The Mad King (The Dark Kings #1)(97)

A friendly face poked out of the neighboring building. A petite Asian woman with kind brown eyes smiled at her. “Girl not here,” she said in a gentle lilt.

Shocked, she pointed. “But they just opened.”

The old woman nodded. “Yes. Very sad. Girl sick. Very bad sick. She go hospital. No long time left.” She shook her head; a tiny frown tipped her mouth.

Her heart clenched. “Which one?”

She scratched her head. “Queens. She no long left.” She tsked. “Good girl, good cake. Too bad.” With one final shake of her head, she walked back into her shop.

Finding Queen’s Center was easy—finding Alice’s room was not. She walked down hallway after hallway, asking if anyone knew of Alice Hu. Finally a kindly nurse pointed her to the front desk. But Danika wasn’t family and wasn’t allowed access.

She frowned, knowing there had to be a way. The very rude young man turned his back, and she smiled. Danika turned invisible, glanced at the computer screen, and finally located Alice’s room. Room 5A, ICU.

The moment she walked through the halls and heard the quiet hush of death, she knew it was very, very bad.

Each room held a sad scene. People around a bed, machines beeping and whirring, sustaining a life that would end in days or weeks.

The sterile hallways made her want to run away. Her skin prickled with cold, the sounds of wheezing and sometimes... no sounds at all. It was almost too much. She stopped walking, clung to the wall, and took a deep breath.

“Hatter needs her.” Steeling her resolve, she moved again. Three more rooms and then she saw her. She was alone.

Alice seemed dwarfed by the bed she lay on. The once vibrant honey hue of her skin was now ashen and gray. She looked like a skeleton; there wasn’t even any hair on her head, just thin wisps.

Her hands shook.

Clear plastic tubes ran up her nose.

“Oh, Alice girl, I’m so, so sorry.”

Alice’s lashes fluttered. She opened her eyes, her breath coming short and choppy. “Danika? You’re here?”

She walked up to her, grabbed her hand, afraid to hurt her, afraid to let go. The vibrant beauty of before was gone; all that remained was a shell. Her eyes were bloodshot, wide and shining.

“I... Oh, dearie, I never knew.” Words spilled from Danika’s lips, mingled with the tears from her eyes.

Alice smiled; her lashes fluttered as if the effort to hold her eyes open cost her everything. “It was nice. I was”—she breathed, a shallow sucking in of oxygen—“happy.”

“Who is she talking to?”

Danika turned at the sound of another voice. A woman—bearing an uncanny resemblance to Alice, but older—asked a man in a white coat. He put an arm around her shoulder.

“It’s part of the process. The drugs have dulled the pain.” His voice broke, and he looked at Alice with love shining in his eyes.

Alice’s laugh was weak. Danika looked back at her. “They don’t see you. Think. I’m. Crazy.” Her lips trembled. “As a Hatter.”

The woman behind them sobbed. Heels clicked loudly on linoleum as she ran from the room.

“He misses you desperately,” Danika whispered.

She coughed and then gasped. A sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead. “Wonderland. No.”

Danika shook her head. “No, Alice. Wonderland said yes. It wasn’t you, see.” She rubbed her knuckle. “It was him. He had to declare himself, had to truly fall in love. He loves you, Alice.”

For a moment, Alice’s face crumpled, then she grew calm, unnaturally still. “All that we see... or seem / is but a dream... within a dream.”

It was hard to listen to Alice speak, each word forced out between labored pants for breaths.

“Alice, look at me.” Danika patted her hand, forcing the girl to work through the lethargy and open her eyes. They glimmered with tears. She licked her lips. “You can still come back.”

Alice snorted. “Dying.”

“I can take you. Wonderland will heal you. You’ll never die. Never. You’ll be perfect and healthy, with your Hatter. Always.”

The tears started to fall, each one like a blade to Danika’s heart. Alice had to come back. Not just for Hatter’s sanity, but also because the thought of such a young life being extinguished was a tragedy Danika couldn’t endure.

“Didn’t want me. He wouldn’t come...” Alice coughed, the booming sound painful to Danika’s ears. She winced in sympathy, waiting for it to pass. After a minute, Alice lay back down, her lips tinted blue.

The girl had minutes. A shadow of death hovered above her, reaching out its cold skeletal fingers, ready to claim her any moment now.

“Here? He wouldn’t come here, is that what you’re trying to tell me, Alice?”

Alice nodded weakly.

“Oh, Alice. He wants you beyond endurance. He’s locked himself up in his house; the land rages beyond his door. Wonderland is in chaos. Creatures die and kill each other. The violence of his mind has exploded upon the land.” She shuddered. “Alice, he couldn’t come. Do you hear me?”

The girl was unnaturally quiet. Danika patted her cheek, and Alice stirred and mumbled.

“Listen to me.” Danika pried Alice’s eyes open, forcing Alice to see her. “He couldn’t come because, outside of Wonderland, he’s not immortal. He was like you. A human who stumbled in.” She rushed through the explanation, hoping the girl would hang on long enough to listen. “Time would catch up with him. Why do you think he’s surrounded by clocks? Each Wonderland day is a month here.”