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RONAN
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I fold my arms and watch Alessa carefully. I don’t ask how she’s going to get us to the Time Tunnels, I just wait patiently for her to do whatever it is she’s going to do. Common sense tells me she’s going to try to open a doorway. Past experience tells me she’ll probably fail. But if it doesn’t work, we can still fly.
She wrings her hands, her brow creased, and chews on her lip. I can’t stop looking at her mouth, and all I’ve wanted to do to it since getting the first piece of my heart back is devour it with mine.
Thoughts of kissing her warm me in unmentionable places, and if she stands here any longer, biting her lip like that, I might just lose it. It’s as though my blood is too hot, and it’s about to burst through my skin. For so long, I’ve felt hollow and incomplete. The void in my chest a constant ache. Now, it’s as though everything is more intense, colourful, more alluring. My emotions are screaming, rather than being a dull throb at the base of my stomach.
And that’s only after getting one piece of my heart back.
Alessa releases her bottom lip, her mouth curling into a smile. Her eyes shine, and I fall into them, grinning back at her like a love-sick fool.
“Ronan.” Rose swats my cheek. “Look.” She points across the lantern room.
She and Tiger Lily flit over to where a door stands in front of the glass dome, surrounded by the darkness of the Neverland night.
“How?” I look back at Alessa, her hands still twisted in front of her. She isn’t holding the pocket watch, and the key hangs around her neck. “I thought you didn’t know how you create the doorways.”
“I didn’t. But Wesley may have taught me something,” she says, her smile widening. “He said that the only part of magic that is an absolute must—”
“Is belief,” I finish for her.
“Exactly. All I had to do was really believe that I could do it.” Her smile falters a little. “But that doesn’t explain how I opened the first door.”
“When I fell on top of you.” I grin. “Not that I’m complaining.”
I’d love to be on top of you right now.
If only she knew what I was thinking, her cheeks would be ablaze.
“Although, I had just started believing Wonderland was real.” Alessa shrugs, skirting around my comment. “Maybe, because I ignited that belief, Wonderland wanted me to find my way there? And to do that, I had to find you?”
“You’ll soon learn that in Wonderland, not everything can be explained,” I say. “And the more we try to find reason, the more we descend into madness.”
“But it’s a really fun place,” Rose adds, then she whispers, “stop it. You’ll scare her.”
Alessa laughs. “It’s all right, Rose. I can handle a little madness. I’m Alice’s daughter.”
“I hope you find your way back to her,” Tiger Lily says. “But you won’t do it standing around here. Go on, both of you.” She tilts her head and points her tiny thumb over her shoulder.
Alessa grips my outstretched hand and we approach the door. The frame is dark wood, and the handle is shaped like a faerie, so at least we know it will lead us somewhere in Neverland. She grabs the handle, opens the door, and we step through.
The mouth of the Time Tunnels gapes at us. Rose and Tiger Lily flutter near my shoulder.
“I guess this is where we part ways,” I say. “You both need to stay here.”
“Good luck.” Rose wraps her tiny arms around my neck. “The other me will help you however she can.”
“Just, stay out of trouble,” Tiger Lily adds. “And make sure you eat some berries when you get back.”
“Aye,” I say, as the faeries fly off into the night. “Ready?” I squeeze Alessa’s hand and look down at her.
She shakes her head. “Not yet.”
I open my mouth to answer, but she presses a finger to my lips, holding my stare with her deep blue eyes. They are still filled with so many questions, but I know for certain now that I want her by my side as I help her answer them. Then she stands on her toes, lifting her face to mine, one question coming to the forefront of her expression.
And it’s definitely one I can answer immediately.
I close the gap between us and our lips meet. The newly found piece of my heart explodes with electrified warmth and happiness as she deepens the kiss, tangling the fingers of her free hand into my hair. I grip her other hand and wrap my hook arm around her to pull her closer, unable to contemplate the thought of ever letting her go.
She pulls back, a sigh puffing over her lips as she shivers. I press my forehead to hers, my mouth curled into a lazy smile.
“Now, I’m ready,” she whispers.
“Right then.” I clear my throat.
We face the tunnel and walk together into the darkness. As we make our way through to the heart of the Time Tunnels, I focus on retracing our steps to emerge at the point in time when we originally entered. It wasn’t all that long ago, but it feels like years have passed since I got my key back from Cordelia.
Purple fire glows and we continue walking. I blink, and we’re staring at the opening to the Time Tunnels again.
“It’s as though we never went in,” Alessa says. “This time, or the last.”
“If we’ve done this right, our other selves should be in there now, going back to get my key.”
Alessa shakes her head and pinches the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “My head hurts.”
I chuckle and nudge her shoulder, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “Don’t try to make sense of things and you’ll feel much better. But let’s hope all this pain hasn’t been for nothing. Come on.”
We sprinkle ourselves with faerie dust, then kick off the ground and take to the sky. Alessa is far more confident now, and I smile at her as we soar above the island. Vengeance should still be on a course for Neverdrop, but I’m eager to retrieve the second piece of my heart so we can get off this damn island.
“Fly for Wonderheart,” I yell to Alessa over the wind.
She nods, taking my hand again, and we dip and twist over Tiger Lily’s Garden, then out to the lighthouse island, wasting no time getting inside and up to the lamp room. I grab a handful of berries from the fount at the top of the stairs, shoving the sickly sweet fruit into my mouth and eating them as fast as I can. The first time I ate the berries, it was as though I could eat them for every meal they tasted so good. Now, my stomach churns, and my mouth tingles as Neverland’s magic touches mine, making me light-headed for a moment as I blink away the dizziness.
We move to the centre of the room and stand with the hat between us, the lantern light flashing out across the sea. Alessa looks at me from under the brim.
“I just ... put it on?” I ask.
She shrugs. “It’s what you usually do with a hat.”
“Aye, love.”
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, then grasp the brim gently with my thumb and forefinger to stop the hat spinning. The light stills, sending the ocean dark, and I brace myself for something bad to happen. But the ground doesn’t shake and the sky stays where it is.
With another breath, I pull the hat towards me, and it becomes heavier in my hand, no longer suspended as the lighthouse lamp. With a smile on my lips, I flip the hat onto my head and run my fingers over the front of the brim. I bow low, eliciting a laugh from Alessa.
When I straighten again, her eyes widen. She takes the key from around her neck and steps closer, passing it to me.
“There’s a keyhole in the top,” she says.
I take the hat off, tucking it under my left arm, and sure enough, in the centre of the heart on the hat’s crown is a keyhole the same size as the one in the pocket watch.
“Ready?” Alessa asks.
“The last time I asked you that, you kissed me.” I grin, and a blush rises into her cheeks. She raises her chin, so I lean down and brush her lips with mine, but I don’t linger. “Now, I’m ready,” I say, echoing her words.
I slip the key into the top of the hat and wind it until I can’t wind it any farther. The hat thrums. The red stitching of the heart rises into the air like mist, keeping its shape before swirling like a cyclone. Then it slams into my chest hard enough to knock me backwards. Alessa reaches for me, grabbing my arm and catching the hat before it can hit the floor.
I right my feet and take the hat from Alessa. New stitching has formed in the crown, spelling out the words, and go on till you come to the end.
“Why is that there?” I stare at it, knowing they are my father’s words, but confused because it’s not even half of what he said.
Alessa brings the pocket watch out and passes it to me. “The first part is on the back. I didn’t tell you before because there was so much going on.”
“The last part is missing.” I hold Alessa’s stare.
“Maybe it has something to do with finding the final piece of your heart?”
“Which is in Wonderland.”
“You should be strong enough to go now,” she says, an excited edge to her voice. “Neverland can’t keep you here any longer.”
“Then we’d better figure out how to leave.” I set the top hat on my head, and warmth rushes through me, filling the cracked recesses of my mind and heart.
Alessa presses her lips together, walking to the glass to look out at the Neversea. The water churns, moonlight glinting off the whitecaps, turning the surface to liquid silver. She moves around the circular room and stops to face the island. From up here, all of Neverland is laid out before us. Waves crash below as we stare at the mountains in the distance.
“Will you miss it?” she asks. “Because look how beautiful it is.”
I stand at her side, not sure how to answer, because it is beautiful, and I’m thankful that she’s made me stop to look at everything that I’ve created. Everything that Neverland’s magic has allowed me to create with my own.
If it wasn’t for Neverland, I would never have met Alessa. We would not be standing here right now, on the brink of something amazing.
“Aye, I will,” I finally say, and as much as I want to leave this place, I realise it’s the truth. “Neverland has looked after me, and I made it pretty wonderful, but Wonderland is more so. It’s even in the name.”
Alessa smiles, turning to the room where a doorway now sits in place of the lantern. “Then we better get back to Vengeance so we can go home.”
