do you want to be captured?”
Joy’s stories flashed through my mind. The whips. The dungeon. The screams.
“Fine.” I swallowed hard. “Kiss me.”
Hatter took off his hat and placed it on the ground. Then his hand slipped around the back of my neck, pulling me closer.
