Chapter 83 #2
But my pulse beats faster, mine and the one that isn't mine. And suddenly, part of me doesn't want to kneel. I want to lift the crown, but I don't want to give it to her. I want to put it on my own head. The urge is overwhelming, a compulsion that burns through my veins. And that makes no sense.
"You want me to pick up the crown and give it to you," I say, stalling. Thinking. Calculating. My mind races, searching for a way out. "What if I can't touch it? What if I—"
She tilts her head, studying me. And then she laughs. A cruel, mocking laugh that echoes off the stone walls. "Oh, Alice, you pathetic little girl. After all this time, you don't even see it? You don't even know?"
"I..." My throat tightens, constricting around the words. "I don't know what? I don't understand."
Everything happens at once.
Thorn lurches forward. His chains rattle as he moves, his hand flying up, grabbing the amulet from the Queen. He throws it away from her. Maybe his intention was to Hook, but it goes wide, arcing through the air.
The queen's scream cuts through the room, her rage tangling with the magic in the air, her hands snapping up, dark power crackling at her fingertips. The air itself seems to bend around her fury.
It erupts from her palms, slamming into Thorn's chest. "You stupid fool." The impact throws him backwards, his body smashing into the wall with a sickening crack. The force of it rattles the room, dust raining down.
But it's enough. Enough for Hook to break free.
He rips himself from the guard's grip, shoving his elbow into his captor's face and spinning free.
Bone crunches beneath the impact, blood spraying.
He lunges, fists flying, punching his way forward, cutting a path toward me.
He reaches the crown's case just as another guard moves in.
Hook dodges, fast and brutal, his boot slamming into the glass, shattering it completely.
The sound is like ice breaking. He grabs the crown, yanks it from its velvet cushion, and turns to me.
A guard swings for him, but he's already moving.
Already bringing the crown to me. He shoves it onto my head.
"You are the rightful queen," he says. His voice rough with certainty, with a truth I didn't know existed.
I freeze.
"No." But it doesn't matter. Whatever I have to say dies as power rips through my body.
Magic explodes from me. It bursts outward, raw and instinctive, knocking every guard close to us off their feet.
They crash into the stone, slammed to the floor like nothing more than dolls.
The surge of energy is blinding, deafening—a tidal wave of power that has been waiting, sleeping inside me.
I don't even get the chance to react before the Queen's magic collides with mine.
But I have no idea what I'm doing. I raise my hands, trying to channel it.
Power clashes in the air, a violent, screaming thing, so strong the room itself trembles with it.
The walls shake, stones shifting, dust and small debris raining down.
She shrills in rage, her face twisted with hate. "You dare?" she spits. Her hands snap forward, dark lightning crackling at her fingertips. "You are nothing. Nothing." Each word is punctuated with a fresh surge of her dark power.
The amulet gets kicked in the chaos, spinning across the floor, catching the flickering red and gold light. Hook dives for it, his fingers snatching the chain, his grip tightening around the metal. His knuckles white with determination.
I reach for him. "Hook." His name is a plea.
The Queen's magic erupts, lightning in the form of shadow, reaching for us, for everything. It writhes like living darkness, hungry and malevolent.
I try to fight it, but it's everywhere, all at once, a force I don't understand, a force I can barely push against. It's like trying to hold back an ocean with bare hands.
Hook slams the amulet into the ground. A sharp, cracking sound splits the air. Golden dust spills out, swirling around us, glittering in the chaos. Hook's eyes find mine across the room. And I know.
I know what he's doing.
The pixie dust swirls, forming a doorway. Light spills from it, bright and clean against the darkness.
A portal.
Neverland.
The distraction knocks me off balance.
The Queen's power slams into me, knocking me backwards. I roll with it, twisting, trying to fight it off. I reach for the crown on my head. I lift it. She can have it. We just have to get free.
Hands grab me. He stops me taking it off.
"This is yours. You are the rightful Queen.
" He's yanking me back. "This is how it has to be.
This … is how you save Wonderland." His eyes burn with desperate intensity.
He pushes me toward the portal—shoves me through it.
A blast of cold slams against my skin. I stumble forward, the pull of the portal wrapping around me, dragging me away—
"Oh god."
She's behind him.
The Queen stands just behind Hook, her face twisted in rage, her power flaring around her like black fire. I go to run back, to stop her—I lift my hand—
Her eyes lock onto mine and she grins at me as she thrusts her hand forward, a jagged bolt of power spearing straight through Hook's side.
His eyes widen. A sharp, startled inhale. Like he doesn't even register what just happened. Like he doesn't believe it. Blood blooms across his shirt, dark and spreading fast.
Neither do I.
"No..." The word tears from my throat, raw and broken.
I grab him, yanking him with me—
And then we're falling.
The End