“Stay here a moment, Alice”–Nick went invisible–“I shall scout ahead.”
I sat beneath the hole anxiously until Nick's head appeared, hovering before me.
“It's clear”–he floated upward–“this way.”
“I'll be right here,” Jaxon said. “Do not tarry.”
I looked back at him and nodded before I climbed out of the tunnel. I came out into a garden. Oddly enough, there was no rain, although lightning illuminated the beds of sleeping flowers and hedges trimmed into the shape of hearts. A fountain was off to my right and beyond it was a gigantic chess board. Before me, there were rows of roses planted behind low stone walls. Some of them seemed to be bleeding.
I frowned and stepped closer. When I touched a flower, my finger came away with a thick substance coating it. I rubbed my fingers together and scowled at the tacky feel as the smell of paint hit my nose. Who the hell would paint roses?
“This way,” Nick was a floating feline head again. “Follow my tail.”
His head disappeared, and the tip of his tail popped into view. I followed it carefully down the line of rose bushes, then into the castle. Men in white uniforms with red hearts emblazoned on their chests came striding by us several times, and I had to press myself into dark corners to hide. Nick just went completely invisible. It was a shame that he couldn't hold the Vorpal in his cat form, or I would have just sent him in to fetch it.
We edged around another corner and then down a set of steep stairs. As soon as my feet hit the stone floor, I felt it. The Vorpal sword was nearby. I started walking faster, passing by Nick's flicking tail.
“Your Majesty,” Nick forgot to use my given name, “please wait. There will be locks to circumvent ...” he trailed off as I held up a hand and then slashed it down.
The door in front of me swung open.
“Cutting,” Nick whispered. “You've mastered that magic, Alice.”
“Thank you,” I whispered as I headed into the room.
The Vorpal sword was placed horizontally across a stand that was set upon a stone pedestal at the far end of the room. I took one step into the room and felt the other traps the Queen of Hearts had laid. I smirked and lifted my hands. With a flinging motion, Ishuffledthe mechanism she had placed beneath the floor, sliding its gears out of place. Then Idealta card of energy out toward the trap set beneath the sword itself, springing it and destroying it at the same time.
I walked across the floor unimpeded and picked up the sword triumphantly. I was about to say something terribly witty when I felt something else. One more precaution that the Queen of Hearts had taken... stolen, in fact.
“What is it?” Nick asked as he popped into view. “And also; well done, Alice!”
“I feel him,” I whispered and rushed out of the room.
“Him? Who him?” Nick floated out after me. “Whoever he is, stop feeling him. I don't imagine your lovers will be happy with it.”
“He's near,” I went further into the subterranean level of the castle, and it became clear that it was a dungeon.
“You there! Halt!” A guard had been lounging across a table, having his dinner, when he spotted me.
I turned my hand andfoldedhim in upon himself. He gasped as he tried to draw enough breath to speak.
“Easy now,” I said as I approached him. “It will wear off soon, but do not anger me, or I will use another wild magic against you.”
The heart soldier nodded. Satisfied, I reached down and removed the keys from his belt. Then I turned toward the cell he'd been guarding. Nick stared at me with wide, kitty eyes as I opened the thick door. Inside the cell was a man laid out on a spartan bed. He turned to me in shock when I entered, then stood to face me.
He had deep mahogany hair and eyes that shifted from green to gold in the torchlight. His body looked malnourished, but he still had thick muscles giving it definition. His cheeks were gaunt, displaying bone structure that was elegant and masculine, all at once. He swallowed with some difficulty and wet his cracked lips before he spoke.
“Alice?”
“Kyran?”
And then he was in my arms, my missing king. Henry had not been meant for me, after all. It had been his brother, Kyran, who Wonderland had chosen. When I had bonded with the other kings on Barnabus' pyramid, my magic had surged out seeking Kyran too... and it had found him. I just hadn't realized it until I was close enough to feel our connection.
“I saw you,” he whispered. “I felt you inside me, but I didn't dare to hope. You found me, you actually found me.”
“Yes, this is wonderful,” Nick exclaimed from the door, “but perhaps we'd best save the reunion for later. Perhaps when we're not standing inside a dungeon? No one wants to hear that bitch scream 'Off with their heads!'”
“We'll return and restore your kingdom to you,” I promised Kyran. “But for now, the Cat's right; we need to leave Hearts.”
