Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Alice
I hung from the chains, exhaustion dragging at my bones.
Not sure if Chester was telling the truth. Had Darius sacrificed himself to the queen to save me?
Something moved in the corner. A shadow that didn’t belong.
I gasped, my heart lurching. Ari? Chester?
A pair of silver eyes emerged from the darkness, watching me with a hunger that made my breath catch.
Then they vanished.
A wisp of wind rushed over me—warm, familiar—and suddenly he was there. Right beside me. Close enough to touch.
Darius.
He looked at me the way he used to. Before the throne room. Before the proposal. Before he shattered me.
“Alice.” His voice cracked. “I am so sorry. You’re everything to me.” He reached for my face, his fingers trembling. “Please forgive me.”
It felt real. So real.
But it couldn’t be.
“Wake her up,” a hard female voice said.
“Alice, wake up.” Someone shook me hard and I groaned, my arms screaming from the chains still biting into my wrists.
The dream shattered like broken teacups. Darius’ silver eyes faded. His touch vanished. The warmth of him dissolved into cold, damp air.
And instead of Darius standing before me, it was Queen Alanna—dressed in a blood-red gown, diamonds glittering at her throat—and Ari lurking behind her like a faithful dog.
The other cells were empty. I tried not to think about what that meant.
“Were you dreaming?” Alanna tilted her head, her smile sharp as a blade. “Dreaming about Darius?” She laughed—a cold, brittle sound. “A man you’ll never have. Especially after tonight.”
I scowled at her, too tired and too broken to care about consequences. “What’s tonight?”
“My wedding, of course.”
The words sliced through me.
Tonight. Not tomorrow. Not someday. Tonight.
Whatever fragile hope I’d been clinging to—Chester’s riddles, the idea that Darius had sacrificed himself for me, the desperate belief that somehow this nightmare would end—shattered into a thousand jagged pieces.
There was no way I could free him. No rescue. No escape.
Tonight Darius would belong to her forever.
And I was stuck here, useless.
“Once Darius is my king, I can’t afford to keep you alive.” Alanna stepped closer, her perfume clashing with the stench of the dungeon. “You’d be too much of a distraction. A loose thread that needs snipping.”
She reached out and lifted my chin with one cold finger.
“I wouldn’t get too attached to that pretty head of yours, Alice.” Her smile widened. “After midnight, you won’t be needing it.”
She laughed—delighted by her own cruelty—and the sound made my heart turn cold.
“Come, Ari.” She waved her hand in the air. “We have much to do to prepare for tonight.”
She radiated triumph like a hunter displaying her kill. Why wouldn’t she be? She had everything. The kingdom. The crown. And soon, Darius.
Ari followed her without a word. Without even a glance in my direction.
My stomach dropped.
He was supposed to be working on getting the key to unlock my binding bracelets. He’d promised to help me escape. Had he lied? Had this all been another trap?
The black web bracelet pulsed against my wrist—a cold reminder of my oath.
I was bound to him upon pain of death. If I didn’t help him escape, I would die. But if he’d abandoned me...
Alanna and Ari climbed the stairs and slammed the door shut. The sound echoed through the dungeon like a tomb sealing shut.
Despair clung to me like the sweat and dirt coating my skin. I hung my head and let the tears fall, splattering onto the filthy floor below.
Fate.
The nickname Darius had given me seemed cruelly prophetic now. My fate had always been the same, hadn’t it? Rejected by my coven. Abandoned by everyone I’d ever trusted. And now, fated to die alone in a dungeon while the man I loved married a monster.
It was as if the three Fates themselves had been laughing at me all along. Spinning my thread just to cut it short.
I leaned my head against my trembling arm and closed my eyes.
Time slipped by. I didn’t know how long I stayed in that pathetic position. Minutes? Hours? It all blurred together.
The creaking of the door jerked me upright. Who was going to visit me now? Darius? Ari? The queen come to gloat again?
Footsteps padded down the stairs. Soft. Almost silent.
A grin appeared first at the bottom of the stairs—wide, gleaming, floating in the darkness. Then golden eyes materialized above it.
Chester.
“Fate.” His voice curled around me like smoke. “Three threads. Which one to choose?”
It was as if he had read my mind earlier.
He drifted toward me, his body flickering in and out of visibility.
“Chester, what are you doing? You could get caught.”
“Caught?” His eyes crinkled with amusement. “The cat is patient. Waiting. Watching. Then, when the time is right...” He paused, his golden eyes gleaming. “Pounces.”
He reached into his jacket and opened his palm. Two keys glinted in the dim torchlight.
My heart stuttered. “You got the keys?”
He reached up and fitted the key into the manacle around my right wrist. The lock clicked.
My arm dropped.
Pain exploded through my shoulder—muscles screaming after being stretched for so long. I bit down hard on my lip, tasting blood.
Then the second manacle. Another click.
My other arm fell, and I crumpled to the ground. My legs couldn’t hold me. I lay there on the cold, filthy stone, trembling, gasping, feeling the blood rush back into my hands like fire and needles.
Free. I was free.
Well, not completely. The binding bracelets still circled my wrists, cold and heavy, blocking my magic. But I wasn’t hanging from chains anymore. I could move. I could breathe.
I pressed my forehead against the stone and let out a sob—half relief, half exhaustion.
Chester crouched beside me, his golden eyes patient. Waiting.
After a long moment, I braced my hands on the ground and pushed myself up. My legs shook beneath me, barely holding. “Thank you. That feels so much better.” I rubbed my raw wrists. “But I thought Ari was supposed to get the keys to unlock the chains and these binding bracelets.”
“The pet is busy.” Chester’s grin sharpened. “Attending the queen. Fetching. Sitting. Rolling over.”
He placed the second key in the binding bracelet and it snapped open. Magic gushed through me—a flood breaking through a dam. I gasped, grabbing Chester’s arm to steady myself.
Chester clasped my arm. “Steady, witch. Your power has been hiding.”
I nodded, gasping. “You don’t have to tell me.”
It was like waking up after being underwater. Like taking a breath after nearly drowning. My magic hummed beneath my skin, restless. Eager.
He unlocked the second bracelet.
The power didn’t just return—it exploded. It roared through me like wildfire, filling every vein, every nerve, every corner of my being. Too much. Too fast.
Black dots swarmed my vision. My back arched, my mouth open in a silent scream. The gold bracelet on my wrist flared hot, the medallion pulsing against my skin.
Then, as quickly as it came, the storm passed.
Tinker Bell’s voice echoed in my mind—something she’d told me a thousand times when I was a little girl too afraid to believe in myself.
Believe in the impossible, Alice. That’s where the magic lives.
I’d never understood. Not until now.
In my mind, I recited six impossible things I’d done before breakfast.
One—there is a place called the Elder Dimension.
Two—a hat can force you to tell the truth and remember things.
Three—weapons pick you.
Four—harpies can be tamed.
Five—I can freeze time.
Six—love can survive madness.
The weakness that had plagued me vanished. Fresh energy rolled through my veins—strong, fierce, alive.
My magic was back. All of it.
And I was ready to do the impossible one more time.
I straightened, flexing my fingers. Power hummed beneath my skin, eager and ready. The time-stopping witch wasn’t broken anymore.
And for the first time since I’d been dragged into this dungeon, I was ready to fight.
I glanced at the empty cells. “Chester, Flint, Steel, Bunny, and the children are at the Shadowsteel mines. I can’t leave them.”
Chester walked over to the cell and ran his hand down a bar. “First Hatter. Then the mines.” He leaned closer, conspiratorial. “Or is it the mines, then Hatter? Time is funny that way. Especially for you.”
I managed a smile. There was only one choice. “Chester, what time is it? When’s the wedding?”
“Soon. Very, very soon.”
I glanced down at my dress. Soiled. Stained with blood and dirt and dungeon filth. There was no way I could go through the halls like this. Guards would seize me in seconds.
Frustration clawed at my chest, replacing hope with despair. I pressed my palm against my slick forehead.
So close. I was so close to freedom, to saving Darius, and I couldn’t even get out of the damned dungeon without being caught.
“Chester, I’ll never get to the throne room. Not like this.”
His golden eyes gleamed. “The cat does not always use the door, Alice. Why should the witch?”
Think. Think. Think.
An idea sparked. I straightened, a new fire burning in my chest.
I refused to face Alanna dressed like some soiled impostor princess. I was a witch. A fighter. One of the Uncrowned.
“Chester, I need to get to the room where Brynn dressed me. My clothes—”
“The servant with snow skin and ruby lips?” His grin widened. “She waits. She hopes. Follow the grin, Alice.”