The Mad King (The Dark Kings #1)(12)

Astonished by what the gentle Pink had just done, I could merely stare at the statue that’d once been a very living and breathing Alice.

Still as beautiful as she’d ever been, but as cold as the marble she’d now become. “Is she... Is she dead?” I asked without tearing my eyes off her.

“No. Though I’m sure none would truly miss her.”

Finally I was able to pull my gaze away and looked to the fairy. “Who are you?” I asked with a slight shake of my head. This was not the same Pink. Not the fairy who’d been known for weaving and shaping rainbows in her wake.

This fairy had a vicious streak a mile wide, and though I did not sense malice from her, Alice certainly hadn’t gotten on her good side.

She sighed, gripping her fingers together before giving her head a slight shake. “This is not at all the way I’d hoped to start things off with you, Hatter. Truly, you must believe me. But something very dreadful has happened here, and I do not know how or if you can ever believe me. But I must tell y—”

“No.”

The voice was Danika’s. Her nails dug so forcefully into my hand that I felt the burn of my skin beginning to tear. But I would not pull away.

“No, Galeta. The onus falls to me. He and she, they are mine. And he would not believe mere words anyway. I must show him the truth. The truth trapped in here.” She tapped her temple. “He must know it.” Her words were thin and scratchy but strong in conviction.

Galeta swallowed hard, and relief eased her tight brows just a bit. Then, closing her eyes, she nodded once. “Do it, Dani. If you think you’re strong enough for this, then do it.”

“Do what?” I demanded, that terrible feeling in my gut beginning to make itself known once again, turning my knees weak and my breathing rapid. “What is going on here? I’ve had a hell of a morning, and I can’t bear anym—”

Danika gave a short burst of laughter. “You think you’ve had it rough, Hatter? You have no idea what’s to come. This world is a mess. Everything. Almost all of it is lost.”

“All of what?”

Slapping her free hand on top of mine, she gripped tight. “The happily-ever-afters. Your happily-ever-after.”

“Alice was never my happily-ever-after,” I said with a confident shake of my head, feeling like a massive burden had been lifted off my shoulders with that admission.

But she batted my words away with a flick of her wrist. “You’re wrong there, Hatter. It’s not this Alice that you’ve waited your whole life for. But the other. I know what this Alice did. I saw into her heart. You let her leave, years ago. You let her walk away from you, didn’t you? She returned to Earth.”

It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t treat it as one. “Yes. Of course. It was what you cautioned me to do. You once told me that if you loved something let it go. If it returned, it was yours, but if it didn’t, it never was. I did as you told me, Dani.”

A strangled sound like a mix between a laugh and a sob tore from her throat. “I did. Didn’t I.” She gave me a weak smile. “In this life anyway. Because I was a fool. And I didn’t know the Gray.”

The Gray? There was no Gray. What was Danika raving about? I shifted on my seat, uncomfortable and antsy. But the wee fae held me fast, refusing to let me up.

“Two lives, Hatter. This one. And that one. This one is wrong. All wrong.”

I couldn’t make sense of her words. I shook my head.

“You know it too.” She snorted. “This Alice married when she returned to Earth. She is still mated to that male. Did you know that? Did she tell you? I’m sure she did not. But it is fact. It is how your Alice came to be. The bloodline continued on as it should have. That did not change. But this Alice grew bored with the mundane and wanted the power of Wonderland to herself. So she struck a bargain with a fairy that no longer exists. That fairy returned her here. To you. She didn’t care that she’d left a child and husband behind, because it’d only ever been her greed she’d obeyed. She came and pledged herself to you, vowing her undying love. But Hatter, it wasn’t real. It never was. Why do you think Wonderland dies? Why your magic whimpers inside your soul?”

Swallowing audibly, I blinked several times, feeling as though my world had just been upended. Alice was married to another. We’d not slept with each other for ages, but we had slept together. And like an addlepated, lovestruck fool, I’d tried so damned hard to make her fall in love with me in the beginning.

Nearly used up what little bits of magic remained mine to keep her happy. Depleted my stores to the point that I felt weakened by it now.

Danika squeezed my fingers tight, and this time it was she who grounded me back in the present.

“She abandoned her child. How could she?” I grunted.

But Danika shook her head, a frown creasing her forehead. “Though I wish we had time to chat, Hatter, we have none. What you need to know is this—in the alternate timeline which has been lost us, you were mated too. To your true Alice. And she’s in trouble.”

Not that I believed that, but I asked the question hammering away at me nonetheless. “Trouble how?”

Danika’s mouth snapped shut, and her gaze shot toward the Pink. Her entire body tensed up and her wings stilled.

Curious more than I should have been, I asked again, “Trouble how, Danika? What’s happened to this other Alice?”