“What kind of black magic is this?” Hatter hissed.
Danika’s wings fluttered against his palm as she shoved and pushed at him. “Hatter!” she squealed. “For the gods’ sake, open your palm! Damn you, man. You’re bending my wings.”
He shook his fist and eyed the little ball of light hard. “I told you not to bring her. Not only do you bring her, you bring her! What have you done? She should be old and withered, and yet she looks the same. How is that possible?”
The muscle in his jaw tensed when she didn’t answer quickly enough. He shook his hand harder.
“Open,” she roared, “or you’ll get no answers from me.”
He flung her from his hand. She rolled in a ball through the air before finally righting herself and glaring at him. Danika pointed her wand at his chest. “How dare you!”
“I dare much,” he growled. “What have you done, Danika?”
How could Danika have done this? How could she have returned that venomous, viperous woman back to him? How was it even possible?
How could he have these feelings for Alice, these soft feelings that made him face a snake’s constricting coils to help her? He should hate her; he did hate her. After all she’d done to him, he wanted to shake her, kiss her, whisper his undying hate in her ears. Hatter grabbed his skull, willing himself to ignore the huddled bundle on the grass behind him. Up is down, down is up. Emotions made no sense. No sense.
“Look at me, I say.” Danika snapped her fingers.
“What?”
Danika’s face crumpled. “Are you not pleased, Hatter?”
“Pleased.” He wanted to roar, wanted to stomp on Danika’s mushroom home and smash his fist through her tree. “Pleased?” he asked again. “Why have you returned her? How have you returned her? Wonderland said no. No. No.” He grabbed his head again. Dizzy. Gods, he could smell her. Like caramel and the salty brine of sea.
When she’d clutched his jacket and pressed her nose into his back, he’d been aware, so very aware. Every inch of his body screamed for her. Wanted her. She was his Alice, the one he’d surrendered his heart to years before. Wicked, wicked Alice. She’d whispered of love, touched his body, made him yearn and need.
Betrayer. His nostrils flared. Evil little Alice with the forked tongue, just like the snake. He should have let the snake have her. Damn her.
“It’s not her, Hatter.” Danika grabbed his fingers, peeling them away from his eye.
He shook her off. “Of course it’s her.”
“No.” Her curls bobbed around her tiny head. “That Alice is nothing more than a withered husk.”
For a moment, a yawning chasm of ice filled his empty, shattered soul.
Danika pointed over his shoulder. “That is her great-granddaughter.”
Not the same Alice? “But her eyes, and the face. Pretty, pretty hair. Long and black with a widow’s peak. The itsy-bitsy spider crawls up the waterspout ...”
A sharp slap stung his cheek. “Snap out of it. Now is not the time to lose your wits.”
Hatter blinked. “Why her? I hate her.”
“Hatter, no.” Danika petted the cheek she’d slapped, her cold little hand soothing. “You do not hate her. You do not know her. She is not the same. I swear it.”
He grabbed his head, trying to recall why he’d been so angry. Trying to hang on and remember, lest he lose the thought like he’d lost so many others. “You reached into the same bloodline. Why didn’t you tell me?”
She gave him a soft smile. “Because I know you. If you’d known, you’d never have come to get her.”
He took a breath, and Alice was there, her sweet, caramel warmth permeating the breeze. Hatter looked over his shoulder. She sat huddled on the ground, staring at her foot, a tiny frown marring her brow. He’d been cruel, forcing her to march without shoes. Forcing her to follow without speaking a word.
“I can’t, Danika.” He shook his head. “Take her back. Take her home.”
“You know that’s not how it works. She’s here. For three days. Try, Hatter.” Her blue eyes filled with tears. “You must try.”
He sighed. Couldn’t Danika see it was hopeless? And now she’d brought him the great-granddaughter of the woman who’d betrayed him, and expected him to what—trust that the same blood didn’t run through her veins?
“Heal her feet. They... bleed.”
“Oh, Hatter.” Danika sighed. “Open your eyes, boy, see what I can, before it’s too late.”
He ran his hand through his wavy hair. “Wonderland’s not accepted her.”
She frowned. “She’s only just gotten here. Give her time.”
He curled his lips. Always so positive Danika was. Every time it was the same thing. Next time. The next one. He was sick of it.
“No promises. Heal her feet,” he demanded again.
With a sigh, Danika flew toward Alice, becoming a golden streak of light that bobbed and weaved around her feet.
Alice yelped, snatching her feet back and then sighing happily when the bleeding stopped. Their eyes met and Hatter had no words; all he could do was stare and hope and hate. He clenched his jaw as Danika flew back to him.
“Take her to the waters. Have her wash her feet. They’ll be healed after that.”
Hatter nodded his thanks, then walked up to Alice and cleared his throat. “Come with me,” he said, much gruffer than he’d intended.
She frowned, pulling her bottom lip between straight teeth. “Where?” Wariness shone in her gaze.
“Just... come.” He grabbed her elbow, wishing he had more kindness in him. She wasn’t the same Alice, or so Danika said, and yet... The truth was hard to reconcile.
Huffing, she stood and jerked her elbow from his lax grip. “I can walk just fine, thank you.”
Hatter led them to the fairy waters a short distance behind the glen. Fairies, looking like lightning bugs the way they danced above the surface of the placid stream, added a magical, almost surreal quality to their surroundings.
He pointed to a depressed section of verdant grass. “Sit.”
She lifted a brow, an annoyed look creasing her forehead.
“If you please.” The words were thick on his tongue.
Reminding him of a queen the way she lifted her chin proudly, she sat cross-legged. “Well?”
Knowing he should apologize, not knowing how to even begin, he did the only thing he could think of. Hatter knelt by her side, a shiver rippling through him as her scent of caramel and sunshine tickled his senses, filled his head. He dipped his hand into the water. “Give me your feet.”
“Why? My feet feel fine really.”
She grabbed hold of them, tucking them tightly against her shapely thighs. He’d put her through this. He’d make it right. Gently, he traced the instep of her left foot.
“Give me your foot,” he asked again, gently.
Her big brown eyes softened, and she didn’t resist when he tugged it free. Dipping his hand into the chill waters, he scooped up a palmful and let it drizzle against her soft flesh. She moaned when he rubbed the water in.
“Oh wow, that’s so... Wow.” She sighed, leaning back on her hands, silently opening herself up to him further.
He smiled, knowing the magical properties of the water did more than heal a scrape or seal a wound. The waters here were the purest essence of life, making new what was old. He rubbed the liquid in, kneading the hurt and rawness away.
Leaning in so close, feeling the breath of her body flit against top of his head, he licked his lips. Alice Hu, whatever incarnation she came in, had a way of affecting him in the deepest marrow of his soul.
Her body heat so close, wrapping around him like hug, made him forget that he couldn’t lean in and kiss her, that she wasn’t his. That he didn’t want her. All he knew was this moment, this touch, the rhythmic movement of her breasts as she exhaled slowly.
His fingers trembled as he moved to her other foot, forcing himself to repeat the same torturous massage, trying in vain to forget how soft she felt, how good she smelled, how her lips parted ever so slightly, fuller on the bottom than the top.
Hatter swallowed hard. She wasn’t his. Not now. Not ever.
Jerking back, he waved his hand over her feet. His own magic ran hot through his veins as he called forth a pair of sparkling silver flats to cover her feet.
Standing, he nodded, molars grinding so hard his jaw ached. He could never forget who she was. What stock she hailed from.
A snake could shed its skin many times in its life, but it never stopped being a snake. New Alice couldn’t be so different from Evil Alice.
What do you want from me, Alice? What do you want?