The Mad King (The Dark Kings #1)(49)

I knew that should Galeta find out what I was doing here today, or for that matter what I was telling Hades, she’d probably be in a right fury. I shivered. I didn’t fear the dark lord half as much as I did the queen of the fae.

I remembered the Galeta of the other life, and she’d been a demon spawned of hell. But I was desperate.

“Yes, Hades. It is as I say. And if there is any part of you that even remotely cares right now, then you must release that orb to them. It is the only way to fully restore her memories. Hatter’s story could only do so much. Alice is scared and cannot suss fact from fiction. You must release my orb.”

I didn’t plead. But I was now. I was on my knees, gripping my fingers tight, begging with wetness glowing in my eyes, knowing I made myself weak before him. But my pride was the very least of my worries now.

I’d given up everything, any chance I had of recovering my Jericho, to save those two. Voice cracking, I said, “You have no idea how much I’ve sacrificed. Please, Hades, don’t let my gift be in vain.”

Looking confused, upset, and even lost, he flicked his fingers, and I felt a great rush go through me. The orb had her wings back, and she was headed like a falling nova toward Alice’s heart.

Hanging my head, all I could whisper was, “It is done.”

*

Alice

One second I was back in my nest, and the next I was snatched up violently by an unseen hand and shoved through a portal full of starlight and colors.

Magic fisted me tight in its powerful vise, and my body raged with a rush of fire. My clothing altered, turning from jeans and a shirt to a gown so rich and brocaded it seemed like something out of a fairy tale.

And on the breeze rushing through my ears rang the words, “Listen with your heart, Alice. All will be revealed, just open your heart and trust him...”





Chapter 17


Hatter


There were no words to describe the misery that pinched every nerve in my body, that stole the very life and breath from my lungs at her rejection.

I remembered two worlds in my mind.

One full of emptiness, a stretching of eternity into nothingness, a duty I’d thought I’d needed to fulfill. I’d become so jaded, immune to love. Just an actor playing a role, that of a dutiful lover when I’d felt nothing for Other Alice any longer.

But knowing all I did now.

Having Danika finally show me the truth of who I was and who my truest love was... I clung to my other memories. The only ones I considered true anymore.

I’d been living my life in a daze, in a canvas painted in a watercolor of grays. My real life had been with my Alice in another world, another time.

Twisted, fantastical, and absurdly wonderful memories of a woman who was not only my soul but my life, the beating epicenter of all that I was and all I’d ever be.

Our shared nights of passion.

Laughter.

The madness of our realm that she’d loved as much as I did.

Lost in those moments, I wasn’t at first aware of her presence until a hesitant touch upon my shoulder caused me to look up.

When her gaze met mine, I felt the weight and brevity of our time together. I’d been wrong to let her leave me before. I had only hours left. I would fight. To the very bitter end, I would fight.

She opened her mouth, and I held up my finger. “Don’t. Don’t say anything. Alice, I know I have no right to ask you for any favors.” I stared into the soulful eyes of my beloved, and with a shattered heart asked her only one thing. “But before you leave me for good, may I play for you?”

Gods, she was lovely.

I wasn’t sure when she’d changed from out of her clothes of before and into a dress my Alice would have surely worn. It was made of silk black taffeta and ruffles, and my heart squeezed violently to see her shapely body painted in it.

She had black fingerless lace gloves that ran up to her elbows, a dark scrollwork of art beneath her eyes and upon her cheeks, undulating upon her flesh with a life all its own. Upon her head sat a jaunty little black hat. My gothic rose, the only woman of my heart. There’d never be another for me.

“Alice?” I asked, looking her up and down in surprised shock.

She shrugged, wrinkling her cute little button nose. “I don’t know. I was caught up in a whirlwind a little bit ago, and when I stepped out, you were here and I was dressed like this.”

Looking down at herself, she gave an embarrassed shrug.

“Never be embarrassed, my love. You look beautiful.”

She didn’t look at me, but her lips twitched with pleasure. There was something different about her now. And I wasn’t sure what this whirlwind was that’d caught her up. All I knew was there was magic at work here.

I felt the taste and touch of it all around me.

I would perish without her, but not before I showed her how I truly felt.

The mood was electric, the tension between us taut as a bowstring.

“Hatter, I don’t know that I sho—”

“I’m not asking for forever anymore, Alice, only that you allow me to show you what I truly feel.”

“You’ve told me everything. I’ve heard it. I know... I know you loved me once. In another life. Another time, and maybe... maybe someday I might believe it.” Her voice cracked. “But the misery that comes from loving you, I’m not sure I’m strong enough to bear it again. Maybe the magic that you say separated us is for the good. Maybe we were only supposed to be a short-lived but intense bit of passion. But it’s gone now, Hatter. And I do thank you for helping me want to live again, for showing me I could be more than all this—” She gestured to the underworld surrounding us.