Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Alice
I glanced between the two cells. The hollowed faces and despair in their eyes matched my own.
I wished I had the ability to comfort them. Tinker Bell would have known what to say—would have found the right words to offer hope, even in a place like this. But nothing came to mind. My throat was too tight. My heart too heavy.
The woman sat on a small bench in her cell. The younger girl—she couldn’t have been more than three—was curled in her lap, whimpering softly. The other two leaned against their mother’s arms, their small bodies trembling.
Children. Innocent children, locked in a dungeon.
Shuffling feet from the opposite cell caught my attention. One of the massive men gripped the bars—Flint maybe. Or Steel. I couldn’t tell them apart.
“Where’s Hatter?” His voice was hoarse as if just speaking hurt.
My chest tightened. “Alanna took him.”
I couldn't meet Flint's eyes. What did they expect me to say? That I'd saved him? That I'd fought back? I'd done nothing. I'd hung in chains while Darius gave up everything for me.
He leaned his forehead against the bars, his massive shoulders sagging. “Not good. The bitch has always panted after him, always trying to break him, trying to get him to love her.”
Love. The word made my heart hurt. Alanna didn’t know what love was. She only knew possession. Control. Obsession.
“She’ll never break him,” I said. “He’s stronger than that.”
Flint—or Steel—gave me a look I couldn’t quite read. Pity maybe. Or doubt. I knew that look. The coven had perfected it. Poor Alice. Weak Alice. Can't even save the man who sacrificed everything for her.
The woman finally spoke, her voice soft and trembling. “That would never happen. Rabbit says Hatter detests the queen. Has since the day he got here.”
I turned toward her. “Who are you?”
The children pressed closer to her, staring at me with wide, haunting eyes.
I studied her face more carefully. Blonde hair. Fearful eyes. The same nervous energy I’d seen in someone else.
She swallowed hard, her arms tightening around her children. “I’m Bunny. Rabbit’s wife.”
Rabbit’s wife. The traitor’s wife.
I glanced at the children then back at her. “Why are you here?”
Two tears streaked down her dusty cheeks. The younger girl looked up at her mother, confused and frightened.
“To control Rabbit.” Bunny's voice broke. “A few months ago, Alanna took us from our home in the middle of the night. She told him if he refused to be her spy, she’d kill all of us.” More tears streamed down her face.
“But she’s treacherous. Obsessed with Hatter.
Rabbit had no choice but to lead her to the grotto.
If he didn't deliver Hatter and the time-stopping witch, she'd make sure our children died in the Shadowsteel mines. "
She pressed a kiss to her younger daughter's head, her whole body shaking.
“I’m so sorry. He had to choose between his family and his friends. A choice no one ever wants to make.”
My anger toward Rabbit flickered, then dimmed.
What would I have done in the same place? Betray Darius or my friends? Darius was my mate. I could never betray him. But if it meant watching innocent children suffer…
My gaze drifted to the little girl in her lap. “I understand.”
Steel—or was it Flint—rattled the bars of their cage. “She’s out of control. Gone completely mad. No children should ever set foot in those mines. The ore would poison them within weeks.”
Rabbit’s children were so young. Would they ever recover from this? They needed a healer—someone like Serenity who could mend body and spirit.
But Serenity was on Earth. And we were stuck here.
Angelo would never allow her to cross into this dimension. I couldn’t blame him. Evil ruled this place.
Which meant I couldn't wait for rescue. I had to think. Darius had escaped once. Joy had been saved. There were ways out of here—I just had to find one. The chains. If I could break free, my magic would return. And if my magic returned...
I looked at Bunny and her children. At Flint and Steel.
I wasn't leaving without them.
I stared at Steel and Flint. They were massive men—the kind any NFL football team would kill to have as linemen. Strong. Powerful. Built for battle.
But they were slowly being broken.
I leaned my head against the cold stone wall. “Do you think we’ll ever get out of here?”
Flint and Steel both shook their heads.
"No," one of them said flatly. "No one gets out of here."
Bunny sighed miserably. "No one has ever escaped from this place. Except Hatter."
True. He’d escaped more than once. At least that’s what he’d told me. But now he was right back in her clutches. Somewhere in this castle, Alanna had him. Was hurting him. Using him. And I was stuck in this cell, useless.
"And look where that got him," Steel muttered. Or was it Flint? I still couldn't tell them apart. "Back in chains. We're fucking going to die down here."
Their despair wrapped around me like a shroud, sinking into my bones. As if I wasn't already drowning in my own.
The sound of flapping wings snapped me to attention. A pair of red eyes glowed in the darkness at the far end of the dungeon.
Black wings. Red eyes. My heart thundered.
Ari stepped out of the darkness, his dark wings folding against his back. My breath caught. What now? More torture? Another force-feeding? I pressed myself against the wall as he approached slowly, his boots barely making a sound on the stone floor.
"Get away from her!" one of the brothers yelled.
The bars rattled beside me—so hard I thought they might snap. Fists against iron. Bodies slamming into the cage. A child's sobs pierced through the chaos.
But I kept my eyes on Ari and clutched my chains. He was pure evil. And he was getting closer and closer.
Ari ignored them all. His gaze stayed fixed on me—prey stuck in a trap.
I refused to cower. I lifted my chin and met his red eyes.
"I have a proposition for you, time-witch."
"Don't give in to him!" Flint yelled. Or Steel.
I kept my focus on Ari. "What do you want?"
He stepped closer, lowering his voice so only I could hear. "I can help you escape from here."
I remained silent, waiting for the catch. There was always a catch with men like him. Something horrible.
"If you take me with you."
I blinked.
That I didn't see coming.
A laugh escaped me—sharp and humorless. "Right. And I'm supposed to trust you?"
He narrowed his red eyes. "Do I look like I'm kidding?" His jaw tightened. "You heard what they call me. A fucking pet. I want out of this hellhole as much as you do."
I stared at him, searching for the lie. The trick. The trap.
There was no way I was bringing Ari with us. He was treacherous. Cruel. Evil.
Us. Darius. The twins. Bunny and her children. That's who I was getting out of here. Not the monster who'd tortured me.
He'd turn on us the first chance he got.
But Darius... Darius was somewhere in this castle. With Alanna. Every second I wasted down here was another second she had him. Another second she was breaking him, using him, turning him into her puppet. If Ari could get us out of these cells, maybe I could find Darius before it was too late.
Maybe I could save him the way he'd saved me.
I looked over at Flint, Steel, and Bunny—their expressions spoke volumes.
Don’t make a deal with a devil.
But our choices were nil.
If I didn't do something, we'd be trapped in the dungeon until we all died. I looked at Bunny's kids—their stricken faces, their trembling bodies, the terror in their eyes.
I hated this. Hated that Ari might be my only option. But if trusting the devil meant saving Darius—saving these children—I'd shake his hand and deal with the consequences later.
I had little choice.
“If I did…” I met Ari’s gaze. “And I mean if—all of us would have to get out of here. Every single person in these cells. Or there’s no deal.”
I didn't expect him to agree. Why would he care about Bunny's children or the twins? But if he refused, I'd know exactly what kind of escape he was offering. The kind with strings attached. The kind that benefited only him.
His lips curved. “What a soft heart you have.”
Meaning he thought he could exploit me. Use my compassion against me.
He was wrong. I was stronger than that.
“Do we have a deal or not?”
Instead of answering, he pulled something out of his pocket. “Do you know what this is?”
He dangled it in front of my face—a long, delicate strand that looked like black spiderweb woven into the loop. It shimmered with dark magic, pulsing faintly in the dim light.
“Don’t play games, Ari. You know I don’t.”
“This is a web bracelet.” His red eyes gleamed. “A binding bracelet. It will link us together. If one of us betrays the other, the betrayer dies.”
I shuddered. Bound to Ari. Tied to this monster by dark magic.
But if it meant getting everyone out of here alive…
“Don’t do it,” one of the twins yelled. “You can’t trust him!”
Like I didn’t know that. Darius would be furious with me. He would have told me to hold out. That there would be another way.
But I had to save him. I loved him and would do anything to save him. Even make a deal with a devil.
One of the children coughed. They wouldn’t last long in those mines. Neither would the twins.
I had to take a chance while I had it. I might never get another one. This might be the way to save all of them.
I squared my shoulders. “I accept.”
Something flickered in Ari’s red eyes. Satisfaction? Relief? I couldn’t tell.
He moved quickly—wrapping one end of the black web bracelet around his own wrist, then reaching up to where my hands were chained above my head.
The other end of the bracelet slithered around my wrist like a spider wrapping its prey, each silken strand tightening against my skin. I flinched as dark magic pulsed through me—cold and oily, binding us together.
There was no going back now.
“Repeat after me.” Ari’s red eyes grew darker. “By web and blood, I bind my fate to thine.”
“Alice, don’t say it.” The twins’ voices overlapped, desperate. Their pounding on the bars grew deafening.
Darius would never forgive me for trusting Ari. But he'd never forgive me for letting his friends die either.
I had to save them.
“By web and blood, I bind my fate to thine.” The bracelet tightened around my wrist like a blood pressure cuff.
My gold bracelet flared hot against my other wrist—a warning. The medallion pulsed, and the strands seemed to vibrate against my skin.
Ari smiled—a shark scenting blood. “I vow to free thee from this prison.”
I gritted my teeth. “I vow to free thee from this prison.”
The bracelet crept higher, spreading over my forearm. I could feel it, cold and invasive. My gold bracelet burned hotter against my wrist, the heat intensifying. Was it fighting the dark magic? Or trying to tell me something?
“And thou shalt accompany me to freedom.”
My jaw clenched. “And thou shalt accompany me to freedom.”
The two bracelets—one gold, one black—pulsed in opposite rhythms. Light and dark. Warmth and cold.
“Upon pain of death.”
I hesitated. One of Bunny’s children whimpered. My gold bracelet seared my skin, as if screaming at me to stop.
“Upon pain of death,” I whispered.
The black web bracelet went still. The gold bracelet cooled, but something felt different now. Changed.
I’d made a deal with the devil.