Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Alice
Fire.
It flickered across the living room—the couch, the recliner, the coffee table. Pictures on the wall melted, faces warping. A woman. A man. I couldn’t see his features.
Arms scooped me up. A woman with blonde hair, terror in her eyes. She ran up the stairs, clutching me against her chest.
I was small. So small.
“He’s found us.” Her voice shook. “The king’s assassin has found us.”
King Cormac. Even in a dream, the name sent chills through me.
She kicked open a bedroom door. A little girl’s room—a twin bed with a Snow White doll, stuffed dwarves lined up on the pillow.
My room. This was my room.
“Alice, you mustn’t let him find you.” She threw open the closet and lifted me into a wooden chest. “This is magical. He won’t find you here.” Her hands cupped my face. “No matter what you hear—don’t come out.”
“Mommy?”
The word hit me like a blade.
Mommy. She was my mother.
She kissed my forehead, tears streaming down her face. “I love you, little one.”
She closed the lid.
Darkness.
Then—a crash. The bedroom door splintering.
“Where is she?” A man’s voice. Cold. Cruel.
“You can’t have her.” My mother’s voice. Defiant.
“She’ll take the king’s crown.”
“None of us want your crown. Leave us alone.”
A laugh—low and terrible. “Your husband is already dead.”
“No!”
A scream. My mother’s scream. Then silence.
Heat flooded the chest. Smoke seeped through the cracks, blinding me. I couldn’t breathe. I wanted Mama. I needed Mama. Why wasn’t she talking anymore?
I pushed the lid open and climbed out. The room was engulfed in flames.
And there she was. On the floor. Not moving.
“Mommy?”
Her eyes fluttered open. She raised a trembling hand toward me.
“Otcetorp.”
White light exploded around me, forming a bubble. It lifted me off the ground, carrying me toward the window.
“No! Mommy!” I pounded against the barrier. “MOMMY!”
The ceiling collapsed. Flames swallowed the room. Swallowed her.
The bubble carried me out into the night, away from the burning house. I screamed until my throat was raw. I screamed until I couldn’t anymore.
Then a strange peace settled over me. My eyes grew heavy.
And I forgot everything.
I woke screaming.
My lungs burned like they were full of smoke.
“Mommy! MOMMY!”
Sobs tore out of me. I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t breathe. The flames were still there behind my eyes, consuming everything. My head felt like it was splitting in two.
The door burst open. Hatter stood in the doorway, sword drawn, eyes wild.
“What happened? Are you hurt?”
I clutched my head, rocking forward. The pain wouldn’t stop. The images wouldn’t stop.
I heard the scrape of his sword returning to its sheath. Footsteps.
The bed dipped as he sat on the edge.
“Alice.” His voice was softer now. “Alice, look at me.”
I looked up at him, tears blurring my vision. “I saw her. I saw my mother die.”
I pressed my palms against my temples. “Why is this happening? Why can I suddenly remember?”
He hesitated—just for a heartbeat—then drew me into his arms.
I should have pulled away. He was my captor. The man who had accused me of being a spy.
But his hand rubbed slow circles on my back, and the flames in my head began to fade. The screams grew quieter. I buried my face against his chest and breathed him in.
Pine and something wild. Like a forest after rain.
I didn’t want to let go.
"The hat,” he murmured in my ear.
I stiffened then lifted my head. Pressed my hands against his broad chest and pushed back. “I know. Your hat. This is your fault.”
"It doesn't just pull out secrets. It unlocks what's buried."
I swallowed hard. I’d spent my whole life not remembering that night. Now I couldn’t unsee it.
He reached out, brushing a lock of hair from my face. His expression gave nothing away. “The nightmares... they dredge up memories you’ve forgotten. Or tried to forget.”
I edged away from him, my stomach churning. “I can’t believe you did this to me.”
“I told you there would be... side effects.”
“Side effects?” I dragged my fingers through my hair. “That’s what you call watching my mother burn alive?”
The color drained from his face.
“No.” His voice was rough. “That came out wrong. I didn’t—” He stopped. Swallowed. “I’m sorry.”
Two words. They weren’t enough. They would never be enough.
But the way he looked at me—like he’d give anything to take it back.
I don’t know why, but I believed him.
I thought of that horrible dream again. My mother on the floor. The flames. The blood. It couldn't be real. It had to be something the hat invented—some twisted nightmare it pulled from nowhere. “Does the hat ever lie?”
He looked at me curiously. “No. Why?”
I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around them.
“Because in the dream, there was an assassin that came to my house. He’s the one that murdered my mother.
” My throat tightened. “My mother said King Cormac sent him and he said he was there for me. That was eighteen years ago. How could that be? The war was only four to five years ago.”
His expression darkened, and I saw something flicker there—anger, maybe.
Or recognition. “Cormac didn’t start with the war.
He spent years planning, eliminating threats before anyone knew what he was doing.
” He studied me. “If he sent someone after your family that long ago... he must have seen you as a threat even then.”
My stomach turned. They’d killed my mother. Burned my home. Because of me. Because of what I was.
Goosebumps broke out all over me and I shivered. “A threat? I was three years old.”
“Then it wasn’t about who you were.” His silver eyes held mine. “It was about who you could become.”
“A witch that can’t control her powers?” I rubbed my arms that were covered with goosebumps. “But no one has come after me since then.”
Hatter reached for a lap blanket at the end of the bed and wrapped it around my shoulders. His hands lingered, his face inches from mine.
Our eyes met.
He shouldn’t kiss me. I shouldn’t want him to.
But when his lips brushed mine—soft, tentative, nothing like the alley—I didn’t pull away. It was comfort more than passion. An apology he couldn’t put into words. The kiss in the alley had made my pulse race. This one made my eyes sting with fresh tears. I wasn't sure which was more terrifying.
He drew back, his silver eyes searching my face. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “For all of it.”
Some of the anger melted away. But the memory was so fresh, so raw. “Just don’t ever do it again.”
“How will I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You’re going to have to learn to trust me.”
Something flickered in his expression—doubt, maybe. Or fear. He didn’t answer for a couple of long heartbeats as if measuring whether trust would ever be possible. He pulled back, and just like that, the walls went up again. “Back to why you would be hunted…”
The intimate moment was over. I wondered if there was anyone he truly trusted without having to use the hat.
“Since Cormac lost the war, the portal was sealed on your side. We couldn’t open it. No one could. Until Joy opened it with her shadows from the other side.”
My stomach dropped. It couldn’t be. There had to be more than one Joy in this realm. “Joy who?”
“Joy DuPont. We were in the queen’s dungeon together. She’s the one that helped free me.” He lowered his head. “I couldn’t get her out. I failed her. Rabbit and I—”
“Rabbit?” I held up a hand. "Wait—like Caterpillar? Another person with an odd name?"
He jerked his head up. “Never mind.”
Suspicion flashed in his eyes. He stood abruptly, putting distance between us.
He headed toward the door, and fear coiled in my stomach. I didn’t want him to leave. What if more memories clawed their way to the surface? Learning my mother burned alive was enough horror for one night. I wasn’t ready for more.
Tinker Bell always said I had a block on my past. That when the door finally opened, it would be painful.
As always, she was right.
I missed her. God, I missed her voice.
I was alone here. The only person I could depend on was Hatter—my captor.
“Wait.”
He stopped, his hand on the door.
“Joy DuPont is fine.”
He went rigid. Slowly, he turned. “How do you know that?”
“Because I know her. She made it back to New Orleans.” I watched his face—the disbelief, the desperate hope he was trying to hide. “She’s with Enzo. She’s safe.”
His breath caught. For a moment, he looked like a man who’d been drowning and just broke the surface.
Then it hit me.
Joy had told me stories. About the dungeon. About a man she’d helped escape—a man she couldn’t bring with her. He’d been trapped in the Elder Dimension so long he was losing himself. Forgetting his past. Going mad.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“You’re Darius Acosta.” The name came out as a whisper. “Aren’t you?”
He stared at me. The mask he wore—the Mad Hatter, the captor, the survivor—cracked.
Then he was on me.
In a flash, he gripped my arms, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. He shook me. “How do you know that name?” His voice was raw, desperate. “Tell me. You are a spy, aren’t you?”
“No!” Tears sprang to my eyes. “Joy told me. She told me about you. Please—you’re hurting me.”
He froze. Looked down at his hands like he didn’t recognize them.
He released me and stumbled back, horror flickering across his face.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was hoarse. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
He couldn’t finish.
I rubbed my throbbing arms. Bruises were already forming. But I couldn’t stop staring at him. This wasn’t the Mad Hatter anymore. This was a man who’d lost everything—his home, his identity, his world. No wonder he’d gone half-mad. “Does the queen know your real name?”
“Yes.” He headed toward the door.
“No.” The word came out broken. “Please don’t leave me alone.”
He stopped but didn’t turn around.
“I can’t—” My voice cracked. “I can’t have another nightmare. I can’t watch her die again. I can’t hear her screaming—”
A sob swallowed the rest.
Then he was back. Crossing the room in two strides, cupping my face in his hands, kissing me. It was desperate. Aching. A promise neither of us could speak aloud.
When he pulled back, his forehead rested against mine.
“I need to watch the street,” he said quietly. “Your window faces the alley.”
I wiped my face with trembling hands. “Why? Who’s out there?”
The look in his eyes made my blood run cold.
“An old enemy. He captured the twins tonight. Flint and Steel.”
“What enemy?”
Don’t say Ari. Don’t say Ari. Don’t say Ari.
A muscle ticked in his jaw.
“The Dark Demon Ari.”
The air left my lungs.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
Ari. The demon who had forced Joy to open the portal. Who had allied with Marsha and her dark magic. Who had killed Maximo Barone and taken over his trafficking empire.
He was here. Right outside.
“Alice?” Darius’ voice cut through the panic. “You know him.”
It wasn’t a question.