Wicked Wonderland Read online

  When he was gone, I sank into the smooth leather of the chair behind my desk and gave myself a moment to breathe.

  Chess would have Lyssa here soon. She’d seemed impressed by her first venture into this office. She’d seemed impressed by me. I’d keep building from there.

  The White Knight before me, the man who’d mentored me for the role, had been the Inventor too, though perhaps not as successful. I’d watched him fumble with schemes and gadgets that couldn’t quite live up to his ambition as many times as I’d seen him come through. But the one thing he’d faltered on was his belief in gathering all the available information before one went forward with a plan.

  I knew what he’d have done if he’d been here for Lyssa’s appearance. Perhaps it was time I took her to visit our own Queen of sorts, to discover what I could about what her presence might accomplish for us. Presented as a favor for her benefit, of course.

  Lyssa might not be looking for war, but that was exactly what we needed her for. If I was going to lead my people to victory, I’d better win over her mind, heart, and soul before she left here again.

  Chapter Ten

  Lyssa

  After the long fall, I was so braced for the shock of the water that the sudden gush of it over my skin and surge upward gave me a twinge of relief. Clutching my tote bag close by my side, I kicked and paddled with my free arm up to the glinting surface.

  Now, prepared, the trip to the surface didn't take half as long. I wasn't even winded when my head broke from the water. I drank in the salty scent rising off the pond and the thicker floral aroma wafting from the vibrant foliage along the shoreline, and my face split with a grin. The beaming sun warmed on my hair as I set off for the closest bank with a lopsided breaststroke.

  Was even the weather here always this bright, or had I just gotten lucky twice in a row?

  On the bank by the shimmering rocks, I wrung a few cups of water out of my dress, tugged it straight, and headed down the path. The scents were even headier, the colors even richer than I’d remembered. How could the real world not look dreary compared to this? I spun in a slow circle, letting the scene flood my senses, giddy in a way I’d never felt before.

  And as long as I had the mirror, Wonderland was all mine. A secret I never had to share with anyone.

  I bounded farther down the path, as close to skipping as I’d come since I was a kid. The overgrown flowers with their petal-framed faces leaned together in conversation where I’d seen them before.

  “Hello!” I called with a wave.

  The daisy gaped at me, and the tulip started to sputter something about rude interruptions, but I’d already moved on.

  No one was walking on the red-and-blue cobblestone road today, at least not right now. From the position of the sun in the sky, if it worked the same as it did in my world, it was about the same time of day as it’d been when I’d left Aunt Alicia’s house: early afternoon. If Hatter’s walks were a regular occurrence, he’d probably already taken today’s. But it wasn’t as if I needed him to show me the way into town.

  My heart kept thumping eagerly as the bizarre buildings of the city came into view up ahead, but I slowed my pace a little. There was no need to rush this experience. I ambled along the streets, checking out the nonsensical structures with more thought than I’d been able to give them yesterday, surreptitiously noting the wide array of figures ranging from fully human to fully animal heading this way and that around me.

  A woman in a layered silk dress with a head like a doe’s was pushing into Hatter’s shop as I reached it. I wavered for a second, watching from the edge of the window.

  Hatter came out from behind the counter to point out a few possibilities to the deer woman. He was dressed in what I guessed was one of his usual suits, the jacket and pants the same maroon as the pork pie hat perched on his spiky dark blond hair, the tie bright orange. Not a combination I’d have expected to work on anyone, but like last time, he pulled it off somehow. He plucked one veiled confection off a shelf, and then nimbly swapped it for another when the woman shook her head, his hands moving with a swift grace that reminded me of how he’d spun me on the club’s dance floor.

  Which reminded me of the sudden spike of desire that had shot through me at his touch—and the shock that had broken through that heat when he’d mentioned Aunt Alicia.

  I might have wanted to come back to experience this place again, but I also had a mission.

  Since I was starting to feel like a stalker peering through the window like this, I gripped my tote bag tighter and reached for the door.

  Hatter’s head turned as I came in, his mouth forming a shopkeeper’s welcoming smile in the instant before his gaze stopped on me. He stiffened, his smile faltering with a twitch of his lips.

  Great to see you too, I thought with an edge of sarcasm. What actually came out of my mouth was a hesitant, “Hi.”

  “Let me finish with Ms. Forrest, and then I’ll be right with you,” he said in a business-like tone, recovering his cool. The deer woman was beaming at her reflection in one of the shop’s mirrors. They exchanged a few more remarks—but as far as I could tell, no money—and then she sashayed out. Hatter whirled on me.

  “Didn’t you go to an awful lot of trouble to get yourself home a couple days ago, looking-glass girl?” he said. “What are you doing here again?”

  Despite the exasperation in his voice, there was just enough warmth there and in his eyes to make me hope he wasn’t completely unhappy that I’d shown up. “Getting home turned out to be pretty easy,” I said. “And after I got back, I realized I ended up kind of liking it here. Also, I’ve got some questions you’re not getting out of answering this time.” I raised my eyebrows at him.

  Hatter’s mouth twisted, but he held my gaze. “Fair enough. In that case, let me invite you upstairs again.”

  He didn’t bother locking the shop door or putting up a closed sign. Theft must not be much of a concern around here. “Has it just been two days since I left?” I asked as I followed him up the stairs to his apartment. I hadn’t been sure how much time might have passed, considering how little had in the real world while I’d been here.

  “Almost exactly,” Hatter said. “Was it longer for you?”

  “No, the same.” I didn’t know how to wrap my head around that. Did time slow down while I was here and then speed forward to catch up? I guessed it didn’t really matter, as long as I could keep coming here without losing days at a time in the real world.

  The upstairs apartment looked pretty much the same as yesterday, other than a few used plates and mugs scattered on the table. A sudden prickle of embarrassment ran down my back, thinking of how I’d accepted Hatter’s hospitality last time without even thinking of politeness. I’d been overwhelmed, but I’d still imposed on him.

  Well, I could make up for it today by cleaning up the mess he’d left for himself. I scooped up a couple of saucers and teacups and carried them to the sink.

  When I’d started the water running and turned to clear the rest of the table, Hatter was watching me with bemusement, his mouth slanted at an odd angle that could have been moving toward a smile or a grimace. “What are you doing?”

  “Atoning for the mess I left you with last time,” I said. “And for dropping in on you two times without warning. Unless you prefer having dirty dishes all over the table?” I’d feel more comfortable sitting in a tidy room, but it was his home, not mine. Who knew what was normal for Wonderland?

  “No,” he said, with something closer to a smile. “By all means.”

  He was just sinking into the wingchair at the table when the stairs at the other end of the room creaked. Hatter sprang back up again as his daughter burst into the room. She was wearing another black dress, this one with a fluffy tulle skirt, and she’d woven black ribbons into the thin braids that mingled with her coffee-brown hair.

  “She’s back!” she said. “She’s…” Her head cocked. “…washing the dishes?”

  “Doria,
” Hatter started.

  She breezed right by him to peer into the sink as if she’d never witnessed it full of bubbly water before. “Decided you like it here, huh?” she said, flashing a grin at me.

  “I did, actually,” I said.

  Hatter snagged her elbow and eased her to the side. “Lyssa and I have a few things to discuss. Could you keep an eye on the shop until I can come back down, please?”

  Doria folded her arms over her chest with a huff. “Fine. But you owe me. No complaining about the club tonight.”

  He tugged on one of her braids with a wry smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. “It’s a deal. Thank you, Mouse.”

  With obvious fondness, he watched her flounce down the stairs. The guy was hot even when he was being gruff, but seeing his face light up like that made my heart thump off-kilter.

  “Mouse?” I asked as I set the last of the dishes in the rack. I hadn’t noticed anything mousey about the teenager, literally or otherwise.

  Hatter’s expression shifted back to wariness as his attention returned to me. He settled into his chair. “An old nickname. We used to call Doria ‘Dormouse’ when she was tiny. After a while, the ‘Dor’ got dropped.”

  His ‘we’ brought out an itch of curiosity. Him and her birth parents? Had he taken her in because they’d been friends? What had happened to them?

  But those weren’t the kinds of questions you asked a relative stranger, not if I wanted him to answer the ones I’d actually come to ask him. I dried off my hands and decided to sit in the beach chair again.

  “So,” I said. “Since you’re here to discuss things with me, are you going to tell me how you knew my grand-aunt Alicia?”

  “There’s not a lot to tell,” Hatter said, steepling his lithe fingers in front of him. “She came through the looking-glass too. Presumably the same one you did. She visited Wonderland a few times, and that was that.”

  His voice was carefully flat, but I thought it got a bit sharp toward the end of that explanation. Had Aunt Alicia done something that had upset him while she was here? From his comment in the club, it’d sounded as if they’d been friendly. I had trouble picturing the regal silver-blond-haired woman who’d read me stories chatting with Hatter or any of Wonderland’s other inhabitants.

  “How long ago was that?” I asked. She could have been here as recently as a month or two ago, maybe. I wasn’t sure how much her illness had debilitated her before she’d gone to the hospital for her final days.

  Hatter’s gaze turned vague. “I’m not sure,” he said. “In Wonderland, we tend not to keep track of the years all that closely. Judging from you, it’s been a long time. The last time I saw her, she couldn’t have been much older than you are.”

  “Oh.” I blinked at him. Aunt Alicia had been fifty years older than me. “Then, how could you even—”

  “You can’t judge anyone’s age by their appearance here,” Hatter said, focusing back on me. “Once we’re grown, wherever we start from, we only age in fits and starts, mostly at the end. And that end tends to be further off than Otherlanders can count on, as I understand it.”

  I tried to reconfigure everything he’d just told me around the man in front of me. “So, you’re, like, at least seventy-something?”

  He shrugged. “I told you, we don’t keep track. Not a whole lot changes around here from day to day, year to year. Maybe that’s why it takes so much longer for us to get older. If some conversion were possible between Wonderland and the Otherland, I’d imagine we’re all about as old as we look to you in any way that counts.”

  Okay, I was getting diverted from the most important subject. Aunt Alicia couldn’t have told Hatter anything about me or what she’d hoped for me when I hadn’t even been born the last time they’d talked. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t help unravel the mystery.

  “Did she ever say anything to you about a key?” I said. “I think she might have left it somewhere here in Wonderland.”

  Hatter’s eyes flickered, and I knew before he spoke that I’d struck gold. “What makes you ask about that?” he said.

  “She left me a note with the box that it’s supposed to open. It sounded like… she wanted me to find the mirror and come through to Wonderland. And that once I’d done that, she thought I should have the key. I’d like to know what she left for me in that box.”

  “How strange.”

  I gave him a pointed look. “I can tell you know where it is. Why wouldn’t you want me to have it if that’s what she wanted? I wouldn’t even know it exists if she hadn’t nudged me in the right direction.”

  Hatter sighed. “It’s a bit of a journey,” he said. “If we left now, it’d be dark by the time we got there, hard to find the right spot.”

  Was he serious or just being difficult? Before I could push for a better answer, Hatter’s hat shot right off his head as if blown by a brisk wind. It flipped over and landed in the air on top of a figure that was just shimmering into sight standing beside him. I bit back a startled squeak.

  “I think I rather like this one,” Chess said, tipping the hat at a jaunty angle on his rumpled auburn hair. “It suits me, don’t you think?”

  Hatter held out his hand with a scowl. “What have I told you about showing up unannounced—and invisible? Sometimes I think you want to give people a conniption.”

  Chess made a tsking sound. “Watch how you swing that temper around, or it might smack you in the face.” He set the hat back on Hatter’s head. “I did announce myself, to the young lady downstairs. A little surprise simply livens up the visit.” He turned to me with a grin that only showed a hint of his cat-like fangs and dipped into a brief bow. “I heard our Otherlander friend was back in town and wanted to pay my respects. What brings you to this fine realm today, lovely?”

  The grin, the compliment, and the memory of his lips brushing against my hand two days ago sent a strange flush over my skin. I willed it not to touch my cheeks where they’d see. “I was hoping to find something here. Hatter was just telling me that’s impossible today.”

  “Ah, well, then you’ll just have to stay until tomorrow. Hatter has a spare room—he can put you up, no problem at all. Isn’t that so?”

  Chess beamed at his friend. From the mischievous glimmer in his light blue eyes, I suspected he’d known exactly how Hatter would feel about that offer. The other man made a non-committal sound, scowling at Chess.

  Guilt pinched my stomach at the thought of being an unwanted guest, but my need to find that key overrode it. If I was here first thing in the morning, I could make sure we got going, no more excuses.

  “That sounds perfect,” I said, and bobbed my head to Hatter as if he’d been the one offering. “Thank you so much.”

  He aimed his glower at me, but his expression softened a little. “As long as you’re not expecting five-star treatment, you might as well use the room.”

  Chess clapped his hands. “What’s settled is settled, then. What will you do for the rest of the day?”

  I hadn’t had time to think that far yet. “I guess I’d like to explore the city a little more. And…” My gaze slid back to Hatter. “Is there anyone else here you know my grand-aunt might have talked to?”

  A shadow crossed his face. “No one you can still talk to now,” he said.

  “Are you looking for someone?” Chess asked. “Ah, that Otherlander you asked me about the other night, perhaps?”

  “Yeah,” I said, rubbing the side of my neck. “Well, sort of. I’d just like to know more about what she did here, what she was like then.”

  “I didn’t know her all that well,” Hatter said preemptively.

  Chess tapped his chin. “You know, our White Knight makes it his business to hear a lot about all sorts of things. I’d say he knows at least a little about everyone and everything that’s ever been part of this world.”

  My spirits leapt. I hadn’t been sure if I’d have any excuse to see Theo again, but I definitely wasn’t turning down the opportunity. �
��Do you think he’d have time to talk to me?” I asked. “I mean, it seems like he’s pretty important—he must be busy, and he just helped me a couple days ago…”

  Chess waved off my concern. “No one is ever too busy in Wonderland. And the Inventor got his second name because he makes it his business to champion all causes. We could stop by right now if you’d like.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Lyssa

  With Chess’s habit of appearing out of thin air, it was easy to forget that he was a pretty substantial man until I was walking right beside him. He had to be around six feet tall, a couple inches taller than Hatter and several more than me. As he sauntered down the city street, his sculpted muscles flexed against his burgundy-and-yellow striped shirt and indigo slacks.

  Studying his handsome leonine face surreptitiously, I couldn’t help wondering how old he really was. I’d have pegged him as twenty-five or so, but from what Hatter had said, that didn’t mean much. Did it even make him definitely younger than Hatter, or could people age at different speeds from each other here?

  “You said you heard I was back in town,” I said. “Who did you hear it from?” Not from Hatter or Doria, as far as I could tell. Who else would have noticed me?

  “Oh,” Chess said with an enigmatic air, “gossip always travels, and the flowers do like to gossip.”

  I could believe that. Were there more of those immense talking flowers here in the city? I glanced around as if I might see one strolling by us. No flowers, but I did spot a man in a particularly lurid costume that included a red-and-pink striped tunic and a bulging red… hat? Helmet? It was hard to tell. He strode out of a shop up ahead with his chin high.

  Chess slipped a firm hand around my forearm. “We’re going to take a little detour,” he said with the same blasé tone, and tugged me into a winding alley between two of the nearby buildings.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder. Had he been worried about that weirdly dressed dude for some reason?