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ALESSA
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Frantically, I press my hands to the barrier that separates me from the others.
There has to be a way back through.
I keep searching, but the tree I stepped out of grows bark over the door, covering it as though it was never there. Leaves rustle as vines wrap themselves around the trunk and glowing flowers burst open.
“No,” I puff out between my lips, staring up the expansive trunk into the branches above. “Rose, we must open it again,” I say, a little louder.
“You can’t,” someone says from behind me. “One-way door.”
I recognise the voice, and when I turn to face Wesley, I can’t decide if I’m happy to see him, or still angry that he abandoned Alice and me. That he never came back to see his daughter. Not once.
“One-way?” I ask, pretending I don’t know him. “How ridiculous. Doorways should go in both directions.”
Wesley grins. “Of course it’s ridiculous.” He bows and spreads his arms wide. “Welcome to Wonderland.”
Pink streaks through the air and Rose smacks Wesley in the face as he straightens. “How could you!” she shrieks.
Wesley takes a step back, coughing and waving his hand through the cloud of glitter in front of him. “How could I what?”
“You banished him.” Rose pokes Wesley in the cheek, then flits away before he can grab her. “Instead of helping him, you sent him away.”
“Who are you? What are you talking about?” His voice quavers.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know.” I glare at Wesley. “You know Neverland is on the other side of that door.” I glance back at the tree where there’s no sign of the doorway left. “And you know Ronan is trapped there.”
Wesley straightens, adjusting his waistcoat, then he makes eye contact with me, his smile faltering. “Anywhere can be on the other side of that door. But I see Ronan has made some friends.”
“You bet your whiskers he has, you backstabbing, no-good ball of fluff,” Rose says.
“Have we met before?” Wesley wrings his hands and studies the faerie, taking another step back.
“I’m Rose.” She flits towards him. “Remember? You sent me with him. I used to be a flower.”
“He’s creating faeries now?”
“Send us back,” I demand, ignoring his question. “Or better still, bring Ronan home.”
“I can’t do that. No, no.” Wesley shakes his head, his gaze flicking every which way. “Tell me how you opened a door to Wonderland.”
Until now, his voice has been nervous and timid, so I start at the force behind his words. “I don’t have to tell you anything,” I counter.
“Then I’ll take you to the Queen.” He stands taller and stares down his nose at me. “She doesn’t like intruders.”
“I’m not an intruder,” I say. “I’m ...” But I don’t continue. He doesn’t know that I know he’s my father and that Wonderland is in my blood, and things are complicated enough at the moment without addressing that particular issue. “Please. The Queen doesn’t need to know we’re here,” I continue, changing tack and taking a tentative step forward.
“Be careful,” Rose whispers from her perch on my shoulder. “You can’t trust him.”
No. But maybe he can tell me how I open doorways.
He is my father, after all.
“Please,” I say again, hoping Wesley will reply with something that will help, but he simply frowns and waves his hand in a circle to hurry me up. “I know Ronan was banished to Neverland for a reason. And I know you had something to do with it. But I also know that Wonderland is in danger, and he’s trying to get back here to fix it.”
“He can’t do that,” Wesley snaps. “He’s better off where he is.”
“I just came from Neverland. Believe me, he doesn’t want to be there.”
Wesley stays silent, his eyes searching mine as he works his jaw. “It’s for the best,” he finally says.
“Like you leaving Alice and me was for the best?” The question is out of my mouth before I can stop myself.
“What ...? Alessandria?” Wesley says, frowning and taking another step back. He glances around frantically. “How ...?”
Thunder rolls somewhere above. The trees around us quiver, the ground shakes, and I stumble sideways. The glowing flowers snap closed, their petals retreating and plunging the grove into darkness. Something crashes in the forest, followed by an ear-splitting growl. The trees across the small clearing part, huge claws pushing the trunks aside and splintering them. A beast with razor sharp fangs and feline eyes towers over us.
“Don’t look at it!” Wesley grabs my wrist, pulling me along through the trees. Rose shrieks, almost falling from my shoulder, as the ground seems to ripple beneath our feet. Snapping sounds dance around us, and leaves and twigs fall from above, pricking my skin and tangling in my hair. I’m not sure if the snaps are coming from breaking branches or the creature’s jaws.
Wesley shoves us into a hole at the base of a tree, and I tumble over myself as I fall. Rose shrieks again, clinging to my hair as the dirt walls of the rabbit hole rush past us. Then my descent slows, and moments later, I land on my bottom with a soft thump. Wesley lands on his feet beside me and extends his hand. I take it, letting him help me up.
“What was that ... that thing?” I ask.
“The Jabberwock is on the move again,” Wesley replies. “We’re safe down here.”
“That was the Jabberwock?”
Wesley wrings his hands. “Yes, and you must never look into its eyes. It feeds from your fear, and once caught in its trance, it will consume you.”
A shiver runs up my spine and I rub my arms to ward off a phantom chill. “I’ll try to remember that.”
I glance around at my surroundings. We’re in a small, simply furnished chamber. Magic fire burns in several recesses dug from the walls. There’s a bed, a desk, and a washstand. An opening leads off to the left, down a dark tunnel.
“Your burrow?” I ask.
Wesley inclines his head. I step over to the desk, but he reaches it first and flips the parchment that’s there over. What’s he got to hide? Not that it’s really any of my business.
He seems to hold his breath, then he finally says. “Alice ... how is she?”
I stare at him. “My sister is ...” But I can’t finish, because I don’t know how she is.
My unfinished sentence hangs between us. Wesley’s eyes bare his soul, and they change from confusion to understanding in a heartbeat.
He takes a step back and bumps into the dirt wall. “You know?”
It seems we are going to talk about the complicated thing after all.
“That you’re my father?” I blurt.
I wince, then look up at Wesley.
“When did Alice tell you?”
“She didn’t. Although, that would have been better,” I say. “All my life, I’ve believed she was my sister, until the Lake of Memories told me otherwise.”
“Ah.” He nods, as though it explains everything, but doesn’t ask about the lake. “How is she?” he asks again.
I glare at him for a moment. “You should have come back. Then you would know. Now, please send us back to Neverland. Ronan needs us.”
Wesley returns my glare. “How did you get to Neverland in the first place?”
“I ... opened a doorway.”
“Then you’re quite capable of getting yourself back to Ronan.”
“But ... I don’t know how I do it. Just that it has something to do with the pocket watch and the key.”
“What did you say?”
“The pocket watch.” I reach into my skirts and bring out the timepiece. “Alice gave it to me and asked me to keep it safe.”
“No, no, no!” Wesley says, grabbing a fistful of hair. “It can’t be here.”
“Why? Ronan just wants to come home. And I, apparently, have been tasked with helping him, because, apparently, I’m from Wonderland, and can open doorways, of which I know nothing about. So please, can you just help me get him here?”
Wesley frantically shakes his head. “No, no. I can’t do that. He must stay in Neverland.”
“Why?” I want to stamp my foot like a child. “Why was he sent away? Why did his family and friends abandon him? What could he have done that was so terrible?”
Wesley is quiet for a moment. “It’s not what he did. It’s who he is.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Wonderland is too dangerous for someone like Ronan.”
“Excuse me.” Rose launches from my shoulder and hovers in front of Wesley, looking from the White Rabbit to me and back again while spraying her glitter everywhere. “So now you know Alessa has the pocket watch, you’ll help us get back?”
Wesley sneezes, then pulls a white handkerchief from his pocket and blows his nose. “Yes. You must go back now. The pocket watch cannot be here.”
“Why?” I ask.
“But it shouldn’t be with Ronan either,” he mumbles. “Lesser of two evils ...”
“Why?” I ask again. “You’re not making any sense.”
“To you.” Wesley rummages around on his desk. “I’m not making sense to you, but to myself, everything is perfectly clear.”
“As mud!” I cry.
“It’s the Neverland curse,” Wesley says. “Ronan can’t get back to Wonderland. The Queen of Hearts put many things in place to make sure of it. Neverland will keep him there or Wonderland will keep spitting him back. Either way, he can’t come home.”
My mouth drops open. “You knew he would end up in Neverland when we left London?” I glare at my so-called father.
“What? London? When?” His brow furrows. “I haven’t seen Ronan since he was banished. And he’s certainly never been to London.”
“With Alice, and Lucy, and me.”
“Who is Lucy?” He raises his eyebrows, then returns to looking through his desk drawers.
“It hasn’t happened yet,” Rose whispers in my ear.
I suck in a sharp breath. I’d totally forgotten we’re still in the past. The Neverland past, at least. Here, I have no idea where or when I am. Am I in Wonderland’s past or present? It’s obviously Wesley’s present, but if I’m in the past ... I squeeze my eyes closed for a second, feeling as though someone has stuck their finger in my brain and swished it around.
Every time I try to think about how it works, I get a headache, but this is the past for the Wesley I know. I haven’t met him in the future yet.
“Maybe this is supposed to happen,” I whisper back to Rose. “This could be the event that makes Wesley return to Alice.”
“Hmmm,” Wesley says, glancing up. “Did you say something? Ah! Found it.” Wesley straightens from behind the desk, his elbow bumping a stack of paper which slides from the top and spills all over the floor. In his hand is another pocket watch. He frowns, gives it a shake near his ear, then stares at the clock face. His mouth drops open. “You shouldn’t be here. It’s the wrong time. I can’t be late.”
“No, you can’t,” I say. “You must go to Alice.”
“Yes, yes.” Wesley comes around the desk, making a shooing action. “And you must go back to Neverland.” He stops and frantically looks around. “Where did you go?”
Then Wesley fades until I can see through him to the other side of the burrow, as though he is a ghost. His image ripples before becoming solid again.
“I’m right here.” I plant my feet firmly in place. “And I’m not going until you tell me how to bring Ronan home.”
Wesley starts, as though he has also seen a ghost. “I can’t do that.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Yes.” I glare at him. “You can. There must be a loophole.”
“I can’t be late,” Wesley says again. “Would you stop doing that?”
“Doing what?”
But he doesn’t hear me. Wesley turns in a circle, looking from the floor to the roof, all around the room, searching for something. All the while, he fades in and out again.
I tap him on the shoulder. “I’m here.”
Wesley jumps, staring at me as though I’m a complete stranger. “What have you done? You’re here, but you’re not. Where do you go when you disappear?”
“I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re on about,” I say.
“It’s the timeline,” Rose says from my shoulder. “Like he said. We’re here, but not here. We need to get back to Neverland. To the right time.”
“Which is actually the wrong time, because it’s in the past,” I say.
Wesley shakes the pocket watch again. “Wrong time,” he mumbles.
“Please, tell me how to bring Ronan home.”
Wesley folds his arms. “I can’t do that.”
I press my lips together, my patience wearing thin. “You need him. And you know it. Tell me.”
Wesley regards me for a moment, his nose twitching as he blinks too much. “Ronan already has the answer. He just needs to find his heart.”
“That does not help!” I cry. “I know he’s stuck there because his heart is broken and he thinks Wonderland doesn’t want him. How do I get him to ... unthink that? How can we fix his broken heart?”
“The Queen of Hearts had to make him forget. Then believe Wonderland didn’t want him, so it would be true.” Wesley taps the face of the pocket watch this time, then shakes it against his ear.
“She what?”
“The only part of magic that is an absolute must, is belief.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
Wesley grabs me by the arms, the pocket watch in his hand digging into my skin, and looks at me with the eyes of a madman. “Think, Alessa. What is the one thing about Wonderland that actually makes sense?”
I stare into his crazed eyes and sift through everything he’s said in the past few minutes. “If you believe in me, then I’ll believe in you,” I mumble.
“Exactly,” Wesley says, releasing me. “Belief. If you believe it, then it must be true.”
“Not always.”
“Yes. Always. Wonderland has heart magic. The most powerful kind. But Ronan, he broke things here so often because his heart wasn’t really in it. He didn’t believe in himself enough. The heart knows what it wants, even if the head thinks differently.” Wesley taps his temple. “You have heart magic, too. After all, you are from Wonderland. It’s why you can open doorways. It’s why I can create rabbit holes. It’s how everyone in Wonderland has a little magic inside them.”
“But that’s just it,” I say. “I don’t know how I open the doorways.”
“Believe that you can, and you will.”
“It’s that simple?”
“It’s actually quite complicated, but yes, if it helps you sleep at night, it’s that simple.”
“You still haven’t told me how I can get Ronan home,” I say. “He’s been trying to get back to Wonderland ever since he left.”
“Well, that is simple—”
“Simple, simple, or complicated simple?”
Wesley chuckles. “Ronan is the only one who can unlock it.” Wesley stares at me, his eyes wide, then he glances around as though someone could be listening. “Why do you think I sent the pocket watch to London with Alice? It’s where it was safest. We had to keep his heart safe. To keep him safe.”
I look down at the pocket watch I’m holding. The stone in the key glows red, pulsing against my breastbone. “Am I holding his heart in my hands?”
“A third of it, yes. Another piece is here in Wonderland. Hidden where I hope to the Jabberwock no one can find it.”
“And the third piece?” I run my thumb over the cracked face of the pocket watch.
“It’s in Neverland, but I can’t tell you any more.” Wesley turns me around and pushes me until I’m under the entrance to the burrow. “He’s not supposed to come back.”
I spin and face him. “Why?”
“Because if Ronan is here, and he dies, Wonderland dies with him.”
I stare at my father with my mouth open. “Dies? Who said anything about dying? That will not happen.”
“You don’t know that. The Jabberwock is on the loose again.” Wesley scratches his head. “We had to send Ronan somewhere safe. Where he can’t be killed. It’s almost happened before. We can’t risk losing him. We can’t risk losing our home.”
“So you banished him!” Anger rises in my chest and I clench my fists. “To somewhere he can’t be killed? Well, you really made a mistake there, because Ronan has a few enemies who would love to see him dead. He should be in Wonderland.”
“We had to protect him,” Wesley whispers.
“You mean protect yourselves!” I yell. “And how’s that working out for you? How has Wonderland been since he left? Because from the little I’ve seen and heard, it’s not so great.”
Wesley straightens to his full height, puffing out his chest. “You know nothing about me, or Wonderland, so you cannot judge—”
“Oh, I know plenty about you.” I step forward and poke him in the chest. “You abandoned Alice, and me, and now Ronan as well. You haven’t fought to protect anyone or anything. You basically locked your problems in a cupboard. Or in this case, on the other side of a magic door. You’re a coward.”
“His hat,” Wesley says.
“What?”
“His hat is one of the pieces.” Wesley retreats behind his desk and opens the top drawer, rummaging around inside. He brings out a small object pinched between his thumb and forefinger. “Take him to the Lake of Memories and give him this.” He comes back to where I’m standing under the burrow entrance and drops a pearl into my hand.
“You know about the lake?”
“I have connections. I know all about Neverland. And I hope to Wonderland I haven’t doomed us all,” he replies.
I close my fist around the pearl. “If I know Ronan like I think I do, he will fight harder for Wonderland than everyone else here combined.” After putting the pearl into my pocket, I take the key and wind the pocket watch.
“What are you doing?” Wesley asks.
“I must get back now.” The cogs in the timepiece click as I wind. “The last door I created by winding the pocket watch and saying I want to go to Wonderland. If I say I want to go to Ronan, hopefully it will work.”
Wesley chuckles, laughing until his shoulders shake, and he clutches his stomach.
“What’s so funny?” I glare at him.
“Do you think you open doorways using the pocket watch?”
“Well, yes. And the key. They have been the common denominators every time.”
“Every time?”
I open my mouth to respond, but falter because I’m not sure. I’m not sure of anything. “I ... don’t really know,” I finally say.
Wesley shakes his head, still chuckling. “They no doubt have a connection to each other, but your magic is your own, Alessandria. Heart magic. Believe in Wonderland. Believe in yourself. Believe you can open doorways, and you can go anywhere you want.”
“The most important part of magic is belief?” I say.
“Exactly. Now hurry, or you’ll make me late.” He waves his hands in a shooing motion. “Put the pocket watch away and open a doorway to Neverland.”
I do as he says, stuffing the timepiece into my pocket. Then I twist my fingers together and try to imagine a doorway in front of me.
“You can do it,” Rose whispers in my ear.
“Believe in me and I’ll believe in you,” I mumble.
“Use your heart, not your head,” Wesley says, glancing at his pocket watch.
I picture Ronan, the line of his jaw, the way he musses his hair when he runs his hand through it, and just when I think I’m being ridiculous and nothing is going to happen, my chest fills with warmth and the familiar pull I’ve experience before. Is that my magic? Tugging on my heart? Moments later, a door appears in the dirt wall of the burrow.
“Perfect!” Wesley shouts, making me jump. “Off you go. See you soon, I suppose.”
My heart races as I grasp the faerie-shaped handle, and with a deep breath, I pull it open, hoping to Neverland that Ronan is on the other side of this door.
Because not only does Wonderland need him.
I need him, too.
