Danika clenched her wand tighter. What if the girl looked like the original? She swallowed hard. The last Alice had been cruel, a charlatan. She’d fooled them all. Especially Danika herself. She’d fallen prey to the girl’s outwardly loving exterior. But she’d soon learned they’d had a viper in their midst. The girl had wanted nothing more than the power of Wonderland. She’d never wanted the Hatter.
A reality made all the more sad because she’d never seen Hatter so taken. He’d made a fool of himself-in his mind anyway. He’d shown Alice the wonder and strange beauty of Wonderland, expecting her to love the talking flowers and vaporous cat-shifting loons as he did. But she’d despised it all, wanted to change everything; she’d rejected his uniqueness as madness and mocked him behind his back to others.
Once he’d discovered her deception, something in him had fractured; where once he’d been irreverent, often laughing, he’d turned moody and withdrawn.
Now Danika was set to bring him another Alice, knowing this one to be the right one, but what would he feel knowing this Alice came from that Alice? Would he even give the girl a chance? Would he hate her because of who she was? The thought made Danika sick.
If the magic hadn’t demanded Danika find him an Alice, she’d have brought him a blasted Jane and to hell with all the Alices everywhere.
“Yes, just so.” She sighed in answer to his nonsensical ramblings.
Gerard snorted. “Only bride who’ll have him is one freshly buried. Honestly, fee, cruel torture.”
She planted hands on her hips in her best authoritative pose. Not easy for one barely 10 inches tall. “Your turn will come soon enough, Gerard.”
He shuddered, and she nodded, pleased her words hadn’t faltered. “Now off with the lot of you. Freshen up, get sober, and for the gods’ sakes, wash.” She eyed Gerard in particular.
They all sat staring at her. She glowered. “Go, I say!” And gesturing at them with her wand, she lifted them from their seats. Wolf yelped the loudest as Danika tossed them from the garden.
“Blast you, sorciere demon,” Gerard’s thick growl rose above the grumbles of the rest.
She grinned and twirled towards Hatter. He was staring at her, eyes full of pain, of hunger, of something he felt would be forever out of his reach.
“Cursed,” he whispered.
She patted his cold fingers. “Hatter, you are not cursed. We just haven’t found the one yet. But we will. I swear it.”
Danika’s words sounded sure, but in her heart she trembled. What will he do: was now the chanting mantra tattooed in her skull. She didn’t have a choice, he was unwell, and he didn’t have much time. She bit her lip.
“Let me be, Danika.” He stood. “I do not want a mate out of necessity, or one chosen for me by this crazy up-is-down and down-is-up world. I will not do this again.”
“I love you, Hatter, but hear me well. I’ll never stop.”
He clenched his fist, brimstone burning in the depths of his cold black eyes. Then he blinked and smiled, a slow curling grin. “Do you know, fairy?”
She frowned. “What, my dear?”
His eyes were glazed, his body swaying. “The answer to the riddle?”
Danika’s lips thinned, heart bleeding. He couldn’t even hang on to his anger before the madness claimed him.
She swallowed hard. “I do.”
“And?” He lifted up on his toes.
“Poe, dear.” She touched his bristly jaw. “Poe.”
He snapped his fingers and with a sharp nod, walked off muttering, “I knew it.”
If Miriam hadn’t told truth, if this wasn’t the right Alice, Hatter wouldn’t survive another year. Alice Hu had to be the one, because without the Hatter, Wonderland could never be the same.
Chapter 2
The bell above The Mad Hatter’s Cupcakery and Tea Shoppe rang as the last customer of the day walked out.
Alice heaved a huge sigh of relief, ran around the counter to the door, and turned the sign. She giggled-- the place was a mess, with napkins scattered everywhere. Tons of plates to wash and clean in the back and yet she felt like she’d just completed the Honolulu marathon. Her giggling held a frantic pitch to it. They’d done it. They’d started a business and made money. Lots of it. She hadn’t counted, but she was pretty sure they were well on their way to being in the black.
In another two years.
Her frilled mini dress was covered in powdered sugar, her hair smelled of a million different varieties of tea spices, and she didn’t care. A sense of accomplishment filled her: they’d done it.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that she’d landed the sweetest location in downtown Honolulu-- right across from world famous Waikiki beach, aka Tourist Mecca. That meant one thing: a constant stream of customers.
Tabby-- her baker’s assistant-- squealed, grabbed both of Alice’s hands and jumped up and down.
“Girl power,” Tabby sang. “We so rock!”
“I know!”
It took at least five minutes before exhaustion finally worked its way through Alice’s brain. Grabbing her forehead, but still wearing a goofy smile, she dropped down in the seat nearest her.
“Oh my gosh, we did it.” Her words were quiet, more thoughtful, as the full impact of what they’d done finally started to settle in.