The Mad King (The Dark Kings #1)(75)

Danika bit her lip. “And that is partly my doing, love.” She looked suddenly anxious, flitting around Alice’s head in a dizzying circle.

“I wish you’d be still,” Alice grumped. “You’re making my eyes cross. What exactly did you do?”

The crazy fairy toyed with her fingernail. “You are not his first Alice. In fact, you’re not even his tenth.”

The words brought Alice up short. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve tried for decades, maybe centuries now”—Danika pinched her nose, exhaustion heavily lacing her words—“to find his perfect match. The Alice to offset the madness leaking into him.” She threw her hands wide. “With no success. Some feared him, others tolerated him, and still others coveted the power of the land itself. But none ever loved him.”

Alice heard Danika like a buzz of white noise in the background. Other Alices? She wasn’t his first.

“Did he sleep with them?” she snapped and then clamped her mouth shut, wishing she hadn’t blurted that out, but desperate to know. Who was Hatter? Did he have a sick, kinky fetish to get it on with as many Alices as he could? Well, he was SOL. Alice wouldn’t be another notch in his belt. Hot or not.

Danika’s jaw dropped as if shocked. “No!” Her voice rose in pitch like a howl. “Dear me.” She grabbed her chest. “The man is not a pervert, dear.”

The furious pounding in Alice’s chest eased somewhat. “Then why bring so many Alices?”

“Because that’s the way of it here. Hatter and Alice, Big Bad Wolf and Red... The stories are written with a grain of truth to them. It must be an Alice.” She shrugged, and Alice licked her canine, refusing to analyze why she suddenly felt like a huge burden had lifted.

She didn’t want to share Hatter with anybody else.

Shaking her head, Danika said, “But that is not all.”

Alice narrowed her eyes, wishing the fairy would stop dragging this out. “Yes?”

Danika blew out a breath. “You see, I may have dipped into a certain bloodline. Brought back a ghost, if you will.”

“What?” Alice was totally confused.

Danika sighed and dropped her hands to her sides. “Many years ago, I brought an Alice to the Hatter. She was a lovely thing. Doe-eyed and of gentle disposition.” She snorted. “At first anyway. I think he fell for her beauty more than anything.” She shook her head. “She was an awful woman. Wanted the power she could glean from the land. She did not want him at all.”

“I don’t understand what that has to do with me?”

Danika’s tiny hand traced Alice’s jaw, giving her goose bumps. “You two could be twins. He sees her when he looks at you.”

Alice sucked in a breath, finally understanding the bloodline reference and the cruelty of the woman. “My great-grandmother,” she whispered.

Danika nodded gravely.

And though she had no right to jealousy, a flinty spark of passionate hatred flared to life in Alice’s heart. No wonder Hatter hated her. Alice loved her great-grandmother now... because she was blood and it was the honorable thing to do.

But loving her didn’t mean Alice could forget being locked out of the house during the heat of the day because her comings and goings let in too many flies. Or being told not to eat the second piece of birthday cake because she’d get fat and ugly and no one would want her then.

The bitterness her grandmother had always thrown at her great-grandfather, calling him stupid and a hairy Okinawan who was no good for her and she’d almost had better. Should have had better...

In hindsight, the crazy mutterings made more sense. But anger solved nothing. Jealousy was useless. Obviously it hadn’t worked out between her and the Hatter, but that past was coming back to bite Alice in the ass now because she wasn’t her great-grandmother. She was nothing like the old shrew, and yet Hatter judged her based off that.

She looked at the little fairy. “My mother always told me it was uncanny. I’ve seen the pictures. We look exactly the same.” Deflated, she leaned her head against the wall. No wonder Hatter had been so cruel. She understood it. Didn’t mean she forgave him, but she understood it now. “Why in the hell would you bring me here? He’ll never be able to look beyond...” Alice traced a hand down her body.

Danika grabbed Alice’s numb fingers and gave them a gentle rub. “You must make him see you, Alice. You.” She shook her finger for emphasis. “The moment I saw your great-grandmother, my body shot with sparks of right. But I know now it wasn’t for her—it was the bloodline, the eventuality of you. He’s never responded to any of the Alices the way he did her. But how he responded to her is but a drop in the bucket to the way he feels for you. I know my Hatter, and I know you’ve completely disrupted his narrow worldview. I believe the only reason why he got swept up in that Alice was because he sensed as I did the tremblings of your coming.”

Alice snorted. “Oh yeah, cutting up my heels was his way of showing his undying devotion.”

“Does he not show any warmth toward you? Any sort of spark?”

Alice remembered his touch, his eyes... how they’d gazed at her, as if seeking to slip into her soul, and she shivered.

Danika smiled. “Aye, you call to him. You are his Alice. I know it. Now we must convince him.”