Follow the White Rabbit (Beautiful Madness #1)(18)

Inhale. Lucky took a deep breath, tasting the earthy forest air.

Exhale. She pictured walls in her mind and began to chip away at them.

Inhale. Stones tumbled to the ground as the sound of Marc’s steady breathing calmed Lucky’s turbulent mind.

Exhale. An icy fist wrapped its fingers around Lucky’s soul.

Inhale. With one last shuddering breath, she was yanked away from her body.

For an instant, Lucky found herself standing in the middle of a dark country road. The moon was high in the sky and the stars illuminated everything around her. But there was chaos as well. Everything was too loud.

A car passed zipped past Lucky, its bulk passing within an inch of her body.

No! Lucky squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for impact.

It never came.

Gasping, Lucky opened her eyes and found herself once again sitting on the forest floor.

“Come on, keep trying,” Marc urged as soon as she opened her eyes.

“It worked,” Lucky said, hardly believing the words herself. “I almost died!” she added, trying to repress a laugh. Because she hadn’t almost died. The small mirror on the side of the car had passed right through her. Nearly hysterical, laughter bubbled from her lips.

Marc sat beside her, brows furrowed. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Lucky said, catching her breath. “Great, even. It worked! I was there. Then I thought I was going to die, and I brought myself back. It all worked perfectly! You were right.”

“That’s incredible! And it was all you.” His usual grin had returned to his face, but it was interlaced with what Lucky suspected was pride. “Are you ready to head home?” Marc started to stand up, but Lucky pulled him back down.

“Not a chance. There’s no stopping me now. I’m going to give it another try!”

Once again, Lucky found herself on a road in the middle of the night. This time she stood at the end of a line of houses. Unwilling to repeat her last experience, she quickly got off the road and went to stand beside a large sign that read, “Thank you for visiting Clarkson. Come back again soon.”

Compared to everything she’d seen of Alice’s world so far, Clarkson seemed somewhat dull. But that wasn’t Lucky’s main concern.

Where is Alice?

From the other side of the town, two beams of lights approached. A car was coming.

Was it as simple as all that? Could she just bring herself to Alice whenever she pleased? Unwilling to test out her theory quite yet, Lucky ducked down behind some bushes and waited for the vehicle—and Alice—to go by.

Once the tell-tale rumble of tires had passed, Lucky pulled herself upright, hoping to get a better look at the car’s driver.

All she could make out was long, reddish hair. So the driver was definitely female. Lucky couldn’t make out any more details as the car pulled away. She willed herself back into her own body and was delighted when it worked.

“Sooo?” Marc prodded as the two of them stood up.

“I think I saw her.”

As they walked, Lucky rehashed every single detail. Marc listened patiently, nodding in the right places and asking questions when Lucky’s mind couldn’t push any further.

What did it all mean? She couldn’t just keep following this girl around. Lucky would have to act, but there was still a long bridge between finding Alice and pulling her through to another world.

Storm clouds had begun to form above them, and the wind was picking up. Lucky knew she should head home as quickly as possible, but she no longer wanted to. Something was pulling at her, some unidentifiable force urging her to act. And this time, Lucky felt inclined to listen.

“I have to try again.”

“Lucky, no. You’ve done enough for today. You don’t have to.” Marc glanced up at the swaying branches above them. “Go home. Rest. You can try again tomorrow.”

“I can’t explain it, but I have to do this now. You don’t have to stay.”

With an exaggerated eye roll, Marc sighed. “Of course I’m going to stay.”

Together they found a spot where a small hill of dirt and rocks protected them from the increasingly uncooperative weather. Lucky sat herself down while Marc stood protectively beside her. She willed her soul forward, anxious to see where she ended up this time.

Lucky stood on a bridge above a still body of water. Two beams of light approached from the distance, so she ducked behind a support beam. Alice was coming, but there were still no clues as to what Lucky was supposed to do about that.

Racking her brain, Lucky looked down into the water below her before doing a double take. The water wasn’t water at all. At least, it wasn’t reflecting the moon or the stars.

Shimmering on the surface of the lake was an image Lucky would recognize anywhere—Neverwood Forest. It was a different part of the forest from where her body was, but she knew it all the same. The trees were even shifting with the powerful wind, just like how Lucky herself had left it.

Lucky closed her eyes and opened them again, careful to make sure excitement and imagination weren’t getting the best of her. She was in Alice’s world and looking straight into the heart of Wonderland. But what was she supposed to do?

The car was close. Panic built in Lucky’s chest. She was going to miss her chance. Wood planks shuddered as the weight of the car joined Lucky on the bridge.