Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
Darius
I cradled Alice against my chest, her heart beating against mine.
She was here. Alive. In my arms.
And I'd almost lost her forever.
Fuck. Why had she agreed to the web bracelet? Didn't she know what that meant? If she didn't fulfill her promise to Ari, poison would burst inside her body. She'd die a most painful death—convulsing, screaming, bleeding from her eyes until her heart gave out.
I'd seen it happen before. I never wanted to see it again.
Damn Ari. Damn him to hell.
I unfurled my wings—the snap of them echoing through the night—and launched into the sky. The castle shrank beneath us. The pink banners. The frozen guards. All of it fading into darkness.
I had to get Alice away from here. Away from Alanna.
Alanna would never forgive this. Never forget. She'd hunt Alice to the ends of the realm. Torture her forever. Make her beg for death and then deny her even that mercy.
The only place Alice would be safe was out of this dimension entirely.
The wind howled around us. Alice buried her face in my neck, her fingers gripping my ridiculous pink jacket. I held her tighter.
I've got you. I've got you.
An arrow shot into the air below us—a signal. I recognized the fletching. Archer's.
They were in the Forgotten Forest.
I angled my wings and glided down through the canopy, branches whipping past. The first figures I saw were Flint and Steel, standing guard at the edge of a clearing. They looked haggard—faces gaunt, eyes hollow, bodies bent from the mines—but they were alive.
Thank god. They were alive.
I landed nearby and gently set Alice on her feet, though I kept one arm wrapped around her waist. I wasn't ready to let go. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
Flint and Steel hurried toward us.
"Hatter." Flint grabbed me and pulled me into a crushing hug, nearly knocking the wind out of me. "You're free."
He released me, his massive hands gripping my shoulders. "Please tell me you didn't marry the bitch."
"No." I pulled Alice close to my side. "Fate saved me."
Flint's eyebrows rose. "Fate?" A grin spread across his haggard face. "Appropriate name."
Branches cracked. Wings rustled.
A figure emerged from the trees.
The harpy.
Oh. Fuck.
I stared. The creature that should have torn us apart was here—and it wasn't attacking. Alice had actually done it. She'd tamed a harpy.
Alice gasped. "It's her."
She slipped from my grasp and hurried toward the creature—the same harpy she'd freed from Alanna's collar. The one she'd nearly died saving.
"Alice, wait—" I reached for her, but she was already there, standing before the harpy without an ounce of fear.
The harpy watched her intently, those dark eyes unblinking. A second one emerged from the shadows behind her, wings folded against its back.
I tensed, reaching for my sword.
Steel clasped my arm. "Don't worry. They're friends."
"Friends?" I stared at him.
Flint shook his head, disbelief still written across his face. "I've never seen anything like it, Hatter. Those things came barreling out of the sky while the guards were marching us back to the mines. We thought we were dead."
"But they didn't attack us," Steel continued. "They used their talons to break our chains. Then they scooped us into the sky and carried us here."
Flint nodded. “The Uncrowned attacked from below while the harpies came from above. The guards never stood a chance.”
"Bunny and the children too," Steel added. "Gentle as lambs with those little ones."
Alice stroked the harpy’s large wings, the same one who had once been Alanna's slave. The harpy she'd saved.
"She freed her," I murmured. "Alice broke her collar."
I stared at Alice—this woman who had crashed into my life like a storm. She stood before the harpy without fear, her hand outstretched, her golden hair catching the last rays of sunlight.
She had been beaten. Tortured. Chained in a dungeon. She had believed I'd betrayed her—had watched me propose to another woman. And instead of breaking, instead of giving up, she had blown the doors off the throne room and saved us all.
My chest ached.
She was magnificent. Fierce. Impossible.
And she was mine.
I didn't deserve her. I'd put her through hell to keep her safe, and she'd walked through fire to save me anyway.
"She's amazing,” Flint said.
Something swelled in my chest—pride, love, disbelief that she was real. "Yeah. She really is."
Ari, Grump, Caterpillar, and Chester arrived moments later.
Grump went straight to Alice—then froze when he saw the harpies behind her. His hand went to his sword.
"It's okay," Alice said quickly. “They’re with me."
He stared at her like she'd lost her mind. But then he pulled her into an embrace anyway.
I smiled despite everything. The protective father. The proud father. He'd almost lost her twice now.
Ari hung back in the shadows, arms crossed, red eyes darting between us.
My blood heated. I hadn't forgotten what he'd done.
He was breathing on borrowed time. I didn't trust him.
Not for a second. He'd betray us in an instant to save his own worthless skin.
The only thing keeping him in line was that damned web bracelet binding him to Alice.
Caterpillar and Chester approached the harpies with what seemed like curiosity. Smoke curled from Caterpillar's lips. Chester's grin flickered in and out.
Bunny hurried over to Alice and threw her arms around her. "Thank you," she sobbed. "Thank you for saving my babies."
Her children giggled nearby, chasing each other in a game of tag around the harpies—blissfully unaware of how close they'd come to death. The harpies watched them with something like amusement, their dark eyes following the little ones as they darted between their legs.
I looked around at our ragged group. Alice barely standing. The twins exhausted. Bunny watching her children. Grump haggard. We'd escaped Alanna's castle, but we were in no shape to fight. And she'd come for us. She always did.
"We can't stay here," I said.
"I know." Flint nodded grimly. "But our hiding places are slowly being discovered. Soon we'll have nowhere left."
I clutched his tensed shoulder. “I don't mean find a new hiding place in the Elder Dimension. We'll never be safe here. We need to escape to Earth."
Steel shook his head. "The Uncrowned will never leave. This is our home. Our fight."
I met his fierce gaze. “Alice can't stay here. Alanna will stop at nothing to capture her."
"And you," Flint added quietly. "She'll never let you go, Hatter. You humiliated her in front of the entire court."
He was right. Alanna's rage would be legendary.
"I don't care what happens to me." I clenched my jaw. "But Alice—I have to get her out."
"The queen now knows how powerful she is, Hatter." Flint's expression darkened. "She may not just want to torture her. She might want to harness her power."
"Alice would never work for her." But even as I said it, a chill ran through me. Alanna didn't need willing servants. She had ways of breaking people—of twisting them until they didn't recognize themselves anymore.
Flint clasped my shoulder, his grip tight. "She would if she thought the queen would hurt you."
The words stabbed me like a blade to the chest.
He was right. Alice had already bound herself to Ari to save us. She'd crashed a royal wedding. Blown through magical doors. Frozen an entire throne room.
There was nothing she wouldn't do to protect the people she loved.
And Alanna would use that against her.
I looked around, really seeing our surroundings for the first time. The gnarled trees. The twisted roots. The way the branches reached toward the sky like grasping fingers.
Then I saw it. The tree with the deep gash in its trunk. The bark still scarred from the impact.
My heart stuttered.
"I don't believe it."
"What?” Flint asked. “What is it?"
"This is where I caught Alice." I walked toward the tree, running my fingers along the damaged bark.
Memories flooded back—her body tumbling from the sky, the weight of her slamming into my arms, the force of it throwing us both backward into this very tree.
The crack of wood. The way she'd looked up at me, dazed and terrified and beautiful.
"She fell right here. Out of nowhere. The impact threw us into this tree. "
I looked up into the darkening sky. Stars were beginning to pierce the twilight. Somewhere up there—invisible, hidden—was the portal.
I'd almost belonged to Alanna forever. Almost been chained to that monster for eternity. But now—maybe—I could be free.
"The portal is above us,” I said. “If Alice could open it from this side..."
"We could escape."
I spun around, my wings flaring.
Ari stood behind us, having materialized from the shadows like the snake he was. His red eyes gleamed in the fading light.
Flint's hand tightened on his sword. "Don't sneak up on us like that."
Ari ignored him, his gaze fixed on me. "I'm right, aren't I? If the witch can open the portal, we can all get out of here."
I hated that he was right. Hated that our escape was intertwined with the bastard who'd bound himself to Alice with dark magic.
But he was right.
We had a chance—one chance—to escape Alanna's clutches.
And Alice was the key.