Chapter 81
Chapter Eighty-One
ALICE
Hook pulls me out of the room, his grip tight on my wrist like it always is. Him taking the lead. Him knowing where we need to go.
But Sophia’s voice rings in my ears. What she said. What it means.
I dare to look back at her as we leave. She’s already gone, lost to whatever hell held her before.
I don’t want to leave her.
But I have to.
Just like I left the Hatter. Like I left the Hare. Like I left the White Rabbit.
It’s what they told me. I have to save Wonderland.
I do.
“I’ll set you all free,” I whisper to her.
We burst into the corridor, and Hook moves left, but I pull him back.
“No. Not that way.”
He doesn’t argue. Just nods. “Show me the way.”
The tug inside me is strong, dragging me in the other direction. It’s stronger than ever, stronger than anything I’ve ever felt. It beats under my skin like another heart sitting next to mine. It pushes me forward, pulling me through the corridors. I could close my eyes and still find the way.
The place fights us. I feel it.
The magic here is thick, almost physical. It presses against me, trying to slow us down, trying to turn us back.
I push through it.
The corridors stretch and shift, leading deeper into the… I don’t even know what this place is. Castle? Palace? Something older. Something alive.
Down on this level, it’s endless. The walls are lined with towering doors, some opening into empty rooms, others into places that shouldn’t exist—a forest caught in autumn, leaves twisting in the air without falling; a city drowning in endless rain, the streets blurred in grey; a ballroom filled with faceless figures, waltzing to music I can’t hear.
Hook keeps the sword raised, eyes scanning everything, ready for whatever comes next.
I don’t slow.
The pulse under my skin beats louder, matching the rhythm in the stone beneath my feet. It’s all around us now, pulsing in, pulsing out, drawing me toward it.
I know exactly where we need to go. But getting there is another matter.
The air thickens, weighted with memory, pressing against my skin. The walls ripple, shifting as we move. I try to run faster, but it’s like wading through muddy water.
We push forward, the corridors twisting open into a vast space.
The Hall of Memories.
Hook stops first. “Alice…”
I stagger to a stop, breath caught in my throat.
The space is impossible—a circular chamber with no ceiling, stretching forever upward. The walls glow, made of shifting panels of light, each one flickering to life as we pass.
“These are… memories?” My voice is barely a whisper. “Thousands of them?”
Some are small—a child’s laughter, a fleeting smile, the turn of a page in a book. Others are large—wars fought, love lost, blood spilled across stone floors. I don’t dare look too closely.
I don’t think Hook does either. We’ve seen enough.
Then Hook pulls me back. “Alice…”
I turn, slowly.
I feel it now, stronger than before. The heart next to mine, the rhythm pulsing through my ribs.
My breath catches. “Oh my god.”
Hook stands beside me.
One door.
It waits at the far end of the hall, grand and impossibly large, carved with a beating heart split into two. The glow from the walls casts gold and red light across it, shadows moving like they’re alive.
Everything inside me tightens. My body knows.
This is it.
Hook exhales. “Tell me you know how to open it.”
I don’t answer.
I step forward.
And as my hand meets the door, it swings open.