Page 15 of Escaping Wonderland

Alice tightened her grip on the chains. “What should I call you?”

“That depends on what you would like to call me.” He leaned back, propping himself up on one arm, and continued twirling that big knife with impossible speed and steadiness. “People call me all sorts of things. Shadowis what I usually go by. I’m not sure if that means anything to a woman who disbelieves reality, though.”

Alice glanced down Shadow’s body. His clothing was as rich and old-fashioned as the Hatter’s had been, but it was even fancier. He wore a long, crimson velvet coat with black cuffs. A black button-down shirt with a high collar was beneath his satiny crimson vest, which was adorned with shimmery patterns that almost looked like plants and flowers. His long legs were clad in straight black pants, and his black leather boots looked freshly polished. He appeared as though he’d just stepped out of nineteenth century London. But none of that caught her attention nearly as much as the long, black-furred tail swishing lazily behind him.

He suddenly tossed the knife aside, swung his legs off the bed, and lay on his belly with hands—which did indeed include dark claws—beneath his chin. “I like your clothes, too.” As though to prove it, he raked his eyes over her body.Slowly.

A blush stained her cheeks. Sitting the way she was, with her heels against the headboard and knees bent, her skirt had fallen down to her lap, exposing her thighs above the striped stockings. And shefelthis eyes on her. Alice’s body warmed beneath his gaze, and her skin tingled as though craving his touch; it was like the concoction’s effects weren’t fading at all.

“Are you going to hurt me, Shadow?” she asked.

“No. I rather like you. I’d hoped we might get to know one another better, Alice.” His eyes flicked toward the chains binding her to the headboard. “Seems you’ve nowhere better to be at the moment.”

Alice shifted her wrists toward him. “Could you…free me?”

Shadow pushed himself up on his arms and swung his legs up again, folding them beneath him. His tail fell on the bed beside him, its tip flicking back and forth with subdued excitement. The position, given his height and leanness, appeared almost comical—but the blood drying on his hat eliminated the humor from the situation. It reminded her that for all his carefree, strange ways, he was still dangerous.

He settled his hands on his knees and said, “Absolutely.”

“Do you know where the key is?”

Suddenly, his grin eased into something subtler, somethingsmoldering, and his hypnotic eyes were half-lidded. “I’ve found that such bindings can often make things more interesting. If it makes you feel better, I can take a turn in them afterward.”

Alice’s breath hitched. Heat coalesced low in her belly, and her sex clenched in sudden arousal. Her reaction to him was so swift, so shocking, that she reared away from him. “No. No. I-I would prefer to be out of them. Now.”

“If they aren’t real, how are they still holding you?” He leaned his face closer to her. “That must mean you want to be here, at least a little.”

Alice stared into his eyes. “That’s not…that’s not how it works. They want us to feel that this is real, but it’s not.”

“Oh, you’re the most delightful sort of mad, aren’t you?” Shadow nimbly leapt backward off the bed, landing lightly on his feet, and tipped the bloody hat. “Grant me but a moment, sweet Alice, and I will fetch the key for you.”

Relief eased some of the tension from her limbs. “Thank you.”

His features—save for his eyes and his grin—faded into obscurity when he reentered the shadows around the edge of the room. As he neared the doorway, he turned his back to her, becoming little more than another black shape in the darkness before disappearing entirely.

Alice forced herself to breathe slowly, listening for any sign of him, but only silence came from the room beyond.

His gentle humming was the first indication that he was returning, followed shortly after by the gleam of his piercing eyes. He hopped onto the foot of the bed and walked across it to drop into a crouch beside Alice. She’d never seen anyonemove so gracefully.

Shadow raised one hand. A set of remarkably mundane keys dangled from between his forefinger and thumb, their metal smeared with crimson.

“Sorry. They were in his coat pocket, and, well…his knifeisrather large, don’t you think?” He flicked his arm. Several droplets of blood spattered the headboard.

Alice felt the color drain from her face. “A-And you won’t…use that knife on me, will you, Shadow?”

Shadow arched a brow, staring at her as he slipped a key into the manacles’ keyhole. “When I said I wanted to know you better, I didn’t mean from the inside.”

“That’s…reassuring.” And it was, despite knowing that he’d killed the Hatter.

Shadow’s grin widened as he lightly ran the back of a claw along her outer thigh from her knee toward her hip. “Well, I mean, Iwouldvery much like to get to know you from the inside, but not in a way that hasanythingto do with a knife.”

A shiver stole through Alice, and her flesh broke out in goosebumps. The farther his claw traveled, the more aroused she became. Something was definitely wrong with her to be reacting this way when she knew the hand touching her was covered in blood, when she knew the man Shadow had killed was likely lying on the floor in the next room.

Or perhaps it was him—Shadow. His hypnotic eyes, with their glimmer of madness, enthralled her, promising wicked delights.

I’m going crazy. This is absolutely insane! It…it has to be the drugs still in my system.

Thankfully, the click of the lock saved her. The manacle on her right wrist opened and fell away, hitting the bed with a dulled thump, and Shadow turned his attention toward the remaining manacle, taking it delicately in his left hand while inserting the key with his right. As soon as Alice was fully free, Shadow wrapped his unnaturally long fingers around her forearms and guided her hands closer to him. He leaned forward to examine the chafed, bruised skin around her wrists.

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